Pam Ovadje

Pam and DanBiochemistry PhD student Pam Ovadje and third-year undergrad Daniel Tarade recently presented their research at the Natural Health Products Research Society annual conference in British Columbia and came home with top honours in the oral and poster presentation competitions.

Cancer cell 'suicide' aim of award-winning students

Assisted suicide is topic guaranteed to court all kinds of controversy.

However one place where you’ll get general consensus on the matter is among the students working in the biochemistry lab of Siyaram Pandey, where rather than people, they help cancer cells commit suicide.

“One of the hallmarks of cancer cells is that they forget how to die,” says third-year undergrad Daniel Tarade. “We’re forcing their hand, and causing them to commit suicide.”

Student researchers inspired by legacy of cancer patient

Every morning when they go to work in their Essex Hall biochemistry lab, PhD students Pam Ovadje and Dennis Ma get an inspirational reminder of why they’re there. Mounted on the door to that lab is a plaque dedicating the space to the memory of Kevin Couvillon, who died at the age of 26 in November 2010, after a three-year battle with acute myeloid leukemia.