The campus community is invited to attend a public talk and seminar on cancer research held on campus by a University of Windsor alumna.

Natasha Kekre, an associate scientist and clinician at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, is visiting the UWindsor campus Friday, Sept. 27, to give a public talk and seminar about her efforts on discovering new and innovative ways to treat cancer.

The title of her public talk, 12:30 p.m. in room 100, Toldo Health Education Centre, is “CAR-T cells: new hope for cancer patients” and the title for her seminar at 3 p.m. in room 186, Essex Hall, is “Bench to bedside, what does that really mean? The Example of CAR-T cell Implementation.”

CAR-T, or cellular immunotherapy treatment, attempts to use the body’s own immune system to attack cancer cells.

Dr. Kekre is a graduate from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and spent the summers of 2004 and 2005 as an NSERC undergraduate student in professor Siyaram Pandey’s lab, where she was involved with the beginning of his research on anti-cancer activity of the pancratistatin (spider lily) compound.

“It will great to host her at our campus,” says Dr. Pandey. “She will be inspirational for both the graduate and undergraduate students as well as our local public.”

—Darko Milenkovic