Olufunmilayo Olapade
October 9, 2007
Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she directs a multi-disciplinary clinical and laboratory research program in cancer genetics. She combines extensive family studies with genetic testing to develop strategies for prevention and/or early detection in patients at high risk for cancer. Dr. Olopade is an international leader in the field of clinical cancer genetics and has published extensively in the area of genetics of cancer predisposition. Her current laboratory research is focused on tumor suppressor genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 that predispose to breast and ovarian cancers. As a hematologist/oncologist, Dr. Olopade specializes in the treatment of aggressive breast cancer that disproportionately affects young women.
After receiving her medical degree with distinction from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, she served as a medical officer at the Nigerian Navy Hospital. Dr. Olopade completed her residency in internal medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, was named Chief Medical Resident, and completed her Hematology/Oncology Fellowship training at the University of Chicago. Appointed to the faculty in 1991, she is currently a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist.
Dr. Olopade is a member of many professional societies, and serves on the Steering Committee of the NCI Cooperative Family Registry for Breast Cancer Studies and the Advisory Committee of the Cancer Genetics Network. She is also a member of the NCI Board of Scientific Counselors. She is a recipient of a coveted John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant.” The award is based on Olopade’s translation of the “molecular genetics of breast cancer in African and African-American women into innovative clinical practices in the United States and abroad.”
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