The Breast Cancer Research Program of the Office of Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs of the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a three-year Pre-Doctoral Fellowship to Bernadette (Palazzolo) Victor for her dissertation research as a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Program in Cancer Biology of the Wayne State University School of Medicine.
Victor's fellowship topic is "Cathepsin B and Its Binding partners in the Aggressiveness of Inflammatory Breast Cancer." Her dissertation is mentored by Bonnie Sloane, Ph.D., distinguished professor and chairwoman of the School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology.
Victor, a native of Chesterfield Township, Mich., and graduate of L'Anse Creuse High School North, earned a cum laude bachelor's degree in biology from Wayne State University. She was awarded a 2004-2005 Wayne State University Graduate School Graduate Research Assistantship that enabled her to accomplish a majority of her course work and the preliminary research required to qualify for this fellowship.
The fellowship will support Victor's dissertation research on the most lethal form of breast cancer, Inflammatory Breast Cancer. IBC is highly malignant and its incidence is increasing in younger women, particularly in the Middle Eastern and African-American populations in the United States. She pointed out that at present there are no effective therapies for IBC and drug targets and pathways to reduce its aggressiveness need to be identified. Her research is examining the role of proteases, cathepsin B in particular, in promoting formation of the emboli characteristic of IBC.
Victor said the fellowship's training plan "will create a foundation for my development as an independent investigator and breast cancer researcher. She emphasized that as a graduate student in Dr. Sloane's laboratory, "I am obtaining an invaluable perspective on the commitment and skills necessary to perform independent research. This pre-doctoral traineeship further benefits my scientific research and sets the course for my future as an independent investigator."
Victor's dissertation mentor, Dr. Sloane, a worldwide leader in proteases and cancer research, said, "Bernadette's success in obtaining federal funding to support her predoctoral research should translate into success in obtaining federal funding as she moves on in her research career. In this project she is working collaboratively with others at Wayne State and other institutions (University of Windsor, New York University and Cairo University), experience that will be beneficial in the increasingly collaborative world of global science."