Simone Badal McCreath | |
---|---|
Born | Simone Ann Marie Badal |
Nationality | Jamaican |
Alma mater | University of the West Indies |
Known for | cell line research |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Cancer research |
Simone Ann Marie Badal McCreath is a cancer research er and a medical sciences lecturer known for the creation of the first ever prostate and breast cancer cells lines that were derived from Black people. [1]
The daughter of a shop keeper, Badal McCreath’s mother left the family when she was young; and her step-mother and she did not get along. Badal McCreath’s science education was deterred by a lack of teachers in her local school and it was only when she reached University that she decided to be a researcher. Badal McCreath grew up in a poor community where no one in her family had ever attended college. [2]
While attending The University of the West Indies, Badal McCreath decided not to practice medicine but to build a career in research. [2] "There was this one professor who taught biochemistry," she says. "I remember falling in love with biochemistry right then and there." Badal McCreath was chosen among 25 scientists worldwide for the inaugural "Rising Scholars: Breast Cancer Program". She led a team at The University of the West Indies (UWI) in creating the first cancer cell line from the Caribbean in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The intent was to create more cancer cell lines for black people in the fight against prostate and breast cancer. [3]
On February 15, 2014, Badal McCreath, along with four other women chemists from across the world, was awarded the Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World. The winning researchers represented five regions of the developing world from Indonesia, Jamaica, Nigeria, Uzbekistan and Yemen. [4] [5]
The Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) sector in Jamaica is guided by two primary institutions, the National Commission on Science and Technology (NCST) and the Scientific Research Council (SRC). Both are under the direction of the Ministry of Science, Energy, and Technology.
The Institute of Cancer Research is a public research institute and a member institution of the University of London in London, United Kingdom, specialising in oncology. It was founded in 1909 as a research department of the Royal Marsden Hospital and joined the University of London in 2003. It has been responsible for a number of breakthrough discoveries, including that the basic cause of cancer is damage to DNA.
The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands. Each country is either a member of the Commonwealth of Nations or a British Overseas Territory.
Hyperplasia, or hypergenesis, is an enlargement of an organ or tissue caused by an increase in the amount of organic tissue that results from cell proliferation. It may lead to the gross enlargement of an organ, and the term is sometimes confused with benign neoplasia or benign tumor.
Charles Brenton Huggins was a Canadian-American surgeon and physiologist known for his work on prostate function, prostate cancer, and breast cancer. Born in Halifax in 1901, Huggins moved to the United States for medical school. He was one of the founding staff members of the University of Chicago Medical School, where he remained for the duration of his professional research career. Huggins' work on how sex hormones influence prostate function ultimately led to his discovery of hormone therapies to treat prostate cancer. For this finding, he was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. In addition to his work on prostate cancer, Huggins explored the relationship between hormones and breast cancer, developed an animal model for breast cancer, and developed "chromogenic substrate"s that are widely used for biochemical analyses. Huggins continued to perform research into his 90s; he died in Chicago in 1997.
Marie Maynard Daly was an American biochemist. She was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Columbia University and the first African-American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. Daly made important contributions in four areas of research: the chemistry of histones, protein synthesis, the relationships between cholesterol and hypertension, and creatine's uptake by muscle cells.
Biomedical sciences are a set of sciences applying portions of natural science or formal science, or both, to develop knowledge, interventions, or technology that are of use in healthcare or public health. Such disciplines as medical microbiology, clinical virology, clinical epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and biomedical engineering are medical sciences. In explaining physiological mechanisms operating in pathological processes, however, pathophysiology can be regarded as basic science.
McCreath is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Violet Eudine Barriteau,FB, GCM, is a professor of gender and public policy, as well as Principal of the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill. She was also the president of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) from 2009 to 2010, and she is on the advisory editorial boards of Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International, published by SUNY Press, and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, published by University of Chicago Press.
Sarah Spiegel is professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). In the mid-1990s she discovered the sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) molecule, a lipid which has been identified as a signaler for the spread of cancer, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease. Her research continues to focus on S1P.
Dr. Radhika Nair is an Indian cancer biology researcher. She currently serves as the Ramanujan Faculty Fellow at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, in Trivandrum, India, and Senior Research Officer at Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She specializes in understanding the cell intrinsic mechanisms that allow tumor cells to survive, go dormant and then thrive, specifically in breast cancer.
Sheila Dorothy King, CD was a Barbadian-born, Jamaican academic and physician. She was the second woman to be appointed as full professor at the University of the West Indies (UWI). She was the first woman appointed as a professor in the Faculty of Medicine in 1983, ten years after she was appointed as head of UWI's Microbiology Department. A specialist in infectious disease and viral epidemiology, she advised numerous national, regional and international departments and governmental agencies on such diseases as dengue, influenza, and typhoid. In 1998, she was honored as a Commander of the Order of Distinction.
The OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World are awarded annually to early-career women scientists in selected developing countries in four regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Central and South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Bridget Jones was a British literary academic who pioneered the inclusion of Caribbean literature in European university studies programs. While teaching French literature at the University of the West Indies, Jones developed an interest in French Caribbean writing and developed one of the first PhD curricula focused on francophone Caribbean literature. Upon returning to England, she taught at the University of Reading and the Roehampton Institute. An annual award, distributed by the Society for Caribbean Studies, as well as a scholarship program, given by the University of the West Indies, are named in her honour.
Juliet M Daniel is a Barbadian-born Canadian biology professor at McMaster University, where her research focuses on cancer biology. Daniel is recognized in the cancer biology field for the discovery and naming of the gene Kaiso, and is the recipient of several prestigious awards in recognition of her research and leadership, including an Ontario Premier Research Excellence Award and a Vice-Chancellor Award from the University of the West Indies.
Helen Nosakhare Asemota is a biochemist and agricultural biotechnologist based in Jamaica. She is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Director of the Biotechnology Centre at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. Her research develops biotechnology strategies for production and improvement of tropical tuber crops. She is notable for leading large international biotechnology collaborations, as well as for acting as an international biotechnology consultant for the United Nations (UN).
Dr. Henry Isaac Clore Lowe OJ OD is a Jamaican scientist, philanthropist and businessperson. His career began in academia where he worked at College of Art, Science, and Technology (CAST) for 16 years, before entering public life by joining the Ministry of Energy. He now owns and manages a variety of businesses in the health industry.
Victoria Sanz Moreno is a Spanish scientist. She is professor of cancer cell and metastasis biology at The Institute of Cancer Research.
Kathleen Cecile Maria Coard is a Grenadian anatomic pathologist and academic, known for her research on cardiovascular diseases, prostate cancer, and soft tissue tumors. She is the first female professor of pathology in the Caribbean and has been recognized for her role in advancing health in Jamaica and the Caribbean.