Breast cancer research is advancing at an extraordinary pace. From new approaches to predicting risk and detecting cancer earlier to increasingly precise treatments for advanced disease, the opportunities to improve outcomes continue to grow.
But with so many promising directions, an important question remains: Where can the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation—and the philanthropic dollars entrusted to us—make the greatest difference?
Helping answer that question is at the heart of the Lynn Sage Medical Advisory Board (MAB), a group of leading physicians, scientists, and researchers who provide independent scientific and medical expertise to help guide the Foundation’s research investments.
This adds another layer of rigor to how we put donor dollars to work, ensuring the research we support is scientifically strong, responsive to advances in the field, and aligned with our mission to eradicate breast cancer.
Different Expertise. One Shared Mission.
Breast cancer is not one disease, and advancing research and care requires expertise across the entire spectrum—from understanding why cancer develops and identifying who is at risk to detecting it earlier, developing new treatments, and improving outcomes for people living with the disease.
That’s why the Medical Advisory Board intentionally brings together experts with different perspectives:
- Fotis Asimakopoulos, MD, PhD, Rush University, is a hematologist-oncologist and researcher focused on cancer immunology, or how the immune system can be harnessed to fight cancer.
- Lisa Flaum, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, is a medical oncologist who treats people with breast cancer, keeping the board grounded in what patients need most.
- Jun Huang, PhD, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, is a molecular engineer who develops new treatments that train the body’s immune system to fight cancer.
- Jacqueline Sara Jeruss, MD, PhD, University of Michigan Health, is a breast surgeon and researcher whose work bridges patient care and scientific discovery.
- Huiping Liu, MD, PhD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is a cancer researcher who studies how breast cancer spreads through the bloodstream and how to stop it.
- Georgia G. Spear, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, is a breast radiologist who leads imaging at the Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Center, with a focus on finding breast cancer earlier.
- Athanassios Vassilopoulos, PhD, is a cancer researcher at AbbVie, who brings an industry view of how scientific discoveries become new treatments.
Together, these different vantage points help Lynn Sage look at breast cancer research more holistically. A promising idea can be considered not only for its scientific merit, but also in the context of what is happening across the field and where new investment could help move progress forward.
From Lynn Sage Scholars to Lynn Sage Advisors
For several members of the Medical Advisory Board, the connection to Lynn Sage is also personal.
Dr. Jun Huang, Dr. Jacqueline Jeruss, Dr. Huiping Liu, and Dr. Athanassios Vassilopoulos, have each received research funding from Lynn Sage earlier in their careers. They understand firsthand what it means to have philanthropic support behind an idea at a stage when a researcher may not yet have the evidence needed to compete for larger, more traditional sources of breast cancer funding.
That perspective is especially valuable when considering Scholar proposals. They know what an early investment can make possible: the opportunity to test an idea, generate critical data, establish a body of work, and build toward the next stage of research.
Dr. Liu’s work offers one example of that impact. Her Lynn Sage-funded research has contributed to numerous discoveries and scientific publications and helped lead to additional funding to advance her work. She has also founded Exomira, a company working to translate her research toward the clinic, with the goal of developing new approaches that simultaneously target tumor cells at their root and strengthen a patient’s immune response.
Today, they bring that experience back to Lynn Sage in a new way: helping evaluate and guide investments in researchers who may be at a similar pivotal moment in their own careers.
It’s a powerful cycle: researchers once supported by Lynn Sage are now helping Lynn Sage identify and support the ideas and investigators that could shape what comes next. Their experience is also a reminder that who Lynn Sage invests in can be just as important as what we fund—because giving a promising researcher the opportunity to pursue an idea can create impact that extends far beyond the initial grant.
Looking Ahead: Where the MAB Sees Opportunity?
The Medical Advisory Board (MAB) also helps Lynn Sage look beyond individual grants to the larger breast cancer research landscape.
In September, members came together for Lynn Sage’s first State of Breast Cancer Conversation focused on the future of breast cancer research: Where are the most promising opportunities emerging? Where do significant unmet needs remain? And where can philanthropic funding play a particularly meaningful role?
A few themes emerged:
- Where philanthropy can matter most. Government and industry funding tend to favor research close to market, leaving room for Lynn Sage to make an outsized difference in areas like risk assessment, prevention, and rarer forms of breast cancer.
- Developments to watch. These include advances in breast imaging, AI that predicts future risk from mammograms, blood tests that track cancer earlier, and genetic profiling that matches patients to the right treatments.
- Putting unmet need front and center. The MAB’s top recommendation is to ask every 2027 Scholar Grants applicant how their project addresses an unmet need in breast cancer research or care.
These conversations aren’t about choosing one part of breast cancer research at the expense of another. They’re about being intentional: understanding where science is moving, identifying gaps and opportunities, and directing Lynn Sage’s support where it’s needed most. Lynn Sage will use these insights to shape the 2027 Scholar Grants, which open this winter.
Your Support, Guided by Expertise
When you invest in Lynn Sage, you’re entrusting us to put your support behind research with the potential to meaningfully advance breast cancer detection, treatment, and care.
The Medical Advisory Board helps us honor that responsibility.
By bringing independent scientific expertise into research selection, ongoing stewardship, and long-term strategy, the Medical Advisory Board helps Lynn Sage make thoughtful, informed decisions about the work we fund today, and the opportunities we pursue tomorrow.
Because advancing breast cancer research requires more than funding promising science.
It requires asking the right questions, bringing the right experts to the table, and being intentional about where philanthropic dollars can make the greatest difference.
Learn more about the 2027 Scholar Grants and support the next generation of Lynn Sage Scholars.