At BCRF’s Symposium and Awards Luncheon on October 27, we will recognize our 255 investigators and their achievements in breast cancer research and bring together our generous supporters to raise critical funds for our mission.
This year’s scientific program, “Targeting Cancer Where It’s Most Vulnerable,” will feature a panel of BCRF investigators—Drs. Maria Jasin, Lisa Newman, and Andrew Tutt—co-moderated by BCRF Founding Scientific Director Dr. Larry Norton and BCRF Scientific Director Dr. Judy Garber. Dr. Jasin will receive the Foundation’s Jill Rose Award for Scientific Excellence, and The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and their employees will receive the Sandra Taub Humanitarian Award.
This year’s ticketed fundraising event will begin at 10 a.m. EST on October 27 at the New York Hilton Midtown.
Here are this year’s esteemed panelists.
Dr. Maria Jasin is an investigator at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. Dr. Jasin’s research focuses on repairing DNA breaks in chromosomes through a process called homologous recombination. Of note, Dr. Jasin’s lab is credited with performing the first gene editing experiment. Her lab has provided notable insights into the roles of tumor suppressors BRCA1, BRCA2, and p53. Dr. Jasin’s current work in breast cancer seeks to understand the breast’s DNA repair capacity at different developmental periods. For her accomplishments, she was elected to the National Academies of Sciences and Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also received the Shaw Prize in Life Sciences, among other awards.
Her BCRF-funded research seeks to understand how BRCA-related breast cancers evolve to develop ways to prevent the disease particularly in BRCA gene mutation carriers. Dr. Jasin’s work is made possible by the Estée Lauder Companies’ North American Research & Development and Manufacturing Award.
Read more: Dr. Jasin’s BCRF profile The Big Break: Maria Jasin and the Discovery That Launched Gene Editing [MSK News]
Dr. Lisa Newman is chief of the Division of Breast Surgery and director of the Interdisciplinary Breast Program at Weill Cornell Medicine. She is also the founding medical director for Weill Cornell’s International Center for the Study of Breast Cancer Subtypes. Among numerous areas of expertise, Dr. Newman focuses on disparities in breast cancer risk and outcome, managing and evaluating high-risk patients, special surgical techniques, and more, and she oversees an international breast cancer research program that studies triple-negative breast cancer in women of African ancestry. Her work and expertise have garnered several awards and she has been appointed to multiple national leadership positions.
Her BCRF-funded research involves a pilot study that both addresses breast cancer disparities related to race and ethnicity and provides a platform to increase African American physicians’ engagement in research. Dr. Newman’s work is supported by Genentech.
Read more: Dr. Newman’s BCRF profile Racial minorities have higher death rates from cancer than white patients, study shows [ABC News]
Dr. Andrew Tutt directs the breast cancer research teams at The Institute of Cancer Research in London—leading a group focused on understanding molecular subtypes of breast cancer to discover and develop new treatments and biomarkers. Dr. Tutt has made seminal contributions and discoveries that led to new therapies—most notably those targeting aberrant DNA damage responses in breast and ovarian cancers. Among many honors, Dr. Tutt is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and received the AACR Team Science Award in 2022 with fellow BCRF investigators.
His BCRF-funded research seeks to improve outcomes for people with breast cancer by studying how tumor cells become resistant to PARP inhibitors. He hopes to design ways to reduce that process and treat drug-resistant breast cancers. His work is supported by The Estée Lauder Companies’ UK & Ireland Award in Honor of Elizabeth Hurley.
Read more: Dr. Tutt’s BCRF profile Inherited Risk Factors and Hereditary Breast Cancer: Ongoing Areas of Focus for BCRF
In addition to serving as BCRF’s Scientific Director and studying BRCA-associated breast cancers as a BCRF investigator, Dr. Judy Garber directs the Center for Cancer Genetics and Prevention at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Garber is a foremost expert in clinical cancer genetics—with a focus on breast cancer genetics—and she played a major role in developing national guidelines. In addition, Dr. Garber is a leader in translational breast cancer research with a particular focus on treating and preventing triple-negative and other BRCA-associated breast cancers. Among many honors, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2013.
Dr. Larry Norton has dedicated his life to the eradication of cancer and in 1993, he founded BCRF with the late Evelyn H. Lauder. At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Norton serves as the senior vice president in the Office of the President, the medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center, and the Norna S. Sarofim Chair in Clinical Oncology. In addition to serving as BCRF’s Founding Scientific Director, Dr. Norton, whose research scope is vast, collaborates with BCRF researchers on several projects—most notably the Mathematical Oncology Initiative. Over his illustrious career, Dr. Norton has received many honors. Last year, Dr. Norton was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
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