The grant process involves inviting specific scientists to respond to a request for applications (RFA). Once those materials are received they are reviewed by the Medical Advisory Board and the Board of Directors of the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Dr. Heather Cunliffe, previously with Translational Genomics in Phoenix Arizona, received support for two years to pursue molecular characterization of triple negative inflammatory breast cancer. The Milburn Foundation and the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation cooperated in funding this project. Dr. Cunliffe is currently senior lecturer in the department of pathology at Otago Medical School in Dunedin, New Zealand.
The focus of Dr. Cunliffe’s research is the discovery and validation of biomarkers that will impact therapeutic decision-making and improve treatment outcomes for breast cancer and ovarian cancer patients. Current research interests include therapeutic targeting in triple negative breast cancer, defining mechanisms of endocrine resistance, and the molecular underpinnings of inflammatory breast cancer.