Dr. Veena N. Rao of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) was awarded $32,565 from the It’s The Journey charity, the producer of Atlanta’s 2-Day Walk for Breast Cancer. This will aid her pioneering in the research on what drives the growth of aggressive triple negative breast cancer.
Dr. Veena N. Rao is a professor and co-director of the Cancer Biology Program and Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar in the Department of OB/GYN at MSM. Rao has been researching on the infamous BRCA1 gene, which has been linked to breast and ovarian cancers.
$100K US science competition bagged by Indian-origin teens
“This generous support from It’s the Journey, Inc. will go a long way in advancing our knowledge in how to fight triple negative breast cancers,” Rao said. “Triple negative breast cancers are aggressive and more common among young African-American women and currently there are no targeted treatments against these cancers.”
“We only budgeted funds for one breast cancer research grant for our first year,” said Executive Director Kimberly Goff. “However, our board found two excellent grant proposals worthy of funding and we hoped to find a way to fund both. Two participants in our largest fundraiser, thesAtlanta2-Day Walk for Breast Cancer, learned of our funding dilemma and took it upon themselves to organize a charity breakfast.”
Indian American STEM student win Siemens regional finals
“Jody Goldstein, a triple negative breast cancer survivor and Jennifer Fink’s breakfast raised the funds to support Dr. Rao’s critical research,” she added.
“By investing in Dr. Rao’s research with this grant, we hope to be able to find better treatments for breast cancer and to gain more scientific knowledge in these critical areas.”
The Journey, Inc., has been awarding the breast health and breast cancer grants for the past 14 years. 2016 is the first year where these grants were given for research purposes.
By Premji
 was awarded $32,565 from the It’s The Journey charity, the producer of Atlanta’s 2-Day Walk for Breast cancer research.){kind=link}