Gray Foundation backs Technion-led AI scan to catch ovarian cancer earlier

A research team led by Prof. Moti Freiman of the Technion's Faculty of Biomedical Engineering has won a Gray Foundation Team Science grant to develop an artificial intelligence-powered MRI test for the early detection of ovarian cancer, the Technion announced on 15 July 2026. The project is one of several chosen in the foundation's latest $35 million funding round for research into preventing, intercepting and detecting cancers linked to inherited BRCA mutations. With this round, the foundation said its commitments to BRCA research had reached $235 million.

Ovarian cancer is one of the deadliest gynaecological cancers because it is usually found only after it has spread. Women who carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations face a much higher lifetime risk, and many are advised to have their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed as a precaution. The surgery can save lives but is irreversible and brings early menopause, a heavy price for younger women. The researchers want to give doctors and patients a more precise way to judge risk before that decision is made.

The team has developed an MRI protocol that detects raised iron levels in the fallopian tubes, an early marker linked to high-grade serous ovarian cancer, the most common and aggressive type. At the Technion's May-Blum-Dahl Human MRI Research Center, scans of healthy volunteers will be analysed with AI algorithms from Freiman's lab that can pick out imaging biomarkers invisible to conventional analysis. Partners at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Dr. Karthik Sundaram and Prof. Dylan Tisdall, are scanning surgically removed ovaries on a rare high-field 7 Tesla machine, and the joint aim is to show that the same information can be obtained on the 3 Tesla scanners found in ordinary hospitals. A University of Chicago team led by Dr. Milica Medved and Dr. Kathryn Mills will help design affordable screening strategies.

The Gray Foundation was created by Blackstone president Jon Gray and his wife, Mindy, and funds multidisciplinary research on BRCA-associated breast, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancers.