Multimillion award to UNM drives breast cancer research

The Wellcome Trust Career Development Award amounting to RM11.3 million has been granted to Associate Professor Dr Ho Weang Kee, Ph.D, who leads a research program on breast cancer co-hosted by University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM) and Cancer Research Malaysia.

Notably, this is the first research program in Malaysia to be funded by the Wellcome Trust Career Development Award. The researchers are working on enhancing the accuracy of breast cancer risk prediction models tailored to the unique genetic and environmental factors prevalent in diverse Asian populations as well as building innovative risk communication methods.

Empowering women to make informed decisions about screening and prevention by informing them about their future risk of developing breast cancer can help reduce inefficiency, unnecessary cost, and potential harm caused by over-diagnosis. However, development of such risk assessment tools requires large-scale research data, which is not available in many Asian ethnic subgroups. Therefore, Ho plans to leverage the award to refine breast cancer risk assessment in Asian population through innovative methods to harness valuable insights from existing data.

“The aim of this 8-year research programme is two-fold: to develop and apply advanced statistical techniques to harness the value of existing, less powerful datasets to build disease risk prediction models for under-represented populations, and to extract disease risk-associated medical imaging features to enable visualization of risk. The plan is to start with breast cancer and expand to other noncommunicable diseases in the future,” said Ho.

“This research program is rooted in the foundational work of the Malaysian Breast Cancer Genetics Studies, the largest breast cancer study in Malaysia established by Cancer Research Malaysia. Supported by a collaborative network of partners from the UK, US, Singapore, and our home base in Malaysia, alongside our esteemed members of the Healthier Lives Research Cluster at UNM, we have laid a robust foundation for our ongoing research initiatives. I am confident that this award will empower us to further strengthen these collaborations, engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders to determine the most effective strategies for disease control in our region,” said Ho, also the co-director of Healthier Lives Research Cluster at UNM.

On the importance of funding cancer research, Professor Datin Paduka Dr Teo Soo-Hwang, OBE, Chief Scientific Officer at Cancer Research Malaysia, said the award recognizes Ho’s scientific brilliance and the impact of her leadership on cancer research. Ho has already led pivotal studies on genetics in Asian breast cancers and advanced the understanding of how to accurately predict risk and how to use the information to ensure appropriate screening strategies in Asians. “This way will enable us to develop these discoveries into tools that can impactfully change outcomes in the community,” said Teo.

UNM’s Vice Provost of Research and Knowledge Exchange, Professor Ir Dr Mohd Shahir Liew welcomed the award saying, “Our commitment at the University of Nottingham Malaysia has always been to advancing research and knowledge exchange, spearheading collaborative initiatives such as with Cancer Research Malaysia, and also fostering interdisciplinary partnerships.”

The highly competitive award is an initiative of the Wellcome Foundation, a UK-based charitable foundation established in 1936, that funds research to support new discoveries in science across various disciplines that aim to improve human life, health and wellbeing.