Dr. Lucy Gilbert

Coming from a family of six sisters that are all physicians, Dr. Lucy Gilbert has always had a passion for helping others through medicine. A Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and the Department of Oncology at McGill University, Dr. Gilbert has led a multi-disciplinary team through years of research and development to create the DOvEEgene (Diagnosing Ovarian and Endometrial Cancers Early), a screening test to help effectively detect over 70 percent of early ovarian and endometrial cancers before symptoms occur.  

Dissatisfied with the sad reality that the cure rate of ovarian and endometrial cancers have not improved in the last 30 years, Dr. Gilbert and her team worked relentlessly to design a genomic uterine pap test that uses AI to analyze cells — creating the only test capable of making the distinction between cancer and non-cancer cells in pre- and post-menopausal women.  The DOvEEgene has the potential to detect the third highest cancer-killer of Canadian women before it’s too late. 

In 2020, Dr. Gilbert was awarded $6.24 million in funding from The Genomics Applications Partnership Program to assist with continued research, making the finalization of the advancement of DOvEEgene that much more of a reality. This test would be the first of its kind to offer such a high level of accuracy when detecting these diseases, and Dr. Gilbert and her team are leading the charge to make the DOvEEgene test a standard requirement in gynecological health.