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Julie Bird / Staff Writer

Faculty and students in the cancer biology program at the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth are making headway in cancer research.

The program, which started in 2007, offers both masters and doctoral degrees and allows students to research a variety of disciplines involved in cancer biology, such as drug resistance and cancer therapeutics.

The 10 students currently enrolled in the program have been involved in the research of breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostrate cancer and ovarian cancer.

Molecular biology and immunology professor Alakananda Basu, the programs graduate adviser, developed the program and currently supervises students research.

The cancer biology program has been highly successful in attracting talented students to join the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Basu said.

Students also participate in supervising the research of undergraduate and high school students. Savitha Sridharan is a Ph.D. student in the cancer biology program working in Basus lab. Research conducted in Basus lab has focused primarily on breast cancer but has also involved ovarian cancer.

Sridharan has been studying the resistance of breast cancer to chemotherapy, a generalized cancer treatment program, meaning it affects both cancerous and healthy cells in the body. This causes patients undergoing treatment to experience strong side effects, she said.

In order to minimize the side effects in cancer patients undergoing chemo experience, Sridharan has been researching targeted therapy, a cancer treatment method that is better at killing specific cells.

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Health program advances cancer, disease research