Dr. Mousumi Majumder of Brandon University recently received a $75,000 grant from the Breast Cancer Society of Canada, which will further her team’s research into developing a method of detecting the disease in its early stages.
Talking to the Sun on Tuesday, Majumder said the new research grant was handed out through the society’s first-ever national grant competition, with the BU professor and her team being the only recipients from Manitoba.
“I did not expect that we would get it. It was very competitive from the beginning,” Majumder said, explaining that the winners of the new contest were announced in late May.
“More than the money, I’d say that the recognition and the way the competition happened, that really gave us the boost we needed.”
In terms of where the $75,000 is going, Majumder said the grant will be used to secure more student scholarships and tissue samples from cancer patients, which are both vital to ensure that the project continues.
As it stands, Majumder and her team are using the tissue samples to identify blood biomarkers that could lead to an expeditious diagnosis of breast cancer in patients.
This method could be especially useful for younger Canadian women, since they typically do not qualify for a breast cancer screening until the age of 50.
“Are we at the point where you can forget about a biopsy? No,” Majumder said. “But … we are very hopeful that within a couple years … that these markers will be sensitive enough so that a blood test can give you an early sign of breast cancer.”
Majumder has been exploring this field of study for well over a decade.
After receiving her PhD in oral cancer genetics and epidemiology from the Indian Statistical Institute and Jadavpur University in 2009, Majumder became seriously involved in cell biology work during her post-doctoral training at Western University.
Since joining BU in 2016, Majumder’s focus has narrowed to finding a simple method of detecting breast cancer and has received multiple rounds of funding to make this happen.
SUBMITTED
Dr. Mousumi Majumder (centre right) and her team of researchers, which includes Brandon University students and staff, pose for a photo on campus in the fall of 2021. Majumder and her team recently received a $75,000 grant from the Breast Cancer Society of Canada, which will further their research into developing a method of detecting the disease in its early stages.
In late 2020, the BU professor was named a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Genotoxicology, a position that entitled her to a $600,000 grant that can be used over the course of five years.
But at that point, Majumder admitted that her research was still in its preliminary stages, with any progress being hampered by all the recent restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now that these restrictions have been rolled back nationwide, Majumder is happy to report that it is now much easier to acquire tissue samples, especially since her team is working alongside health-care professionals from the London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario.
“Initially we were struggling to get even a hundred samples,” she said. “But right now, things are loosening up and more participants are coming into the hospital.”
Moving forward, Majumder said her team’s research will also be bolstered by an over 1,200-square-foot lab that is being set up in BU’s John R. Brodie Science Centre.
This new space will give them more direct access to imaging systems, biomarker detection technology and other equipment that isn’t available anywhere else in Westman.
“We are doing really great considering that Brandon University is a small institution,” Majumder said.
“We don’t have as much as the University of Manitoba or CancerCare Manitoba, but it seems like we are doing fine with our limited structure.”
But more than anything, Majumder believes that this new $75,000 grant is a testament to the hard work being put in by her team, which includes BU students, staff and even outside groups like CancerCare Manitoba, whose members regularly provide their medical expertise.
“It’s a team effort. It’s me who is talking right now, but trust me, it’s the team doing the work in the background,” she said. “That keeps me motivated.”
One in eight Canadian women are expected to develop breast cancer during their lifetime, according to the federal government. The disease also accounts for 13 per cent of all cancer-related deaths in Canadian women.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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