Garvan congratulates Dr Simon Junankar and Dr Neil Portman who were awarded Breast Cancer Awards from Estee Lauder Companies at From The Breast Cancer Lab To You.

Support for innovative breast cancer projects

Estee Lauder Companies has presented two awards to talented young breast cancer researchers at Garvan, 

, to support them in investigating a novel breast cancer research concept.

The two $12,500 awards mark the 25th anniversary of The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Campaign and were presented at Garvan’s annual breast cancer community forum, 

. Each award will support the researchers to progress their projects to a stage where they have sufficient data to ensure they are competitive for peer-reviewed funding.

Dr Junankar, Senior Research Officer in the Tumour Progression Laboratory will use his award to investigate how breast cancer evades a patient’s immune response. Understanding the strategies the cancer uses will help to develop new treatment approaches and improve patient responses to new and existing immunotherapies.

Dr Portman, Senior Research Officer in the Connie Johnson Breast Cancer Research Laboratory will use his award to investigate how some breast cancers develop a resistance to a class of drugs called ‘hormone’ or ‘endocrine’ therapies. It is hoped this work will help inform strategies to prevent endocrine therapy resistance to improve outcomes for patients.

Garvan is incredibly appreciative of Estee Lauder Companies’ ongoing support for breast cancer research and the outreach programs at Garvan.