A team of UNBC researchers will continue to study mushrooms as a potential cancer treatment thanks to a contract research agreement with Genome BC.
UNBC is matching a $52,000 grant from the Genome BC Strategic Opportunities Fund, bringing the funding total to more than $104,000.
“This funding from Genome British Columbia will help an outstanding team of UNBC researchers lead the way in finding new ways to treat and fight cancer,” says UNBC President Dr. Daniel Weeks. “By looking locally to find solutions to a global issue, this team is another example of the outstanding research happening in BC.”
Project lead and Biochemistry Professor Dr. Chow Lee says a sabbatical in Hong Kong inspired the unique project.
“In Asia it’s very common for researchers to look at medicinal compounds from natural products. But, a lot of them have no access to natural products, so they have to buy from supermarkets and companies. We live in Northern BC. We’re surrounded by nature, so I thought, ‘You know, this is a great place to do natural product research.'”
Researchers will travel around Northern BC cataloguing and harvesting wild mushrooms.
They will use solvents to extract specific mushroom compounds to generate fractions.
The fractions will undergo testing to see if they have any beneficial cancer-fighting qualities.
The goal is to find mushroom fractions that can block cancer cell growth, or help stimulate the immune system and act as a catalyst to help the body fight cancer.
“History has taught us that there are many useful medicinal compounds from mushrooms,” explains Dr. Lee. “Yet, it is estimated that only 10 per cent of mushroom species on earth are known.”
The project has been in development for more than two years, but Dr. Lee says the team has a little head start.
“We’ve actually extracted quite a few species of mushrooms already, and have done some screening, and we’ve found some mushrooms that have interesting biological activity and we’ll be pursuing things down that line.”
The team also includes co-principal investigators Chemistry Professor Dr. Kerry Reimer, Ecosystem Science and Management Professors Dr. Keith Egger and Dr. Hugues Massicotte, and Chemistry Senior Laboratory Instructor Dr. Tina Bott.
Four graduate students and two undergraduate students are also involved in the project.
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