Waterloo co-op students are at the forefront of pancreatic cancer research at UHN
By: Jed Bick (he/him)
Pancreatic cancer will be the second leading cause of cancer death in Canada within the next 10 years. Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network is entrusting Waterloo co-op students to help find a cure.
The Notta lab at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network (UHN) strives to tackle a deadly disease with a low survival rate. Patients with pancreatic cancer rarely benefit from surgery and don’t respond well to chemotherapy.
While the prognosis of this disease can be quite grim, pancreatic cancer research is progressing with the help of Waterloo co-op students.
A large responsibility for a critical issue
The students work as research laboratory assistants on the tissue culture team at UHN under the guidance of their supervisor, Dr. Eugenia Flores-Figueroa (she/her), a scientific associate at the Notta lab.
Their main area of focus is managing the Patient Direct Organoids (PDO) repository, a repository of tumour cells in a 3D format.
In this critical process, students receive the tumour cell, study and analyze it and send it out for further genomics analysis.
Eric Jung (he/him) is a fourth-year Biochemistry student entering his second work term at UHN. He’s lost family members to cancer, so contributing to this research is personal and meaningful.
“The lab has chosen to target one of the most difficult obstacles in healthcare today, and I really admire that,” says Jung. “It is meaningful for me to work on this research.”
Eric Jung, fourth-year Biochemistry student
Jung and other co-op students work together as a team and independently from their leaders. In the lab managers’ experiences, Waterloo co-op students have the knowledge and capabilities to tackle this complex and profound research.
Dr. Eugenia Flores-Figueroa (left) and Karen Ng (right)
“I find the Waterloo co-op students very curious and dependable, and I think these are very important attributes in the research field,” says Karen Ng (she/her), a lab manager at the Notta lab.
“Since we entrust them with the responsibility of managing the PDO repository, I think it's important that they possess these qualities, which I have found in all Waterloo students that have come through our lab.”
Innovative research toward potential cures for diseases
Dr. Faiyaz Notta (he/him), a senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, created the Notta lab to help understand why this cancer is so aggressive. He believes it is critical to collaborate with others in the industry to answer pressing questions.
Partnerships between healthcare and universities, such as UHN and the University of Waterloo, form a natural, beneficial and lasting relationship. The institutions recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to lay the groundwork for collaborative opportunities in cancer research.
“Research is not done in isolation and these partnerships allow us to do a lot more than if we were alone,” says Dr. Notta. “Waterloo co-op students are part of the bigger team and with them, we are trying to foster big discoveries. Without research, there are no new treatments, and no innovation, which drives discovery.”
Waterloo co-op students bring the scientific research skills they learn in the classroom to their work in the lab. They are motivated and want to gain a better understanding of the diseases they're researching.
“The research the Waterloo co-op students are conducting leads to knowledge which leads to improvements in healthcare,” says Dr. Flores Figueroa. “Without research, we can’t understand the diseases and how to better treat the patient.”
UHN is the recipient of the 2023 Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) Employer Impact Award for Impact in Research.
The Notta lab and UHN’s involvement of Waterloo co-op students in their pursuit of pancreatic cancer research led to the award.
UHN is providing our co-op students with a tremendous opportunity to make a significant contribution to pancreatic cancer research. By seeing how their research meaningfully impacts the lives of others, students are at the forefront of improving the future of healthcare.
Striving towards a healthier future
Cancer research at the Notta lab, and similar positions in the field of healthcare, provide an opportunity for Generation Z employees to enter the workforce and help lead the way for a healthier tomorrow.
“It is very meaningful and fruitful to know that I might be helping somebody get a better future,” says Avneet Kaur (she/her), a fourth-year Biology student who just completed her second work term as a research laboratory assistant at UHN.
Genevie Tran (she/her), who is entering her final year of Biology, spent a work term at UHN as a research laboratory assistant. She applied the knowledge she gained from the Analytical Methods in Molecular Biology course at Waterloo within the PDO repository at the lab. Tran and her generational peers are ready to make a difference in the world of healthcare.
"I think we will be very innovative," says Tran. “There's a lot of aspects in the world that feel like there can’t be a cure nor a solution, but I think this generation will really bring in new solutions.”
The research and results the co-op students continue to produce at UHN give Dr. Flores Figueroa the confidence that the next generation of researchers could change the outcome of pancreatic cancer and other diseases for the better.
“I think their attitude and boldness is going to improve healthcare,” says Dr. Flores Figueroa. “When something is wrong, they feel they must act. And I see a lot of commitment from them.”
It’s amazing to win this award. Without these students, the lab and our research don’t exist. Training and working with students are important parts of the overall lab experience and winning the award tells us we are doing our job right.