Faubert honored at Winter Classic for cancer research

CHICAGO -- Brandon Faubert is a burgeoning star in the science world, but he traces some of his success to lessons learned from his first passion.

Faubert, who grew up in Chatham, Ontario, loved playing hockey as a kid, still does to this day, just not as competitively.

"Hockey has always been a big part of my life," the 38-year-old said. "Growing up in small-town southwestern Ontario, we were playing on the frozen creeks, we were playing on the backyard rinks. We were playing shinny games or in competitive leagues.

"As I have gotten older, its going away from those competitive leagues and moved into those recreational leagues with friends and colleagues throughout my life. It always has been, and remains, a big part of my life."

So is fighting cancer.

He says his laboratory is his rink these days and he sees his fellow cancer researchers as his teammates.

"For better or worse, I describe the lab as a hockey team," said Faubert, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago who holds a doctorate in physiology. "They know that I'm, more or less, the coach and in bringing in different people, different skill sets and different viewpoints and having them work together on a goal, whether that's winning a hockey game or whether that is doing cancer research, is really the same thing. So, that unity and teamwork is very much an ethos of our laboratory."

Faubert, in his 15th year of performing cancer research, heads a team that is on the cutting edge of lung cancer treatment. They are trying to find ways to attack the cancer to make it less lethal.

As the recipient of a 2024 V Scholar Award, a three-year grant that supports tenure-track faculty early in their cancer research careers by funding projects that are either laboratory-based fundamental research or translational research, he has new resources in his research.

The grant is funded by Hockey Fights Cancer, via a donation from AstraZeneca

"Grants like these are critical," Faubert said just hours before he was honored during the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field on Dec. 31. "Especially for getting our ideas out there, getting projects rolling, having funding from foundations like these are crucial for us to be able to do the work we want to do.

"This funds my team. It means they have their salary to do the work every day. That we can get the [materials] we need to test these ideas. That we can put this toward the clinic and having some of those expenses covered."

Faubert's work involves limiting the spread of lung cancer to other areas of the body, one of the things that makes this type of cancer so lethal.

"So, 10 years from now if I can say that this grant allowed us to figure out why this disease spreads and, in figuring out those reasons, helps develop new treatment strategies," he said, "that's something I can go to sleep happy about."

Others are already excited about the work Faubert is doing.

Chicago Blackhawks forward Nick Foligno met the doctor before the New Year's Eve game against the St. Louis Blues.

Foligno lost his mother to breast cancer about 15 years ago.

"It's unfortunately a lot of people's stories," said Foligno, who is a Hockey Fights Cancer Champion. "I appreciate what you are doing to not make it so. I hate that disease so much.

"It's a never-ending battle. It's special to see what you guys are doing. It's incredible. … I want to hear some great things and see your name in the news."

There's a long way to go before that happens. A lot of trial and a lot of error, a whole lot of error.

"Most of science is failure," Faubert said. "You need to figure out what doesn't work so you can build off the things that do. When we have something that seems to be working and we can build on top of that, those are really exciting times.

"As my own team can attest, nine out 10 of my ideas, conservatively, are wrong, but it's that one idea that we can build off of that makes it exciting."

Faubert, who moved to Chicago three years ago, grew up a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, mainly as rebellion against family and friends, who rooted for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings.

The game at Wrigley was his second Winter Classic. He also attended the 2020 game at the Cotton Bowl between the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators while working in Dallas.

He was happy to share it with his partner, Taylor Brown, who he calls his "better half in so many ways." He was happy to get a tour of the stadium and see the Stanley Cup.

His moment in the spotlight wasn't as anticipated, some pre-game jitters manifesting themself, but the doctor understood the importance of being honored.

"It's a little overwhelming," he said, smiling nervously. "We are lab rats. We are happy at our bench doing our research. But it's important to step outside of that and see the community and see that the work we are doing is important to so many patients and having that moment is special and meaningful."

Now he is back at his bench, peering into his microscope, testing hypothesis as the battle against cancer continues.

"It really is a fight against cancer, I like that terminology," he said. "I'm not sure we are ever going to have that knockout punch, but if every day, every week, every month, we can move the needle a little, we can find a way to detect it earlier, we can find a way to make treatments a little less toxic, we can find new treatments to be more effective, cumulatively, over time, those are going to add up to tangible difference for patients."