Alumni couple invest in precision cancer care, trainees
Western law alumni Marlene McGrath and Graham Porter gave $1.3 million to fund a preclinical scanner and trainees in London’s molecular imaging and cancer theranostics program.
Marlene McGrath, LLB’86, and Graham Porter, BA’86, LLB’89, have donated $1.3 million to a joint Western and St. Joseph’s Health Care London initiative in molecular imaging and theranostics, a field that pairs advanced diagnostics with targeted cancer therapies.
The gift buys a tri-modality SPECT/CT/PET scanner at St. Joseph’s Lawson Research Institute. Researchers can use it to track how experimental therapies behave in the body during preclinical work, a step that was missing before clinical trials could proceed. It also created the McGrath Porter Fund for Molecular Imaging and Theranostics Trainees, which will help recruit graduate and postdoctoral scholars to John Ronald’s lab at Schulich.
McGrath retired from 3M as senior vice-president, human resources, in 2018 and chairs Western’s Board of Governors. Porter is a retired Lerners LLP partner and a past chair of the St. Joseph’s hospital board. He has twice been treated for cancer.
On a recent visit to see the scanner, the couple heard researchers describe what they can now do with it.
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