The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute (GCI) is thrilled to extend its heartfelt congratulations to Sarah Maritan for being awarded the prestigious Vanier Graduate Scholarship. This esteemed scholarship recognizes outstanding students who demonstrate exceptional leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in their doctoral research.
Sarah Maritan, MD-PhD Candidate now in the third year of her PhD in the Division of Experimental Medicine, first became involved in research back in her undergraduate degree and quickly learned of the caliber of research that was being done by Vanier Scholars across Canada. Now in her PhD, she leads her own doctoral research on brain metastasis, the process of tumour spreading from another part of the body to the brain.听
鈥淥ur research group has previously found that brain metastases can grow in two different patterns in the brain: either with cancer cells extensively invading out into the distant brain, or as a single mass that does not invade outwards.听As you may expect, patients with听 abundant invasion have worse outcomes compared to patients with no invasion. My project focuses on why and how these invasive brain metastases aggressively invade the brain and what are some possible ways we can stop it.鈥�
Beyond financial support, the scholarship spotlights the importance of translational research. Sarah's project hinges on the collaboration between scientists and clinicians and relies on tumor tissue generously contributed by patients. The recognition brought by the Vanier Scholarship paves the way for more translational collaborations in the future to improve patient care. Sarah's journey is a testament to the power of collaboration and interdisciplinary research. 鈥淚 am working towards becoming a clinician scientist. In this role, I aspire to conduct both clinical duties and academic research, ideally remaining in the cancer field. Receiving this award for a project that spans both the clinical and research worlds is encouraging as I work towards building a career that involves and merges these domains.鈥�
As Sarah continues her academic journey, she wishes to express her gratitude to the countless individuals who have supported her along the way: 鈥淚 would like to take this opportunity to thank the enormous number of people who helped me throughout my doctoral journey so far. As much as I鈥檇 love to give an exhaustive list, I quickly want to thank collaborators at the Goodman Cancer Institute for making it such a welcoming environment to learn in, and of course thank patients for generously donating tissue. I also wanted to specifically highlight McGill鈥檚 MD-PhD program, which has been instrumental in my training so far.鈥�
Congratulations, Sarah!
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