Queen's Health Sciences researchers are part of five projects awarded over $29 million from the Canadian Cancer Society's Breakthrough Team Grants. The program supports innovative, interdisciplinary projects aimed at improving low-survival cancer outcomes.
The five-year funding program is focused on collaborative research involving pancreatic, esophageal, brain, lung, liver, and stomach cancers.
One of the projects will receive over $7.4 million to build a national network to drive research discoveries and expand access to immunotherapies for people with biliary tract cancers, with Dr. Sean Bennett (Surgery) as a co-applicant. Another nearly $1.5 million project will test new treatments for people with incurable brain cancers, and features Dr. Chris O’Callaghan (Public Health Sciences) as co-principal investigator, and co-applicants Drs. Keyue Ding (Public Health Sciences) and Harriet Feilotter (Pathology and Molecular Medicine).
Dr. Christopher Mueller (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences) is co-applicant on a $7.5 million project aimed at establishing a comprehensive research strategy to improve pancreatic cancer survival. Dr. Maria Aristizabal (Biology) is co-principal investigator on a nearly $5.2 million project dedicated to changing the narrative of lung cancer to improve prevention for non-smokers. Meanwhile, Dr. Neil Renwick (Pathology and Molecular Medicine) is co-applicant on a $7.5 million project aimed at killing cancer cells by stopping them from using oxygen and sugar.
Learn more about the projects funded through Breakthrough Team Grants.