Cynthia Mbuya-Bienge Selected as a Trainee Under the STAGE Program.

CANSSI Ontario STAGE is pleased to announce that Dr. Cynthia Mbuya-Bienge has been selected as a CANSSI Ontario STAGE Trainee with her project “Validation and integration of a polygenic risk score into breast cancer prediction models for risk-stratified screening in multi-ethnic populations.” Cynthia is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, where she is conducting research under the supervision of Drs. Jennifer Brooks and Michael Wainberg.

Dr. Mbuya-Bienge’s research background is in population health, epidemiology and genetic risk prediction, with a focus on improving breast cancer screening strategies. Cynthia’s CANSSI Ontario STAGE project aims to validate and integrate polygenic risk scores into breast cancer prediction models to support risk stratified screening in multi ethnic populations. She is a recipient of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Postdoctoral Fellowship, as well as several competitive awards recognizing her contributions to cancer and population health research, including distinctions from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé and the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec – Université Laval.

Breast cancer risk prediction models have the potential to improve early detection and screening efficiency, but many existing models do not adequately account for genetic diversity across populations. Her STAGE project seeks to address this gap by evaluating the performance and integration of polygenic risk scores in diverse populations, with the goal of supporting more equitable and personalized screening approaches.

CANSSI Ontario STAGE is proud to support Cynthia in her research endeavors and looks forward to her contributions in advancing methods for integrating genetic information into prediction models and improving breast cancer risk assessment and prevention across diverse populations through interdisciplinary approaches.