Doctoral student Wejdan Alenezi proposes new genes to predict ovarian cancer risk

Wejdan Alenezi, a doctoral candidate in human genetics at McGill University and trainee at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), was awarded second place for her oral presentation at the tenth annual Canadian Conference on Ovarian Cancer Research, held May 27-29 in Ottawa, Ontario. She presented unpublished data proposing new genes to predict the risk of ovarian cancer in an abstract titled “Genetic analyses of diverse DNA repair pathway genes identified new candidate ovarian cancer risk genes.”

Supervised by Patricia Tonin, PhD, senior scientist in the Cancer Research Program at the RI-MUHC, Wejdan Alenezi is studying the germline of families who have at least two close relatives with ovarian cancer. Working with a unique population of French Canadians who exhibit genetic drift, she analyzes the genes involved in various DNA repair pathways. The new candidate genes were revealed through whole exome sequencing and bioinformatics analyses.

Congratulations, Wejdan!