![Melissa Cowell and Pamela Ovadje gather bark](http://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/rehse/foodservices/sites/uwindsor.ca.dailynews/files/styles/full/public/450_pamelaovadje-melissacowell_2119.jpg?itok=3oAx5pxV)
Biochemistry students gathered the bark of sycamore trees on campus Tuesday.
Biochemistry students gathered the bark of sycamore trees on campus Tuesday.
Biochemist Siyaram Pandey will discuss his investigation of the cancer-fighting potential of long pepper extract Wednesday on “Research Matters.”
Biochemistry professor Siyaram Pandey and the students in his lab have discovered a second natural extract that may prove valuable in fighting cancer.
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.”
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.