OUR INTIATIVES 

Initiative: Translating Discoveries into Breast Cancer Cures
Beneficiary: Sinai Health Foundation
Duration: 2012 – current
Funding: $11M

Synopsis: Dr. Pamela Goodwin is the Director of Mount Sinai’s Marvelle Koffler Breast Centre, the first dedicated multi-disciplinary breast centre in Canada that today sees approximately 33,000 patient visits annually. Her work focuses on ‘host factors’ ― the unique characteristics of each woman ― and how those factors might predispose her to developing the disease and alter the clinical course of breast cancer once it has developed. Her pivotal research has drastically changed the current understanding of breast cancer risk. She was the first to show a connection between insulin levels and breast cancer recurrence and is currently leading the largest clinical trial in the world to investigate the use of a commonly used diabetes medication and its potential to improve survival rates for women with early-stage breast cancer.

Initiative: Hold’em For Life Prostate Cancer Research Fund
Beneficiary: Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation
Duration: 2015 – current
Funding: $2.5M

Synopsis: At The Princess Margaret, under the leadership of Dr. Neil Fleshner, and in collaboration with basic, translational, and clinician scientists, a research program has been developed whose major goals are to reduce prostate cancer (PCA) morbidity and mortality by targeting its unique metabolic properties and vulnerabilities.

The results of the program’s projects will significantly advance the body of knowledge in understanding the metabolic underpinnings of PCA. It will also have conducted definitive studies that may lead to bringing safe, inexpensive and novel approaches to delay disease progression, and to defining, in a personalized fashion, patient subsets for whom the novel approaches may be of value.

Initiative: Hold’em For Life Fellowship Program
Beneficiary: Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation
Duration: 2017 – current
Funding: $2.5M

Synopsis: Dr. Vuk Stambolic, Senior Scientist at the Cancer Centre, along with Dr. Rama Khokha have identified an urgent need to develop a competitive fellowship program. This program will support five world-class researchers each year, working on the latest cutting-edge projects in basic science research to help advance patient treatments.

The Program will support highly-qualified researchers following completion of their PhD, the most important time in their career. This is when they formulate and expand their ideas on a path towards leading their own research programs. These future leaders, while receiving essential training, are also key contributors to The Princess Margaret research enterprise, executing complex experiments, developing critical thinking and charting new territory on a quest for knowledge.

Initiative: Hold’em For Life Fellowship Program
Beneficiary: Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation
Duration: 2017 – current
Funding: $2.5M

Synopsis: Dr. Vuk Stambolic, Senior Scientist at the Cancer Centre, along with Dr. Rama Khokha, Interim Research Director, have identified an urgent need to develop a competitive fellowship program. This program will support five world-class researchers each year, working on the latest cutting-edge projects in basic science research to help advance patient treatments.

The Program will support highly-qualified researchers following completion of their PhD, the most important time in their career. This is when they formulate and expand their ideas on a path towards leading their own research programs. These future leaders, while receiving essential training, are also key contributors to The Princess Margaret research enterprise, executing complex experiments, developing critical thinking and charting new territory on a quest for knowledge.

Synopsis: Dr. Vuk Stambolic, Senior Scientist at the Cancer Centre, along with Dr. Rama Khokha have identified an urgent need to develop a competitive fellowship program. This program will support five world-class researchers each year, working on the latest cutting-edge projects in basic science research to help advance patient treatments.

The Program will support highly-qualified researchers following completion of their PhD, the most important time in their career. This is when they formulate and expand their ideas on a path towards leading their own research programs. These future leaders, while receiving essential training, are also key contributors to The Princess Margaret research enterprise, executing complex experiments, developing critical thinking and charting new territory on a quest for knowledge.