Visitors of our site need no introduction to Dr.Gabriel Fernandes, a well known Research Scientist at the Department of Medicine at University of Texas in San Antonio, USA. He is featured as our personality of the month and he is a staunch supporter and sponsor of our site. His initiative of helping to graduate the needy rural students in and around Barkur through his Village to College Foundation is the best scholarship programme Barkur might have ever witnessed.
Very recently Dr. Fernandes has been notified by the Office of the sponsored programmes of the University of Texas health Science Center that he will be receiving soon $ 200000 grant for the funding to carry out pilot studies Therapeutic Value of Fish Oil RX on SLE and Bone Loss in Mice.
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women and the most common cancer among American women after skin cancer. A close link has been established, through scientific studies, between breast cancer and obesity among postmenopausal women. The Western diet chiefly comprises vegetable oils, such as corn oil, rich in omega-6 fatty acids which are found to be cancer promoting. On the other hand, omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil (FO) have been found beneficial in various disease conditions particularly in heart disease and cancer. While the early diagnosis of breast cancer is curable, late stage metastatic breast cancer is associated with several complications including increased bone pain due to the spread of breast cancer to regions of bones and has no permanent cure yet. This leads to poor quality of life and increased rates of morbidity and mortality. It is hypothesized that supplementing the diet with concentrated omega-3 fatty acids and minimizing the use of omega-6 fatty acids may prevent the spread of the breast cancer cells to bone and thus reduce the associated pain symptoms. FO is a very rich source of omega-3 fatty acids and our study will use diets containing concentrated, FDA approved FO (Lovaza®, GlaxoSmithKline) or one of its components docosahexaenoic acid or conjugated linoleic acid to study their effect on fat cells and on breast cancer induced bone metastasis and the resultant pain in experimental laboratory animals such as mice.
The competition for the grants is quite fierce and few gets funded. There are also several larger grants funded to study disease in cancer patients. In recent years Dr. Fernandes has received NIH funding to study the role of Fish oil on Osteoporosis, kidney disease and aging etc in mice. He credits his research for his early upbringing near the river Sita in Moodahadu Kudru and exposure to catching and eating fish very often which he finds it very healthy to maintain good health.
So far he received the grants of about 12 Million Dollars and with yet another grant of $ 200000 is another feather in his cap. Dr.Fernandes attributes this success to the prayers of his sister, Sr.Concilia who passed away at Hyderabad few years back and to the blessings of his parents and thankful to God for His kindness towards him, and says sometime we need to believe in miracles or others prayers. Still active in his quest for the cure for cancer and other such deadly deceases, celebrated his 75th birthday last year Dr.Fernandes plans for retirement after this research.
If anyone is interested in receiving any reprints on his work are welcome to send him a email fernandes@uthscsa.edu.