‌Unite Against Cancer has generously agreed to fund a £20,000 scholarship for a student of the new MSC Cancer Sciences programme. Unite Against Cancer is a Glasgow-based charity that was set up in 2012 to fund research into new cancer treatments. The charity is keen to support cancer research here in Glasgow and to build a long term relationship with the Institute of Cancer Sciences.  Prof. Andrew Bianchin and several other ICS staff attended the 2nd annual Unite Against Cancer charity dinner on March 15th, which was a great success.

Guest speaker, Dr Katherine West, thanked the guests for their generous support of cancer research and education in Glasgow. She explained how advances in cancer genomics are driving the development of personalised treatment for patients in Glasgow. She then invited the guests to taste a paper test strip, to see whether they can taste the bitter PTC chemical. Two small changes in the TAS2R38 taste receptor gene, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, determine whether people taste nothing, a moderate or slow developing bitter taste, or a rapid vile taste.  This illustrates how single changes in DNA sequence can have dramatic affect a protein’s function. We found out that university students are more likely than older guests to agree to join in, and that alcohol intake does not prevent TAS2R38 from functioning! Many thanks to Unite Against Cancer supporters and trustees for their generous donation, and we wish them well in their future fund-raising activities.

First published: 4 April 2014

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