Prayers were answered when Dr. Klarissa Hardy received a $660,000 National Institutes of Health grant that will fund her investigation of effective cancer treatments.
Hardy, a researcher and assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences in Lipscomb University’s College of Pharmacy, began writing her proposal to acquire a postdoctoral fellowship at the same time a woman at her church was asking for prayers during her battle with breast cancer.
“She had asked for prayer several times in our Bible classes, and so I’m thinking about that and I’m thinking about other individuals who were struggling with the side effects of the drugs that they take,” said Hardy.
“As I was writing that, it really kind of all hit me: that this is really important.”
After her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington, Hardy made her way to Lipscomb University.
A chemist at heart, Hardy has always enjoyed studying the effect drugs have on the human body.
“I think at the end of the day, for me, what I like is being able to link the very like detailed basic work that we do in the lab to something that can potentially impact and improve the way people are treated.”
Now she has the means to dig deeper in her investigation of effective treatments.
“We’re trying to get the best treatment for the individual patient, based on their genetic make up, based on their lifestyle, whatever they’re exposed to in their environment, seeing how that unique individual can best respond to a drug.”
The research involves genetic factors and how they contribute to a patient’s reaction to the drug.
“What I’d really love to see with this grant is looking at the differences of two enzymes and how they metabolize this breast cancer drug.”
After Hardy finds the differences in the way the enzymes metabolize the breast cancer drug, she will look closely at the differences in susceptibility to toxicity.
“These enzymes are expressed differently in different individuals, so one person might have very low levels or no levels at all.”
Hardy’s goal is for the findings to eventually be implemented in patient care.
The NIH grant will not only provide Hardy with five years time to conduct this research but will also provide funding for other fees and expenses for conferences, research assistants and any other resources necessary to completing the project.
The research will be conducted in the university’s Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center that opened in November 2013, which Hardy says has been a huge blessing.
“We’ve got a really nice research facility right here where we have faculty research labs, a place where students can come and tons of great equipment that we are actively using.”
Hardy’s study will also provide students with research experience and the opportunity to collaborate.
Last spring there were threee undergraduate students who had various majors and different interests, but they had one thing in common: they wanted to learn about what research really looked like.
“I wanted to give them an opportunity to see what it’s like and kind of get excited about it, because those are the kind of opportunities that really got me interested in research and got me started.”
A few students had the opportunity to work on related projects in the lab over the summer, and two current pharmacy students are working on projects related to cancer drugs during this semester.
“I would love to have more really motivated students who either want to see what research is like or students who know that they want to go into research.
“I would just encourage anyone, any student who has a dream, has a passion, or who may not even know what they want to do, just try to follow your interest.”
Photo courtesy of lipscomb.edu