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Revolutionary Researchers: Meet PhD student researcher, Shun Chang

  • 31 Jul 2023

In 2022, we approached the team at Newcastle Hospitals Charity – the official charity of Newcastle Hospitals – to collaborate with us to fund cutting edge research into childhood cancer and support children and families in the North East and Cumbria affected by the disease.
 
As part of our partnership, two, four-year PhD studentships were created on the childhood cancer research team at the Wolfson Childhood Cancer Research Centre – including Shun’s. His work into Burkitt Lymphoma is helping us understand more about the disease, and how we can better treat it.
 
We look forward to continuing our successful collaboration with Newcastle Hospitals Charity and working together to make life better for the patients and families we care for.

What is your area of research/focus?

 

My research focuses on Burkitt Lymphoma which is the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in children in the UK. It is a cancer of the immune system or more specifically, the lymphatic system. My research involves trying to understand the biology and genetics of this disease and unravel the reason of why it relapses.

Why did you get into researching childhood cancer?

 

I was fascinated by cancer research ever since I was introduced to this topic in school. I saw the complexity of it, and how there is so much that we still need to learn. In terms of why childhood cancer – I feel that having an illness as a child can be more difficult to cope with. On top of this, the effect this can have on the patient’s loved ones are not to be overlooked. So for me, I will always say yes to the opportunity to contribute my part in our efforts in reducing this burden. It becomes that much more meaningful.

Tell us about your work at Newcastle University

 

The current therapy for Burkitt Lymphoma is very effective but the treatment intensity needed to achieve this success rate can be very toxic
and so can result in harsh side effects. Despite the success rate, for children with the disease that relapse, their chance of cure then significantly reduces. This is where my research comes in. If we are able to understand the underpinning biology of this cancer at the greatest resolution by digging into its genetics, we should be able to identify the key drivers of this disease and develop new treatment strategies.

The goal would be to a) find an effective way to tackle the disease upon relapse, and b) explore the possibility of fine tuning our treatment so patients will experience less side effects.

One of the key elements of my project 
is being able to collect live lymphoma cells from patients who have just been diagnosed. We do this through our network of collaborating biobanks as it wouldn’t have been possible to collect these rare samples just from Newcastle. So, my project is extremely reliant on the generosity of families who trust us with these samples to develop our research and understanding.

What hopes do you have for the future of childhood cancer treatment?

 

I hope to identify novel therapeutic targets that can eventually lead to treating relapse disease effectively. Our process of modelling this disease to study in the labs will also be applicable to other childhood and adult cancers as well. This all applies to the wider picture. With advances in technology and international collaborations, I hope kinder and more effective therapies will emerge as soon as possible to improve the patient’s quality of life.

What does being funded by Children’s Cancer North mean to you?

 

It has provided me the opportunity to work on a very meaningful project here in the North East, and given me access to work in a world class research environment where there is always something new to learn. It has provided exposure to the latest research around paediatric oncology. I hope that through this project, I will be able to contribute to our efforts in trying to understand a disease that has not been well-studied to date.

What do you do outside of work?

 

I come from Taiwan and moved to the UK to study. I completed my Masters in Kent and moved to Newcastle to undertake my PhD. Coming to the North East was like a culture shock but in a good way.

The love for football can be felt all over the city which made me start following and supporting Newcastle United. The people here are very friendly. I learnt lots of new Geordie words and recently started to play squash. I’ve run the Great North Run for Children’s Cancer North and I also helped celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Children’s Cancer Run this year.

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