More And Better
Inês Figueiredo, winner of the AstraZeneca Foundation Innovate Competition | Interview
After winning the AstraZeneca Foundation Innovate Competition, Inês Figueiredo, a year 6 student of the Integrated Master Degree of FMUL and researcher at the Institute of Biochemistry, presents us her project and tells us about the importance of the prize she received.
What work do you carry out at the Institute of Biochemistry?
I am a year 6 medical student at FMUL and I have been working at the Institute of Biochemistry with João Freire (MSc) since year 3. I have followed his PhD work and thesis and I am now completing the third GAPIC project under his supervision. All the work we have undertaken has in common the study of M and R peptides derived from the Dengue Virus capsid protein.
Can you tell us about your project "Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia Gene Therapy Targeting the BCR/ABL Fusion Gene. Peptide-mediated gene delivery: siRNA and editing tools” and its objectives?
That was my second GAPIC project, conducted last year. It was conceived and carried out in collaboration with the Institute of Cell Biology, and with Professor Francisco Enguita.
The work consists in the therapeutic application of peptides as a drug delivery system, in this case gene therapy. We chose Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia because it is a chronic condition (there is only one curative therapy – bone marrow transplantation) and because it has a specific genetic mutation that causes oncogenesis. Accordingly, we decided to interfere with the mRNA expression of the BCR/ABL oncogene and we obtained very good results, succeeding in silencing the gene.
However, as our therapy option was not curative, we decided to submit the application in order to continue our work in gene editing. What we want in this new project is to erase the BCR/ABL oncogene and, accordingly, obtain a curative therapeutic response.
What gains do you expect to attain from the prize?
We hope to eliminate the gene responsible for BCR/ABL Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia and thus turn this model into a curative therapy effective for this pathology. Although studies are still at the level of basic research, if the results are positive it may, in future, become a therapy that can used clinically, which we would very much like to see contributing towards the treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia.
With regard to the AstraZeneca Foundation Innovate Competition, did you expect to get the first prize?
Not really. Many of my colleagues were competing, and despite not having seen all the projects, I think many of them were of great quality and showed great potential in terms of investment on the part of a pharmaceutical company.
What did winning this prize mean to you?
This prize will enable me to continue a project I have started and for which I have a special affection, given my interest in the field of haematological oncology. Moreover, it is an award that impacts on the actual research and that recognises the work done to date.