Tem Woldeyesus

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When UC Davis undergraduate Tem Woldeyesus presented his scientific poster at the UC Davis Cancer Center research symposium recently, he didn't know his project was being scrutinized by a panel of three judges.

So you can imagine his surprise learning that he had taken first place among 61 poster presentations at the annual event, most of them from researchers well out of college, graduate school and beyond.

"It was very shocking," the Fairfield 20-year-old said during a phone interview from Dallas, where he again was presenting his poster: "Synthesis and Application of Multifunctional Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapeutics."

As the winner of the competition, Woldeyesus took home $500, money he said he would use "to pay off the textbooks."

Woldeyesus is part of Emerging Technologies Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (ET-CURE), a new program at UC Davis sponsored by the National Cancer Institute that gives college students from underserved populations opportunities to learn cutting-edge cancer science.

Woldeyesus, a junior studying neurobiology, was assigned in June to the laboratory of Kit Lam, chief of the division of hematology and oncology and a researcher working on use of nanoparticles to better deliver cancer drugs to tumors.

Woldeyesus is quick to point out that his role was to figure out the science for the project and to present the theory, but that the idea for the work came from his mentor, Lorenzo Berti, a research faculty member in Lam's lab and poster co-author.

That idea was to find a better way to deliver the potent and toxic chemotherapy agent Doxorubicin to a tumor in a way that reduces its collateral damage.

"Right now, only a fraction of the drug actually gets to the tumor — about 5 percent if you are lucky, which causes a lot of side effects," Woldeyesus explained. "The whole idea is to get most of the drug released within the tumor instead of allowing it exposure to the normal cells."

To do it, the young researcher created a DNA "nanocarrier" using iron oxide nanoparticles, a material with unique magnetic properties.

"Once we get the actual nanoparticle into the tumor, we can use an electromagnetic field to burn off the DNA," he said. "Once you shred the hydrogen bonds between the DNA, you release the drug only at the tumor."

James Felton, an associate cancer center director and biosciences leader at Lawrence Livermore National laboratory, said the application using iron oxide nanoparticles was "widespread and innovative," with three potential uses including enhancement of MRI imaging, magnetic targeting and cancer drug delivery.

"Not only is there general utility for this type of particle in all these cancer applications," said Felton, "but use of these particles was clearly described by the presenter."

Woldeyesus said his parents, who immigrated to California from the African nation of Eritrea, were proud of him, especially since their son only got into UC Davis after appealing an initial rejection by the university.

The young man said he will continue his work on the nanoparticle project in the Lam lab. And he is switching from a focus on neurobiology to cancer science because of the potential to move bench-level innovations into clinical use for patients.

For Woldeyesus, the surprise poster award is a wonderful honor, but certainly not a major driver in his scientific pursuits. "A lot of my family has been through the cancer dilemma," he said.

UC Davis Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center that cares for 9,000 adults and children with cancer each year from throughout the Central Valley and inland Northern California. Its Outreach Research and Education Program works to eliminate ethnic disparities in cancer region-wide.