newsline
Joanne Kotsopoulos Vic 9T9: A Gene Genie
Photographs: (Opposite page) Horst Herget; Margaret Mroziewicz
2015 Distinguished Alumni Award Winner The English word genie is derived from the Latin genius and refers to a kind of spirit guardian. Other nouns associated with the term are protector, caregiver and even angel. Common mythology holds that one’s genie or genius follows a person from the hour of their birth until the day of their death. While Joanne Kotsopoulos, a cancer researcher, is far too modest and self-deprecating to ever describe herself as anyone’s guardian angel, she—along with her research team at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto—is nonetheless doing everything she can to protect the lives of women with a genetic predisposition to a deadly and aggressive disease. Kotsopoulos is a scientist in the Familial Breast Cancer Research Program at the Women’s College Research Institute. She focuses her award-winning research on the prevention and management of hereditary cancer; specifically, some 15,000 women who carry BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations and are at a high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, and who participate in a world-wide study. She is also an associate professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Nutritional Sciences. If you had asked her about her career aspirations when she was an undergraduate student at Victoria College in 1995, however, she would not have suggested clinical research. “At the time, being 19 or so, I was more excited about the social aspect of undergrad life than I was the academic,” she says. Kotsopoulos immersed herself in campus life, first as a resident of Margaret Addison Hall for two years, and next at the then newly renovated Lower Burwash Houses for her final four semesters. She participated as a frosh leader (twice), joined VUSAC and was named secretary-treasurer of the permanent class executive of her 1999 class. She felt at home at Vic, but struggled with which career path to choose after convocation. “I thought about dentistry and medicine, but it wasn’t really what I wanted to do. So, I just started talking to people— to friends and professors—just having conversations with people to find out what they were doing. One of my professors suggested that I try a summer studentship at a U of T lab. I really didn’t know anything about grad school, but then another summer student I met suggested working for her supervisor who was looking to hire graduate students; that experience led me to try more research, which ultimately inspired me to apply to the master’s program at U of T.” Kotsopoulos went on to lead the first studies to evaluate the role of folate, a vitamin essential for normal functioning, in the development of breast cancer. The papers that she published as a master of science student are considered seminal in the field. She graduated in 2002 and left school to work for a year at a drug development company. She looks on that experience as formative because it showed her that she liked the constant challenge and evolution of research.
Under the supervision of Steven Narod, a world leader in breast and ovarian cancer genetics, Kotsopoulos thrived, completing her PhD in 2007. She went on to distinguish herself as a postdoctoral fellow at the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. There, she focused on the roles of diet, lifestyle, hormones and gene-environment interactions in the prevention and cause of breast and ovarian cancers. As the recipient of a Cancer Care Ontario Research Chair in Population Studies, she returned to Toronto in 2009, along with her husband and first child, to accept a position as a scientist at Women’s College Hospital and assistant professor at the University of Toronto. Now, this mother of two boys also supervises numerous students, including at least one Victoria College student, and is involved as a lecturer, a tutor and mentor at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She sits on numerous committees and associations and is the recipient of 24 scholarly awards, to date. Some of her most meaningful work comes from the mentorship she provides to current students. “I’m so grateful for the mentorship that I had—both as a student and beyond. I have benefitted so much from the conversations I had with my mentors, both the advice and the collaboration. I learned so much from my experiences that I love encouraging others to take any opportunity they can to get new skills, meet new people, collaborate . . . just try new things.” Kotsopoulos’ contributions to the advancement of women’s health internationally have distinguished her among her peers, and the Alumni of Victoria College is pleased to honour her with the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award for her achievements.
Distinguished Alumni Award Dinner for Joanne Kotsopoulos Thursday, April 14, Senior Common Room, 6 p.m., cash-bar reception; Private Dining Room, 7 p.m., dinner, $40 per person, register by calling 416-585-4500 or 1-888-262-9775. Register online at my.alumni.utoronto.ca/daa2015.
vic report winter 2016
3