THE WAR on breast cancer just found an ally in professor Imogen Coe. She and an international team of researchers have discovered proteins that could one day help alleviate the unpleasant effects of chemotherapy for cancer patients. Coe, a York biology professor, and her colleagues have cloned the first proteins - known as "transporters" - responsible for moving anti-cancer drugs into human body cells. She is now identifying ways to stimulate their activity and improve the way they deliver cancer-fighting drugs. Cells are basically made up of fat, says Coe. To survive they require things like oxygen, amino acids and glucose. It's the job of certain proteins to deliver those to the cell. They literally "transport" specific molecules from one part of the cell membrane to another. Coe's research is on a specific group of proteins that do this.

Cells are basically made up of fat, says Coe. To survive they require things like oxygen, amino acids and glucose. It's the job of certain proteins to deliver those to the cell. They literally "transport" specific molecules from one part of the cell membrane to another. Coe's research is on a specific group of proteins that do this. "There's been very little work done on the cellular aspect of how drugs get into cells which is the critical component of treatments like chemotherapy. If the drugs don't get in, they can't kill the cancer cells. We need to understand how to make more of them get in faster," says Coe. "If we can do that, we could give patients lower drug doses, stimulate cells so they absorb more medication, and reduce some of chemotherapy's side effects."