| 1 | Name: | Dr. Olufunmilayo Olopade | |
| Institution: | University of Chicago | ||
| Year Elected: | 2011 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 204. Medicine, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1957 | ||
Olufunmilayo Olopade occupies a unique place in medicine. Born and educated in Nigeria, where she earned her M.D. from the University of Ibadan in 1980, she has been on the faculty of University of Chicago since 1986. She specializes in cancer risk assessment prevention, early detection and treatment of aggressive breast cancer that disproportionately affects young women. Olopade has done pioneering work in genomic analysis of breast cancer, including seminal work in young Nigerian breast cancer patients harboring BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants. This work in comparative genomics has the potential to reduce the burden of cancer and improve health in developing nations. She has been recognized with many honors, including the Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in 2000, a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005, and the 2017 Mendel Medal Lecture at Villanova University. She is a member of a number of scholarly communities, including the American Association for Cancer Research, the Association of American Physicians (2005), the National Academy of Sciences (2008), the Institute of Medicine (2008), and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2010). She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2011. | |||