What can our Strength and Inspire Bracelets help fund? 1 Bracelet - Could buy 75 Eppendorf tubes. These small tubes allow our scientists to isolate cancer cells for experiments by spinning them at high speeds 5 Bracelets - Could buy 3.5L of cell culture media, which contains the nutrients cancer cells need to survive and is vital for growing cells in the lab for experiments. 3.5L is enough to last about 4 weeks. 10 Bracelets - Could pay for all the equipment needed to manipulate the genetics of a breast cancer cell. Using the revolutionary new ‘CRISPR’ method, our scientists can alter specific genes in breast cancer cells to study how they cause tumours to grow and spread around the body. 20 Bracelets - Could buy enough of the breast cancer drug, tamoxifen, to do thousands of experiments in the lab. Treating cells with tamoxifen is helping us understand why some cancer cells develop resistance to the treatment so we can work out ways to overcome it. 50 Bracelets - Could fund ‘siRNA’ for more than 150 experiments. This chemical is used to switch off genes in cells grown in the lab, and the technique allows our scientists to investigate how genes turn cells cancerous and how they can cause them to spread around the body. 100 Bracelets - Could by a ‘transilluminator’ machine. This vital piece of equipment uses UV light to allow our scientists to see DNA isolated from cancer cells. This is important for investigating the genetic changes which cause breast cancer. 200 Bracelets - Would support one of our scientific officers for 2 weeks. These researchers are experts in laboratory techniques such as DNA sequencing and microscopy. Their expertise is crucial for all our life-saving research. 500 Bracelets - Could pay for our scientists to study the genetics in nearly 200 tumour samples. Using a technique called RT-qPCR, our scientists can work out what genes are switched on or off in a patient’s tumour to help understand how different breast cancers respond to different treatments.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 18:17:30 +0000