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

The Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Institute (GCI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Peter Siegel, PhD, as Associate Director, effective immediately. In this role, Professor Siegel will help guide the GCI’s strategic direction and support its mission to advance innovative cancer research, foster interdisciplinary collaboration, and translate scientific discoveries into improved outcomes for patients.

In honour of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, the Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Institute (GCI) is highlighting the work of trainees whose research is advancing our understanding of cancer and improving the future of patient care. Today, we feature Yilin Wang, a PhD candidate in Biochemistry in the laboratory of Professor José Teodoro, whose research explores an important biological link between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer.

This year, we are proud to recognize four trainees from the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute (GCI) who have been awarded the prestigious Doctoral Research Award from the Cancer Research Society (CRS).

BRCA1-related breast and ovarian cancers are aggressive—and despite being infiltrated by immune cells, they remain resistant to immunotherapy. New research led by Dr. Hannah Garner aims to uncover why the immune system fails to attack these tumours and how it can be reprogrammed to fight back.

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.