The research team of biomedical sciences professor Lisa Porter will receive $30,000 from the Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation and the 2024 Ride for Dad for prostate cancer research.

“Quality research takes time and funding, and it is not possible without significant community effort,” says Dr. Porter, a core principal member of the WE-Spark Health Institute.

“Ride for Dad continues to invest in local research and the impact on improving patient outcomes is incredible.”

These funds will enable Porter’s lab to investigate prevention and treatment of an aggressive form of metastatic prostate cancer called neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC).

“NEPC is resistant to all current therapies, but our lab has found a class of proteins that are elevated in NEPC, and we have exciting evidence to support that these proteins have the potential to drive progression to this drug-resistant form of disease,” says Porter.

“For the one-year project, we’ll test the hypothesis that repurposing drugs capable of blocking these proteins will prevent the progression of disease to NEPC and will be effective primary therapies against this aggressive disease.”

The Windsor Motorcycle Ride for Dad charity has raised over $1.1 million for the fight against prostate cancer. On Sunday, May 26, motorcyclists will tour Essex County to raise money and awareness of the disease.

“The proceeds from our annual events are invested in ground-breaking prostate cancer research and life-saving public awareness campaigns of the disease and the importance of early detection,” says Cori Miles, co-chair of the Windsor Motorcycle Ride for Dad.

The Windsor-Essex ride kicks off Sunday at Thunder Road Harley-Davidson. Registration is from 7 to 9:50 a.m. and kickstands up at 10 a.m. Projects across Canada fund ground-breaking prostate cancer research and life-saving awareness campaigns to benefit the area where the money is raised.