Hawaiʻi Community Foundation funds College of Pharmacy faculty to study breast cancer

An assistant professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo was awarded a grant from the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation for breast cancer research.

Dr. Linda Connelly was awarded $50,000 from the Robert C. Perry Fund to study “The role of endogenous osteoprotegerin expression in breast cancer metastasis.”

Connelly’s research focus is on the molecular basis of primary tumor growth and metastasis, primarily in breast cancer, including investigating the role of macrophages and inflammatory signaling molecules in tumor progression.

She received her bachelor’s degree with honors, first class, in biochemistry with work placement from the University of Glasgow in the UK and her Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London, UK. She also worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medical and Molecular Pharmacology, UCLA and the Department of Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

She teaches in the Pathophysiology course in the College of Pharmacy, and is the course coordinator for the Pre-Pharmacy program courses.