For Leanne Lucas, science is a family affair.
Her brother Stewart is currently completing a PhD in chemistry at the University of Victoria, while she just graduated with her Master of Science degree in Physics at Dalhousie. (She鈥檚 actually the first African Nova Scotian to do so from Dal.) While her brother works with inorganic chemical reactions from base elements, Lucas鈥� research project at Dal focused on Raman spectroscopy imaging and treatment technique for cancers.
鈥淪ome of the elements Stewart works with are carcinogenic, so his joke for me sometimes is, 'You鈥檒l be working to cure that cancer that I鈥檓 going to cause,鈥欌�� she laughs.
Leanne and her brother Stewart. (Provided photo)
Lucas鈥� story at Dal began in 2005 when she came to study in the Integrated Science Program. 鈥淚t was pretty instrumental in making me realize how much I like research, especially with the research project component of it. It was a small taste of what research is like.鈥�
Her undergrad was in Chemistry: she graduated with honours from the co-op program, where she met her supervisor, Kevin Hewitt. Through her work on the cancer research project, she made the switch from chemistry to physics.
鈥淣ot many people are using Raman now,鈥� she explains. 鈥淭hey typically use MRI or ultrasound to detect, and radiation therapy and chemotherapy for treatment. So with Raman spectroscopy, they want to use natural proteins that are over-expressed in some cancers that we鈥檙e looking at.鈥�
Grad research hasn鈥檛 been without its challenges: 鈥淪econd guessing myself and asking if it鈥檚 going to work,鈥� she says, when asked, 鈥渂ut I guess that doesn鈥檛 really matter as you can never know when you start something.鈥�
It also comes with its fair share of excitement.
鈥淛ust to know not many people are working on this. Not many people know that Raman spectroscopy can be used for imaging. It鈥檚 just exciting to be a part of that group that鈥檚 starting to use Raman to treat cancers.鈥�
As for next steps, Lucas is volunteering in the lab, finishing publications and other work that she was pursuing during her master's program. In the future, she hopes to complete a PhD in chemistry or physics but, for now, she is looking for opportunities in research.