Hello BRIGHT Run Family,
Hope you are doing well.
We endured several days with wildfire smoke and heatwaves in July. We also witnessed many exciting matches in the men’s soccer World Cup over the past two months.
To win a soccer match, a team must score more goals than its opponent, making goal-scoring one of the most critical aspects of the game. As a result, the success of strikers and wingers is often evaluated not only by the number of goals they score but also by the assists they provide that lead directly to goals.
To draw an analogy between soccer and research, research is fundamentally a team endeavour. While leading a successful grant or research project may be viewed as achieving a primary goal by the main researcher (formally, called the principal investigator), providing assistance (as a collaborator or co-investigator) can be seen as supporting fellow researchers in advancing their work.
Both roles are essential to the research enterprise, as they contribute not only to the success and impact of the research itself but also to the growth and development of the researchers involved (see image, generated by Copilot).
As a researcher, I lead grants, projects, and help my colleagues towards accomplishing their research work. I find both rewarding, in terms of the knowledge, progress, and satisfaction. A successful time period in research is marked by both goals and assists.
In my letters to you, I have been sharing about my goals and assists for breast cancer research.
As I reflect more on this, for BRIGHT Run, we as teams and individuals try to meet our own goals while also helping other teams and individuals.
And just like the fact that soccer benefits from a good game, research and patients win when the research is successful.
There are only a few more weeks until the 19th BRIGHT Run!!!
I am eagerly waiting to meet you and to enjoy the beauty of the Christie Lake Conservation Area.
Stay well and take care.
Best,
Ashirbani
Dr. Ashirbani Saha is the first holder of the BRIGHT Run Breast Cancer Learning Health System Chair, a permanent research position established by the BRIGHT Run in partnership with McMaster University.
