Takaku lab initiates partnership with Japanese lab, sends Cooper-Robinson to Winship Cancer Institute

Dr. Motoki Takaku’s research lab, housed in the SMHS Department of Biomedical Sciences, learned recently of two exciting developments.

First, Dr. Takaku’s graduate student, Mikhala Cooper-Robinson, has been selected for a postdoctoral-matching event hosted by the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. The goal of this event, to be held in March 2024, is to pair graduate students with a postdoctoral mentor, which will be of great benefit to young scientists’ career and growth.

Second, Dr. Takaku has begun a new collaboration with Dr. Takada in Japan that looks to advance both researchers’ knowledge of breast cancer pathology.

“Two years ago, Dr. Takada and I began collaborating on a project about cell-free DNA in breast cancer patients, initially supported by a pilot grant from Eli Lilly Japan,” said Takaku, noting how Takada delivered a seminar lecture to the Biomedical Sciences team at UND recently. “We have successfully secured an additional grant from Eli Lilly Japan, amounting to approximately $170,000, or twenty-five million yen based on the current exchange rate, for a two-year period. In this new phase of our project, we’ll be collecting cell-free DNA data from breast cancer patients both before and after drug treatment. Our primary objective is to develop a noninvasive diagnostic strategy that can potentially guide therapy for breast cancer patients, enhancing treatment efficacy and patient outcomes.”