Dr Gulliver, a lecturer at the faculty of medicine, has accepted an invitation to join about 350 researchers from 31 countries, in the new Canadian-based initiative known as ''the Halifax Project''.
The scientists have joined forces to investigate the complex causes of cancer, and the potential to develop new forms of targeted drug therapies.
She has an Otago PhD in anatomy and is one of two New Zealand scientists involved, the other being Lynnette Ferguson, of Auckland University.
Dr Gulliver was ''extremely excited'' to join this ''bold project'' , with ground-breaking potential for cancer research worldwide.
Although ''remarkable advances'' in medical science had been made, the overall burden of cancer had more than doubled in the past 30 years. It was very easy for researchers to ''work within silos'', without close connections to scientists elsewhere, she said.
The project involves two separate task forces that will hold two international workshops in Halifax, Canada, early next month, one of which Dr Gulliver will attend. One group will explore new drug therapies. She is a member of the other team exploring sustained proliferative signalling.
This team is examining the ability of cancer cells to grow and multiply in an uncontrolled manner that is prevented in normally functioning cells.
Her research interests lie in the suspected role of oestrogen and different forms of oestrogen receptor proteins in initiating ovarian epithelial cancer, a cancer linked to the surface of the ovaries.
Oestrogen had ''positive regulatory effects'' in the body but could also have ''potential carcinogenic effects''.
In the Canadian project, she would examine the evidence for different chemical mixtures in the environment to act as ''oestrogen mimics'', even at very low exposures.
Among the chemical compounds which exhibit hormone-like properties is Bisphenol A (BPA), a man-made, carbon-based synthetic compound.
Resins containing BPA are used as coatings on the inside of many cans of food and beverages.
She was curious to explore whether repeated exposures to such oestrogen-like chemicals over time had a cumulative effect.
Her own research showed the hormone oestrogen itself could accumulate in ovarian tissue.
The release of oestrogen-like chemicals into the environment at very low concentrations ''may be fine in the short term'', but could raise potential concerns in the long term, or ''in combination with other things'', she said.
- john.gibb@odt.co.nz
