What’s new at the Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Institute?

Researchers at the Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Institute (GCI) have secured funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Cancer Research Team Grant competition. These grants support large national collaborations tackling key challenges in cancer biology, prevention, and treatment. GCI investigators are both leading and contributing to interdisciplinary teams advancing breast cancer research, trained immunity in cancer, and innovative approaches to cancer prevention.

The Breast Cancer Functional Genomics Group (BCFGG) is a research-grade tissue bank that has become a cornerstone of breast cancer discovery in Quebec and Canada.

For International Childhood Cancer Day, the Goodman Cancer Institute highlights research tackling rare childhood and adolescent cancers, including new work revealing a druggable vulnerability in the aggressive ovarian cancer SCCOHT and earlier studies on DICER1 syndrome.

On World Cancer Day, we reflect on how Jerry Pelletier’s lifetime of scientific discovery—and his final gift to research—continue to advance precision cancer care, particularly for rare and hard-to-treat cancers.

Acral melanoma—common in people with skin of color yet poorly understood—has long been overlooked in research. At McGill’s Goodman Cancer Institute, Dr. Simon Roy is combining cutting-edge epigenetics, spatial biology, and precision tumour models to rethink how this aggressive melanoma is studied, diagnosed, and treated.

A new study from the GCI describes an engineered system that delivers immunotherapy directly to metastatic lymph nodes. Published in PNAS, the approach aims to enhance anti-tumour immunity while limiting side effects.

Women scientists at the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute are leading breakthroughs in tumour mapping, metastasis, and immunology—driving more than 70% of first-authored publications in 2025 and strengthening discovery from trainee to faculty levels.

In 2025, researchers at the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute advanced discoveries tackling therapy resistance, metastasis, immunotherapy response, and rare cancers—translating fundamental molecular insight into new therapeutic directions.

In 2025, GCI trainees played a leading role in shaping outreach, inclusion, and community engagement—from Research Day and Science-meets-Art to major fundraising and public-facing initiatives. Together, these efforts extend the impact of cancer research far beyond the lab.