Penn State Senior Developing Method to Help Find New Treatments for Breast Cancer

5 May 2004 --A senior at Penn State is doing research that might have implications for treating breast cancer. Jonathan Belman, a biochemistry and molecular biology major from Pinebrook, New Jersey, is working to develop a new screening method to identify potentially effective substances to be used in chemotherapy to treat breast cancer.

Belman's research involves estrogen receptors, which are parts of certain cells that bind to estrogen, the hormone that is responsible for the development and maintenance of female reproductive characteristics. Estrogen molecules can only act upon cells and tissues that have this receptor. While estrogen is beneficial under normal conditions, it can have harmful results when it affects mutated cells, or cells in which the genetic material has been altered. Normally, during a woman's monthly menstrual cycle, estrogen causes cells in the breast tissues to multiply. However, if mutated cells are in the presence of estrogen, they will multiply as well, forming a tumor.

Belman's research, which he is completing for his honors thesis in chemistry, will result in a new method of identifying substances that could be more effective in treating breast cancer. "It could be used to develop new chemotherapies for breast cancer, and it could be used in other areas of therapy as well," he said. Many breast-cancer tumors contain estrogen receptors. Certain substances developed by scientists, known as antiestrogens, are able to bind to estrogen receptors, thereby blocking estrogen so that it cannot act upon the cells, and inhibiting growth in those tumors. But these antiestrogens do not work 100 percent of the time, so cancer researchers have been searching for more effective ways to treat breast cancer.

Bellman has been working on this project for over a year with Blake Peterson, assistant professor of chemistry, including last summer, when Belman was given a Berg Research Scholarship from Penn State's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to help fund his research.

Belman, a student in Penn State's Schreyer Honors College, said laboratory research has taught him new scientific principles and techniques, and it also has made him realize that he would like to keep doing research as a career. "My work has given me practical experience and has gotten me acclimated to a lab-research atmosphere, and it also has given me a better idea of what I want to do after I graduate," he said.
Peterson said, "Jonathan has been an exceptionally productive undergraduate researcher. He has both the drive and the talent to become an outstanding scientist."
After graduating this May, Belman hopes to attend graduate school or medical school.

In addition to the Berg grant, Belman has won various awards from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, including the Gilmore Memorial Scholarship and the Bright Scholarship. He was a recipient of the President's Award for maintaining a 4.0 grade-point average during his freshman year, and he is an Evan Pugh Scholar, a title given to Penn State juniors and seniors who are in the upper 0.5 percent of their respective classes. He is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Golden Key International Honor Society, and he is joining the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society this May.

Belman is the vice-president of the Penn State Biochemistry Society and a member of the Distinguished Speaker Series Committee. His hobbies include playing golf and traveling.

A graduate of Montville High School in Montville, New Jersey, Jonathan is the son of Michael and Heddy Belman, of Pinebrook, and the brother of David Belman, who graduated from Penn State in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in Management Science and Information Systems.

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CONTACTS:
Jonathan Belman, jpb251@psu.edu
Blake Peterson, brp7@psu.edu, 814-865-2969

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