Supporting breast cancer research

BC breast cancer researchers were featured in a full page-spread in the Vancouver Sun on Friday, October 9. The support of the BC Government, through the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) and other initiatives, has helped support the critically important work of finding treatments and cures for this devastating disease. This article is one of a series of reports published in the Sun last  week on breast cancer research. The reports also included one on the remarkable work of Drs Sam Aparicio and Marco Marra and colleagues in which they had identified the evolution of gene expression in a type of breast cancer. This work, published in the journal Nature, may lead to individual treatments to target specific mutations in breast tumour types. 

The October 9th article gave an overview of the work of 26 breast cancer scientists across BC, including Drs Aparicio and Marra.

We are proud to have provided support to 14 of these scientists over the past eight years, and our objective is to work with government to ensure that the Foundation is positioned to continue this support in future.   Below please find details on the different ways in which MSFHR has provided support to these researchers through our various personnel awards(distinguished scholar, senior scholar and scholar awards; trainee awards) and through infrastructure  funding for research teams and units as well as technology platforms.  

Dr. Sam Aparicio
2007 Research Unit Member – Model Systems and Cancer Therapeutics
Supervisor - 4 Trainees
Member of the MSFHR Research Advisory Council

Dr. Marco Marra
2001 Scholar
2006 Senior Scholar
2003 Research Unit Member – Cancer Control Research Unit
2007 Research Unit Member – Model Systems and Cancer Therapeutics
Supervisor - 8 Trainees

Dr. Shoukat Dedhar
2001 Distinguished Scholar
2003 Research Unit Member – Solid Tumour Progression Research Unit
2004 Research Unit Member – The Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development
Supervisor - 1 Trainee

Dr. Caren Helbing
2003 Scholar
Supervisor - 1 Trainee

Dr. David Huntsman
2002 Scholar
2007 Senior Scholar
Platform co-Leader – BC BioLibrary
2004 Research Unit Leader – Genetic Pathology Evaluation Centre
2004 Research Unit Member –  The Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development
2007 Research Unit Member – Model Systems and Cancer Therapeutics
2007 Research Unit Member - OvCaRe
Supervisor - 4 Trainees

Dr. Torsten Nielsen
2003 Scholar
2008 Senior Scholar
2004 Research Unit Member - Genetic Pathology Evaluation Centre
2004 Research Unit Member –  The Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development
Member of the MSFHR Research Advisory Council

Dr. Scott Tyldesley
2008 Scholar
2006 Team Planning Leader – The Operations Research Team in Cancer Care

Dr. Fraser Hof
2007 Scholar
Supervisor  - 1 Trainee

Dr. Marcel Bally
2004 Research Unit Member –  The Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development
Supervisor - 4 Trainees

Dr. Gregg Morin
Platform co-leader – BC Proteomics Network

Dr. Ivo Olivotto
2006 Team Planning Leader – Personalized Response Determinants in Cancer Therapy

Dr. Michel Roberge
2003 Research Unit Member – Solid Tumour Progression Research Unit
2007 Research Unit Member – Model Systems and Cancer Therapeutics
Supervisor - 3 Trainees

Dr. Karen Gelmon
2004 Research Unit Member –  The Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development
Supervisor - 1 Trainee

Dr. Kenneth Harder
Supervisor - 1 Trainee