(l-r): Dr. Sheila Singh, Dr. Jennifer Chan, Dr. Marianne Koritzinsky, Dr. Luke McCaffrey
More than $1.7 million is being awarded to four young cancer researchers under the 2011 Terry Fox New Investigator (NI) Awards program. Three of the selected investigators – Drs. Marianne Koritzinksy and Sheila Singh in Ontario and Dr. Luke McCaffrey in Quebec are funded solely by Terry Fox. The other -- Dr. Jennifer Chan in Alberta -- is funded [by] the Alberta Cancer Foundation in partnership with Terry Fox. This is the first time TFRI partners have supported and funded this prestigious award . The investigators will use their funding to further their work into the complex mechanisms of malignant tumours.
While all four young researchers aspire to better cancer outcomes, their fields of study vary. One will be investigating the metabolism of low-oxygen cancer cells in hopes of disrupting their growth; another will be investigating novel gene therapies on aggressive brain tumours; a third will be looking at how tumour surfaces grow in breast cancer; and the fourth young researcher will be looking at the role of stem cell-like initiators in brain tumour formation.
View brief summaries of the four recipients and their research.
The Terry Fox Foundation has funded career awards for top new investigators for more than three decades. The awards are highly competitive and recipients are determined by a review committee of international scientific experts. The annual competition draws applications from the nation's best new talent and awards are made to those applicants selected to be the most outstanding. New last year and continuing this year, TFRI pairs new investigators with established scientists who are currently working on Terry Fox-funded projects. Each new investigator is linked to existing funded programs, and is supported by the principal investigators who have committed to mentoring the new researchers and integrating them into their research teams.