Congratulations to Dr. Rachel Murphy, BC Cancer Senior Scientist and UBC Associate Professor, on her appointment as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Precision Public Health Nutrition.
Cancer prevention recommendations often offer broad nutrition recommendations for the population. However, people differ in their biology, health needs and ability to put those recommendations into practice.
Dr. Murphy’s work advances a vision of precision public health nutrition that brings together biological differences and the social and environmental conditions that shape what people eat. Her research aims to help cancer prevention efforts reach the populations most likely to benefit, while addressing barriers to healthy eating.
Her leadership of the HEAL, CHARM and UPFront studies put this approach into practice.
Together, these connected studies move from understanding dietary patterns and the conditions that shape them to identifying how diet may affect health - and where prevention efforts could have the greatest benefit.
Through this work, Dr. Murphy is also supporting the next generation of researchers and creating opportunities to translate findings into more precise and equitable approaches to nutrition and cancer prevention.
“Beyond their immediate research goals, these studies are building a rich data resource that trainees and researchers can use to explore new questions, deepen our understanding of why diet affects people differently, and advance precision public health approaches to reduce the burden of cancer on Canadians,” says Dr. Murphy.
To learn more about precision nutrition research at BC Cancer, visit the BC Cancer Foundation’s Precision Nutrition page.