Ashleigh Allen - Biology

Ashleigh has been investigating the possible protective effects that natural  “bioactive” compounds may have against cancer cells.  Bioactive compounds are ones that have activity or effects against some disease or condition, and natural bioactives are ones that are extracted from organisms like plants or animals.   Ashleigh worked with extracts isolated from two species of seaweed and looked at how these extracts affected the properties of a type of cell that is capable of forming benign tumours.  Certain enzymes called matrix metalloproteinases, or MMPs, are known to help cancer cells  metastasize or “spread” to another part of the body and one way of testing activity against cancer cells is to look at MMP activity following treatment with one of these bioactive compounds.  Ashleigh monitored MMP activity levels using a technique called zymography, and has shown that extracts from these two seaweeds can affect the MMP activity in the cancer cells.  Further study will be needed to determine just how they work, however.