International Research Grant Award 9th February 2009:

As part of our ongoing quest to strengthen our research work in the department, we participated in the GSK ERI global initiative and submitted a research proposal on breast cancer.

Dr. Ben Anderson, Chair of The Expert Steering Committee (ESC) and a team of independent Reviewers reviewed our research application entitled "Epidemiologic, Clinical and Socio-economic Aspects of Breast Cancer in the Ethnic Population of Sarawak, Malaysia".

Subsequently, the Review Committee endorsed that our proposed research project was evaluated and rated as being the most suitable among all applications submitted, both in accordance with the criteria identified in the GSK ERI Guidelines and those further defined by the ESC Review Panel.

In fact, our application was one of the only two which were unconditionally approved by the ESC among the 23 final applications. The ESC review panel comprised of 12 experts in breast cancer genetics, immunology, epidemiology and other basic research disciplines. All of panels are also reviewers for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Komen Foundation and other world renowned research grant programs.

Our research will explore the epidemiologic, clinical, survival and socio-economic profile of the three ethnic groups of Sarawak.