2020 Dorrington Awards Recognize Graduate Research in Rare Diseases, Computer Vision and 3D Cancer Modelling

BENJAMIN KINGSTON (PHOTO BY QIN DAI).“Cancer is such a complicated disease and so different from person to person,” says Kingston. “Even within one person the tumour structure and cell make-up is diverse.”

All this—and the fact that tumours are made from a patient’s own cells— has made it difficult to make treatments that specifically kill cancer without harming healthy tissue.

Four years ago, Kingston joined the group of Warren Chan, Director of the Institute for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and investigator at the Donnelly Centre, to explore tiny nano-scale particles as a means to deliver drugs directly into tumours.