May 03, 2024
Gut cancer study win’s PM’s Science Prize
A stomach cancer genetic testing programme which has save up to 450 Māori lives over the past three decades has won the Prime Minister’s Science Prize.
The Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer programme was started when geneticists from the University of Otago and Tauranga Hospital clinicians identified a stomach-cancer-causing gene mutation in the McLeod whanau of Ngai Te Rangi and Ngāti Ranginui.
University of Otago academic Karyn Paringatai, whose whānau carry the mutation, says whakapapa connections are at the heart of the project.
“This whole project, right from the beginning, has been about protecting the interests of Māori, of the whānau and really the best example really of how Western science and maths Rangamati can work together and protect the interests of Māori in these spaces,” Dr Paringatai says.