Silvia Balbo, Ph.D., Masonic Scholar and member of the environmental health sciences faculty, is dedicated to understanding how environmental and lifestyle exposures contribute to the development of cancer.
With support from the Masons, she is developing high-powered analytical methods to assess the impact of these exposures and the damage they cause to DNA. After leading studies in both animals and people, she hopes to find specific biomarkers that researchers and clinicians can use to both better understand the origin of cancer and detect it early enough to intervene in its progression.
“Thanks to Masonic funding, we can focus on understanding how cancer forms so that we can prevent it from happening in the first place."