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Publication Date

2025-5

First Advisor

Halie Rando

Second Advisor

Mike Kinsinger

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Engineering

Keywords

Ovarian cancer, urine-based biomarker, microRNA (miRNA), screening tool design, computational pipeline, transnational bioengineering

Abstract

Ovarian cancer (OC) is a global problem that remains one of the deadliest gynecologic malignancies and currently has no effective screening strategy. Current diagnostic approaches often rely on a combination of imaging and serum biomarkers such as cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) and Human Epididymis Protein 4 (HE4), which, while useful for monitoring disease progression or recurrence, have limited specificity and sensitivity for screening, especially in asymptomatic individuals. As a result, the majority of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when treatment options are limited and prognosis is poor, contributing to the disease’s high mortality rate. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally, have emerged as promising biomarkers for other cancers. This project builds the foundation for the use of miRNAs in ovarian cancer screening. Using a large publicly available dataset, I characterized patterns of miRNA expression data from biopsied ovarian tumors compared to normal ovarian tissues. To account for differences across tumor types, machine learning techniques were used to discover patterns that are consistent across OC subtypes. miRNAs known to be detectable in urine were then evaluated for their predictive relevance using a classification model. The result is a proposed urine-detectable miRNAs that distinguishes OC from normal samples. This work strongly suggests the future development of OC urine-based experiments as well as a simple, non-invasive test for ovarian cancer screening.

Rights

©2025 Hildana Shiferaw. Access limited to the Smith College community and other researchers while on campus. Smith College community members also may access from off-campus using a Smith College log-in. Other off-campus researchers may request a copy through Interlibrary Loan for personal use.

Language

English

Comments

[9], 53, [22] pages: color illustrations. Includes bibligraphical references.

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