Alumna nabs elite fellowship for cancer research

By Emily Leighton

Amid the hallowed and fabled walls of one of the world’s oldest universities, Vasiliki Economopoulos, BESc’08, PhD’13, is revelling in a life-changing milestone. A current postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University, she is a recent recipient of the distinguished Marie Curie Fellowship from the European Commission.

This is an impressive feat at the beginning of the young scientist’s research career. The award is worth more than $240,000 over two years, and will greatly impact her research output, as well as her professional prospects.

“This award will leap me ahead by years,” said Economopoulos. “It’s an incredible opportunity.”

Economopoulos’ research focuses on secondary cancer tumours in the brain, known as brain metastases. She specifically explores the metastases that develop from an initial breast cancer diagnosis and tries to understand the basic biology behind them.

Currently, brain metastases are one of the most difficult aspects of advanced cancers to treat. “Someone who develops a secondary tumour in the brain isn’t going to survive very long,” Economopoulos said. “At this stage, palliative care is usually introduced to ease symptoms.”

With the Marie Curie Fellowship funding, Economopoulos will investigate the significance of macrophages – scavenger cells recruited to sites of injury and cancerous tumours. She hopes to establish the role these macrophages play in metastasis development, and if they contribute to tumour detectability.