The Breast Cancer Research Foundation funds more than 275 researchers across 15 countries and six continents.
Biodesign Institute executive director Joshua LaBaer, M.D., Ph.D., was asked to play a prominent role in BCRF’s international awareness campaign. As a BCRF grant recipient, LaBaer was selected for his work in identifying genes that are especially important on particularly aggressive types of breast cancer – and for his personal advocacy for breast cancer research: LaBaer’s own mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994. Over the next year, LaBaer’s image will be used by BCRF to increase awareness, advance research and identify treatments to conquer the disease.
Karen Anderson, M.D., Ph.D. – also a member of LaBaer’s team – and a Biodesign Institute researcher is also recognized as one of the 275 BCRF grantees. With the Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Medicine, Anderson is focused on identifying target proteins for breast cancer vaccine development. According to BCRF, “her team is developing a proteomics pipeline for the rapid discovery and biochemical validation of breast cancer tumor antigens for vaccine development.”
In addition, Anderson was recently featured on “BCRF Conversations,” the official podcast of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. In the podcast, she discovered a wide range of topics, including translational research, the promise of immune therapies to cancer, and how exploring both tumor diversity and a patient’s unique immune response may the keys in trying to help eliminate cancer.