Milana Bochkur Dratver: Cancer Stem Cells
My name is Milana Bochkur Dratver and I am a member of the Mitchell Academy of Science and Technology. As part of a three-year science research program, students work with a mentor in their area of interest. I have always been interested in the medical field, and through the Science Research program, I have been given the opportunity to explore my interests in greater depth. I am currently a high school sophomore and I have been studying cancer stem cells. During the past several months, I have begun to research cancer stem cells in greater depth. I have been reading informative articles alongside experiment-based articles in order to expand my knowledge of cancer stem cells’ metabolic processes, their role in the progression of cancer, and their similarities to stem cells. Their radioresistant properties make them an ideal area to focus on when developing novel treatments.Radiation is often able to destroy the majority of tumor cells because most of the tumor is not composed of these cancer stem cells. Cancer relapse occurs when these cancer stem cells continue to multiply and differentiate into other cancer cells, causing the regrowth of tumors.
I have also begun to work at the Pajonk Laboratory at UCLA, and I will continue my work there throughout the summer. Through hands-on experience in this radiation and oncology laboratory, I hope to learn more and develop my own experiments. My current project involves building off of previous work done at this lab where I will characterize and study cells with low-proteasome activity (characteristic of cancer stem cells) with a specific focus on intestine normal stem cells. My goal is to identify differences between normal stem cells and cancer stem cells in the intestine. Identification and tracking of stem cells in the gut will help in the development of treatments to resist gut degeneration after radiation treatment.












