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“I like the fact that my professors all know me by name, know my interests, and support my goal of attending medical school,” says Jean Marie Ruddy ’01, a biochemistry major from Dunmore, Pa., and a graduate of Dunmore High School. “That one-on-one contact with faculty has really helped me to grow and to focus my energies on biology.”
With great energy and enthusiasm, Marquis Scholar Jean Marie Ruddy is spending the summer studying the effects of fumagillin, a potent inhibitor of blood-vessel growth that is one of the most promising anti-cancer drugs currently under research.
Ruddy is participating in the EXCEL Scholars program. She’s working under the direction of Shyamal K. Majumdar, Lafayette’s Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Biology and department head.
“The newest wave in anti-cancer drugs is based on the inhibition of angiogenesis, which is the growth of blood vessels that provide the tumor with nutrition,” says Majumdar, a noted cancer researcher. He explains that fumigillin, an antibiotic, has recently been proven to inhibit angiogenesis, but notes that “the mechanism by which fumigillin inhibits cell proliferation is unknown.”
“If you can keep the tumor from being nurtured with blood, you starve it,” Ruddy explains. “Tumors are fast-growing, they demand lots of energy to keep growing. If you inhibit the blood that feeds the tumor, the tumor undergoes apoptosis, or programmed cell death.”
Ruddy is using three techniques to determine the effects of fumigillin on cell proliferation in two cancer-cell lines, Majumdar says. One is HeLa, a human cervical-cancer cell line. The other is murine erythroleukemic, or BB-88, a line of virally transformed mouse erythroleukemic cells.
Having studied tissue-culture procedures with Majumdar in the classroom, Ruddy feels well-prepared to assist him in attempting to determine at what concentration levels of fumagillin are most effective in inhibiting blood-flow to tumors. Majumdar concurs.
“Jean Marie is an A-plus student,” he says. “She is extremely bright, competent, and reliable. She has proven herself to be a motivated, dependable, and competent research student.”
The opportunity to work closely with Majumdar exemplifies The Lafayette Experience, Ruddy says.
“I like the fact that my professors all know me by name, know my interests, and support my goal of attending medical school,” Ruddy says. “That one-on-one contact with faculty has really helped me to grow and to focus my energies on biology.”
She aspires to a people-focused medical career.
“I’d like to apply my research efforts to helping people, working with living subjects and helping them get well,” she says.
Another Side of Jean Marie
A resident adviser, she also helps fellow students with their writing assignments as a Writing Associate in Lafayette’s College Writing Program. She’s a member of CORRE, the Coalition for Relationship and Rape Education, and a member of Alpha Phi sorority.