QuĂ©bec Science honours Michel Tremblay and the Ă山ǿĽé Cancer Centre
Magazine’s readers voted cancer breakthrough as Quebec’s “Discovery of the Year”
A breast cancer breakthrough made by Ă山ǿĽé Cancer Centre Director Michel Tremblay and his team was named Quebec’s top discovery of 2007 in the “Ten Discoveries of the Year” award compiled by QuĂ©bec Science, as voted on by the magazine’s readers.
On Tuesday, June 10, Pascale Millot, associate editor-in-chief of QuĂ©bec Science, will present a plaque commemorating the award to Dr. Tremblay at a ceremony to be held at Ă山ǿĽé University’s Holmes Hall. Ms. Millot will be accompanied by Professor Denis ThĂ©rien, Vice-Principal (Research and International Relations) and Dr. Richard I. Levin, Vice-Principal (Health Affairs) and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.
What: Québec Science “Discovery of the Year 2007” awards ceremony
When: Tuesday, June 10, 2008, 12:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Where: Holmes Hall
3605 de la Montagne (corner of Docteur Penfield)
Montreal, Quebec H3G 2M1
Admission: This event is open to the media, but not the general public.
BACKGROUND
Dr. Michel L. Tremblay, his colleague Sofi Julien and their Cancer Centre colleagues carried out fundamental cancer research which uncovered the role played by a gene associated with the propagation of breast cancer in two out of five affected women. The researchers discovered that halting the activity of this gene in mice predisposed to cancer significantly slowed the growth of – and in some cases, prevented – tumours. Several years earlier, Tremblay and his colleagues linked the same gene to obesity and diabetes.
SELECTED COMMENTS FROM QUÉBEC SCIENCE READERS:
I think this is a very important discovery which will save live. It’s important to study neurons and things, but it’s something else again to understand the genes responsible for a disease as serious as cancer, which destroys millions of lives every year. Bravo for this magnificent discovery and please carry on!
- Nicolas Rioux, Baie-Comeau
If ONE pharmaceutical could cure breast cancer and diabetes and help control the obesity problem, it would be a miracle! Thank you, Dr. Tremblay for focusing on this gene.
- Martine Bertrand, Montréal
Diabetes and breast cancer each claim many lives in Canada. We can’t be apathetic about this, we’ve got to take action, because now we have a chance, thanks to Michel L. Tremblay to save lives. Let’s all support scientific research!
- Eric Archambault, Joliette