The Breakthrough Generations Study is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken into the causes of breast cancer, investigating environmental, behavioural, hormonal and genetic causes of the disease.
Blood samples for the study are processed at the Breakthrough Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research in Chelsea. Up to 200 blood samples arrive at the laboratory every day and each must be processed as quickly as possible. The laboratory responsible for this is headed by Sarah Chilcott-Burns.
Sarah says: “I feel privileged to be working on the Generations Study because it is a worthwhile project that will help people. It is an innovative study with almost limitless scope for research, which will run for many decades to come.”
Sarah studied Human Biology at university and also has a Masters degree in Applied Haematology. She then spent 20 years working at Imperial College and the Hammersmith Hospital in London where her role was primarily in the transplantation of leukemic patients and breast cancer patients with aphaeretic haemapoetic stem cell therapy. Now she is the manager of the Breakthrough Generations Study Laboratory, and has been instrumental in maintaining its productivity.
“I feel privileged to be working on the Generations Study because it is a worthwhile project that will help people. It is an innovative study with almost limitless scope for research, which will run for many decades to come”
