Houida Kassem (left), executive director of the Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation, and UWindsor vice-president for research and innovation K.W. Michael Siu (right) congratulate grant recipients Ming Pan, Munir Rahim, Indryas Woldie, Simon Rondeau-Gagne, and Debbie Kane.
Three teams of UWindsor professors have received grants for cancer research projects as part of a $200,000 announcement made Monday.
Teams led by nursing professor Debbie Kane, chemistry professor Simon Rondeau-Gagne, and biology professor Munir Rahim will receive funding through the Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation’s Seeds4Hope grant awards program.
“We are proud to support local research programs that are making much-needed contributions to our community,” said Houida Kassem, the foundation’s executive director.
Kassem said that without the generosity of donors and the dedication of world-class local researchers, new discoveries improving diagnostics and treatments and enhancing support and outcomes for survivors would not be possible.
Dr. Kane is leading a research project that includes surveying cancer patients and survivors about their experiences in the workforce. Dr. Rondeau-Gagne is developing nanomaterials to deliver electric fields directly to inoperable glioblastoma tumours. Dr. Rahim is studying the immune system response to viruses in bone marrow transplants for leukemia patients.
Other grant recipients are the Windsor Regional Cancer Centre’s Ming Pan and Indryas Woldie. Dr. Pan’s research project involves using artificial intelligence to contour esophageal tumours and Dr. Woldie is researching new treatment of multiple myeloma.
The Windsor Cancer Centre Foundation has awarded more than $2 million to local cancer researchers and their teams through Seeds4Hope since its creation in 2009.
─ Sarah Sacheli