The Garvan Institute of Medical Research is proud to be the recipient of the Rebecca Wilson Fellowship in Breast Cancer Research. This fellowship, generously funded by the NELUNE Foundation, is awarded to a young female scientist at Garvan, and is a lasting legacy to sports journalist, the late Rebecca Wilson.

The inaugural recipient of the Rebecca Wilson Fellowship in Breast Cancer Research is Dr Christine Chaffer, a gifted breast cancer researcher who will be returning to Australia from the United States to take up this important role.

Dr Chaffer's research at Garvan will aim to determine the role and mechanism of breast cancer cell plasticity (the ability of a cancer cell to adapt and change its composition) in disease development and metastasis. By understanding these processes, and discovering how to halt them, it is hoped that personalised therapies can be developed that will, ultimately, improve breast cancer survival rates and provide a pathway to a cure.

Of the appointment, Professor David Thomas, Director of The Kinghorn Cancer Centre and Head of Garvan's Cancer Division said, "The Rebecca Wilson Fellowship in Breast Cancer Research provides a means for one of Australia's brightest research talents to return to Australia. We are delighted to welcome Dr Chaffer to the Garvan Institute in 2017, and are sincerely grateful to the NELUNE Foundation, and to Rebecca Wilson's family for recognising the importance of this research."

For more information about the fellowship, Dr Chaffer's work, and Rebecca Wilson's long-standing commitment to supporting those diagnosed with cancer, read this recent news article.

The Fellowship will officially be launched in February 2017.

To add your support to the Rebecca Wilson Fellowship in Breast Cancer, please make a donation.

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