Meet Georgia Chenevix-Trench, the remarkable QIMR Berghofer scientist who has made an enormous difference over her 40-year career to our understanding of the genetics of breast and other cancers, and to helping families impacted by rare hereditary cancer syndromes.
She has travelled far and wide to find and help families and uncover the genetic causes of their rare diseases, like Gorlin syndrome where a patient can develop thousands of basal cell carcinomas, and GAPPS which carries a very high risk of stomach cancer.
One of her proudest achievements has been founding CIMBA, the global consortium that brings together huge patient data sets to enable collaborative research into cancer susceptibility genes like BRCA1 and BRCA2.
She has played a major role in advancing the world’s knowledge about the rare and common inherited genetic variants associated with breast and ovarian cancer and other cancers. QIMR Berghofer scientists continue to make major inroads in this field, helping to guide clinical care, give women greater certainty about their own individual cancer risk, and uncover the complex genetic causes of breast cancer.