Dr.George was born and raised in Dominica and moved to Canada, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Honors from Laurentian University and later her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics (with sub-specialization in Developmental Biology) from the University of Toronto.
Dr.George’s first post-doctoral training (at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center, within the Ontario Cancer Institute) focused on molecular pathology and her second post-doc (at Duke University) focused on hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC). Dr.George has been a part of the faculty at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine since 2015. The George Lab studies the pathogenesis of sporadic and hereditary breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancers. The lab uses molecular genetics, epigenetics, and transcriptomics to study the disease pathogenesis and overall outcomes of women diagnosed with these diseases. The Lab also looks very closely at DNA damage response (homologous recombination deficiency) and the enzymes and pathways responsible for sensing xenobiotics in women’s cancers.
Given that Black women with breast and ovarian cancers have inferior outcomes when compared to women of other racial groups, and understanding that there is a void in the research when it comes to studying Black women’s cancers, one of the main goals of Dr.George’s research has been to understand why Black women are prone to getting more aggressive cancer sub-types and how/why their responses to treatment differ from those of non-Black women. Dr.George is currently part of a multi-disciplinary team who studies the incidence of HBOC mutations in Afro-Caribbean nationals. She is also a co-Leader of the women’s cancer working group in the African Caribbean Cancer Consortium (AC3) and co-Principal Investigator of the Transatlantic Gynecologic Cancer Consortium (TAGCRec).
It is her hope that by better understanding the biology of cancer initiation and pathogenesis in Black women, we will be able to craft superior strategies for cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment optimization.