Alyssa Osimani and Kevin Pridham, both second-year doctoral students in Virginia Tech’s Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health program, were collaborators on a recently published paper. The students worked with a team of Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists and Carilion Clinic neurosurgeons who discovered how to sensitize drug-resistant human glioblastoma cells to chemotherapy.

The results were published in Cancer Research, the scientific journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Osimani, of Blacksburg, Virginia, works in the laboratory of Daniela Cimini, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in Virginia Tech’s College of Science, but did a rotation through the laboratory of Zhi Sheng. Sheng is an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and co-corresponding author on the paper.

“My rotation in Dr. Sheng’s laboratory gave me an opportunity to work with great people and learn many techniques,” said Osimani. “I am so excited that I was able to perform experiments that were included in this paper.”

Pridham, of Myersville, Maryland, also works in Sheng’s laboratory.

“I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to come to Virginia Tech, and to contribute to these results,” said Pridham. “These findings hold promise for the future to improve the treatment of not just glioblastoma, but other cancers as well.”

Read the full story here.

Related Links