Meet the researcher: Dr Raj Paudel

Dr Raj Paudel is a pharmacologist and medical researcher working in Professor Phil Hansbro’s team at the Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation. In 2019 he received a Special Prevent Cancer/International Association for Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) Global Research Award through the generosity of Awesome Games Done Quick, an annual live streamed video games marathon that raises funds for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

The two year funding, valued at $345,000, from the Colorado, USA based Prevent Cancer Foundation and IASLC gave Dr Paudel the chance to further his research into finding treatments for lung cancer, a disease that kills millions of people each year.

Q.What did you do before joining UTS?

A. I joined UTS from the University of Texas Health Science Centre in Houston where my postdoctoral research focussed on the field of circadian rhythm and breast cancer using mice models and cell lines.

Q.What does your current research focus on?
A. I’m investigating genetic material, called microRNAs (miRNA), for potential as a diagnostic marker of lung cancer. MicroRNAs, regulate most of the body’s cellular functions. Stable microRNAs are found freely in tissue, blood, urine, saliva, airway secretion and other body fluids. Therefore, this study aims to identify a small subset of microRNAs found in these easily accessible body fluids that can be used to detect tumors early in their development.

Q. Why is the research important?
A. Lung cancer is a worldwide problem; it often goes undetected and is diagnosed at a late stage when tumors have progressed and spread. This study could lead to the identification of new diagnostic markers and significantly improve the ability to diagnose lung cancer in its earlier stages, enabling more effective treatments and saving millions of lives around the world each year.

Q. Were you always interested in a career in science?

A. My interest in science (particularly medical science) started in high school. During this period, the sudden death of two of my uncles shortly after diagnosis with lung cancer and oral cancer shocked me and made me wonder why there is no complete cure for certain types of cancers. To answer this curiosity as well as to pursue my interest in medicine, I studied pharmaceutical sciences and began to enjoy interesting subjects such as pharmacology, anatomy and physiology, immunology, molecular cell biology etc. After completing Bachelor’s in Pharmacy (BPharm) and being a registered pharmacist, I decided to share my work as a lecturer in a Pharmacy school. At this point, I felt there was still a lack of proper therapeutic management for multiple diseases including cancer. I decided to pursue my career in pharmacological research to explore the biological activity of drug candidates.

Q.Why did you want to work with Professor Hansbro?

After my postdoc experience with the pathophysiology of cancer I was looking for a research laboratory to work on lung cancer because the mortality rate is so high. Also, there is a lack of promising early diagnostic markers.

Prof. Philip Hansbro is a world leader in developing and interrogating experimental models of chronic respiratory disease (including lung cancer) with cigarette smoke and carcinogens. His track record of national/international competitive grants, publications in high impact journal, collaboration across the globe and expertise in lung cancer is fascinating and attracted me to his laboratory. Professor Hansbro’s support for my, ultimately successful, IASLC fellowship application, allowed me to work in his laboratory with the lung cancer group  based at the Centre for Inflammation, Centenary Institute and UTS. I am also working in collaboration with Dr Kamal Dua and Prof Mary Bebawy (Graduate School of Health, UTS).  

Q.How has the lockdown impacted your research?

A.We were unable to run the mice model experiments of lung cancer during the recent bushfires (November 2019-Janurary 2020) and also because of the  COVID-19 pandemic. Both these situations have severely impacted my current research. However, to utilise the time, I started an in vitro project investigating wether lung cancer cell-derived extracellular vesicles transport cargo (miRNA, protein) to recipient healthy bronchial epithelial cells to promote proliferation and migration of normal cells. We now have very interesting research data we hope can be published.

Q.Has the Award had a big impact on your life??

A.This award has a very positive impact on my research career  as an early career researcher. Receiving a prestigious fellowship from IASLC will support me to carry on my lung cancer research into the future. I hope the output from this project will generate promising outcomes in terms of developing early diagnostic markers of lung cancer using a mice model.

Q.What do you hope to do in the future?

A.We are planning clinical translational research to correlate my findings from animal to human studies. This will be a benefit to lung cancer patients as well as those who are in the early stages of developing lung cancer but may not know it and are waiting for effecting diagnostic markers. Furthermore, among various invasive and non-invasive methods of detecting lung cancer, I want to investigate the most effective, affordable, accurate (without false-positive results) methods for detecting lung cancer.

Read more about Our Research