An Irish man will be one of three cellular scientists who will illuminate Times Square in New York next month with his image of a lung cancer cell surrounded by a green glow.
Dr Martin Barr, clinical scientist and adjunct assistant professor at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital, was one of three winners of the GE Healthcare Life Sciences’ Cell Imaging Competition.
The winners were selected by a combination of an expert jury and a public vote.
Dr Barr’s image was taken as part of his work on understanding and fighting resistance to lung cancer treatments. The image shows a single non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The cell measures just one thousandth of a millimetre, similar in width to a cotton fibre, and is shown in a low-oxygen environment known as ‘hypoxia’. This environment, commonly seen in many solid tumours, makes cancer cells more resistant to chemotherapy and encourages the cancer to spread in the majority of patients. The aim of Dr Barr’s research is to target cellular processes triggered by hypoxia in order to make tumours more susceptible to chemotherapy.
Speaking about his prize, Dr Barr said: “Lung cancer mortality remains significantly high worldwide and in Ireland continues to increase, particularly in women. While novel strategies to target the various cellular processes implicated in resistance to current therapies unfold, a visual image of a cell can have more of an impact and in some instances speak more loudly than words, and highlights the cellular complexity of a cancer cell.”
“To see my winning image displayed on the large high-definition screens in Times Square in New York is a unique, once-in-a-life time opportunity and something I would never have imagined in my career as a cancer research scientist. The projection of my image in this major international hot-spot will hopefully bring further awareness of lung cancer to the general public.”
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