RI-MUHC team receives funding to develop improved radiation treatment devices for cancer patients
Gabriel Famulari (left) who will be working on the new delivery system for brachytherapy and Simon Dobri (right) who will be working on the novel detector, both graduate students in Dr. Enger's team.
The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is proud to announce that Dr. Shirin Abbasinejad Enger, researcher from the Cancer Research Program and from the Medical Physics Unit at the MUHC, has received a $60,000 grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF). Dr. Enger’s team will receive matching funds from the Quebec government. The announcement was made by Minister of Science Kristy Duncan at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, today.
Delivering the right dose
The major challenge with radiation therapy is in delivering an accurate dose that eradicates the tumour without affecting surrounding healthy tissue. Motivated by a desire to resolve issues with critical radiation therapy, reduce complications, and improve patient outcomes, Dr. Enger is developing techniques to accurately deliver radiation to tumours using new radiation sources and detectors.
The CFI’s grant will help Dr. Enger’s team to build a new radiation detector, that is novel in the field, to help measure the dose distribution around radiation sources and to develop a new dose delivery system for brachytherapy – a form of radiotherapy used at the MUHC in which radiation is administered from radioactive sources located within or near the tumour.
The John R. Evans Leaders Fund is designed to help universities attract and retain the best and brightest researchers from around the world by giving them access to cutting-edge research tools.
Details on the grant follow:
Radiation Source and Detector Development for use in Medical Radiation Physics
Dr. Shirin Enger of the RI-MUHC and the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Oncology is the principal investigator.
$60,000 from JELF; $60,000 matching provincial funds