Dillard alumna LaTonia Taliaferro Smith is waging a personal war on breast cancer from her research lab. The disease, which is a leading cause of cancer death in women behind lung cancer, has affected 10 women in her husband’s family. Perhaps even more.

Smith’s lab at Emory University is on the front lines of the war against breast cancer, particularly triple negative breast cancer, which disproportionately affects younger women, African-Americans and Hispanics. Each day she comes to work at the lab intent on finding better treatment options — and perhaps, one day, a cure.

Read more about this research in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution here...