Qin (Daisy) Sun
Qin (Daisy) Sun earned her Honours BMSc in Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences at Western University. She continued her education at Western University and is now pursuing a MSc degree in Medical Biophysics and Molecular Imaging under the supervision of Drs. Donna Goldhawk and Frank Prato at Lawson Imaging. Her project involves developing a novel reporter gene technology to improve contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A subset of genes deemed essential for the formation of the magnetosome, a membrane-enclosed iron biomineral produced in magnetotactic bacteria, have been selected for this purpose. By genetically inducing the formation of magnetosomes in melanoma cells, cellular iron will be concentrated and compartmentalized at a specific intracellular location. This not only improves spatial and temporal resolution as well as sensitivity of detection in MRI, but also provides a non-invasive method to detect early molecular markers of disease progression. The applications of her project include using this technology to track cellular activity, such as cancer metastasis, or to study oncogenic transcription factor activity in aggressive tumor cell models. This MRI gene reporter system also has potential to be used clinically as a tool to track and monitor the progress of cell therapy.
