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The personal side of cancer research

Science grad pursues passion at Princess Margaret Hospital

BY DAVID SILVERBERG, JOURNALISM ’02

TRACY LACKRAJ, Molecular Science (PhD) ’17, has a personal stake in her cancer research work at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto: her father has been battling the disease since 2002.

“This is a research topic very close to my heart,” the 28-year-old Markham resident says in an interview.

Lackraj is studying how a patient’s genetic makeup can affect the course of disease, specifically follicular lymphoma. She and her team are analyzing how mutations of cancer-related genes influence prognosis and patient outcome.

“We can basically target certain genes by using pharmacological drugs and see what the outcome is on the cells – do they die faster, do they survive longer, and so on,” she says.