Inspired by
Teen Jeopardy! champion Avi Gupta was inspired to share $10,000 of his winnings with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute for pancreatic cancer research in honor of Alex Trebek.
Impact Area: Cancer
The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is a world leader in targeted therapy and early detection. Help us create a world free from the burden of cancer.
I am alive. I am strong.
Brenna Lindsley was 38 when learned she had breast cancer last spring. This year, she celebrated her “Cancerversary” by traveling to Scotland by herself.
The Challenger: Amanda Lund, PhD
Cancer research is filled with preconceived notions — and there’s nothing Amanda Lund, PhD, loves better than challenging them. Through her study of the lymphatic system in melanoma and other skin cancers, she’s shining a light on an area of research that previously hasn’t gotten much love. “Lymphatics are rarely studied, but they could be […]
Forces of Change
In the world of cancer research, OHSU continues to break new ground — not just in medical discoveries, but also in building a world-class team of female scientists. Mary Stenzel-Poore, PhD, chief of research operations at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, is one of those scientists. With more than 20 years’ experience as an NIH-funded […]
The Optimist: Beverly Emerson
Tackling a problem as big as cancer is often a matter of moving one step forward, two steps back. It requires patience and persistence and an unwavering belief that the answer is out there — at least, that’s the way Beverly Emerson, PhD, sees it. “As a scientist, I approach my research with great optimism, […]
The Crusader: Lara Davis
For Lara Davis, MD, a physician-scientist, seeing patients drives home the importance of her research on a daily basis. All too often, she has to tell patients in her clinic that there are currently no medicines that can cure their sarcoma. “That’s not okay,” she said. “We need to be making more progress, faster progress.” […]
The Advocate: Amanda Bruegl
Growing up as a member of the Oneida and Stockbridge-Munsee Nations in Wisconsin, Amanda Bruegl, MD, saw how difficult it was for her Native community to access good medical care. So from an early age, she resolved to be part of the solution. Originally, she thought she’d become a primary care doctor — then a […]
The Seeker: Missy Wong
Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? Those are the kinds of big questions that Missy Wong, PhD, pondered as a little girl. The daughter of a surgeon and a teacher, Wong always figured she’d go into medicine — then she watched her dad do a total knee replacement. “I was like, […]
The Visionary: Shannon McWeeney
Solving some of cancer’s most challenging riddles requires the ability to see the big picture. Luckily, this is something that Shannon McWeeney, PhD, is exceedingly good at. As the head of bioinformatics and computational biology and associate director of computational biomedicine, McWeeney and her team helped to create a new data visualization platform called Vizome. […]
The Independent: Anuprya Agarwal, PhD
Anupriya Agarwal, PhD, has always preferred to blaze her own trail. Growing up in a small town in northern India, where it was not common for women to pursue higher education, she aspired for more. “I was inspired by all the female scientists and researchers I learned about in school,” she said. Agarwal chose to […]
