Community Foundation of Brevard Grants $21,184 to Florida Tech Breast Cancer Research

MELBOURNE, FLA.—A grant of $21,184 has been awarded to Florida Institute of Technology from the Community Foundation of Brevard’s Kenneth R. Finken and Dorothy Hallam Finken Endowment Fund for breast cancer research. The grant will support the work of Munevver Mine Subasi, assistant professor of mathematical sciences in the College of Science.

Kenneth Finken was a graduate of Columbia University and held four patents; he retired from the Government Electronic Systems division of Harris Corp.
Subasi will use statistical and mathematical tools to identify the patterns of expression of gene ratios that relate to resistance to the drug, Tamoxifen.

She will validate patterns found in estrogen positive (ER+) patients and use them to build models to find subsets of features and patterns to accurately stratify patients into subclasses of ER+ disease. She will also identify the drug resistance signature using these same tools and, using survival data under Tamoxifen treatment, and find the overlap of subtypes with high and low survival rates to reveal the underlying gene expression signatures of Tamoxifen resistance.

For more information, contact Sara Smith, Florida Tech development officer, at (321) 674-8259.