Rebecca Auer

Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, The Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa

Dr. Rebecca Auer is the Scientific Director for the Cancer Therapeutics Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She is a Surgical Oncologist specializing in Colorectal Cancer Surgery and Retroperitoneal Sarcomas at The Ottawa Hospital and a Professor in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Auer completed her BSc at the University of Toronto, where she was awarded the prize for the highest marks among female graduates. She then completed medical school at Queen's University where she received the Gold Medal for the highest standing in medicine. She finished her residency in General Surgery with a concurrent MSc in Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa. Following this Dr. Auer completed her Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Dr. Auer returned to the University of Ottawa in 2008.

Dr. Auer holds a Tier 1 Clinical Research Chair in Perioperative Cancer Therapeutics and leads a translational research program focuses on understanding the promotion of metastatic disease in the perioperative period, following surgical stress. She had defined a mediating role for Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells and effector Natural Killer and T cells in the cancer recurrence and the development of postoperative metastases. Using surgically relevant preclinical animal models, Dr. Auer has identified candidate immunotherapies capable of counteracting the effects of surgery. Dr. Auer has led four translational clinical trials of perioperative cancer therapies based on this preclinical research. She has authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications and received over $6 million dollars in per-reviewed funding to support her work.

Dr. Auer is an international leader in surgical oncology and translational research in surgery. She currently serves as the Chair of Rectal Disease Oncology Group for the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and the Canadian representative to the NIH US Anal and Rectal Oncology Task Force. She is also on the executive of the Society of Surgical Oncology and the Canadian representative on the Global Forum for Cancer Surgeons. Dr. Auer also serves as the Chair of the Research Committee for the Canadian Association of General Surgeons and the Canadian Society of Surgical Oncology.

Sylvain Bédard

Sylvain Bédard a entendu pour la première fois le mot transplantation en 1980 lorsqu'il a reçu un diagnostic de cardiomyopathie hypertrophique, une maladie cardiaque qui venait de tuer sa sœur de 18 ans. Sylvain devra lutter et survivre grâce à de nouvelles approche en saté en santé pendant 20 ans avant de recevoir le don de la vie. Transplanté cardiaque en 2000, en décembre 2004, il devient le premier greffé cardiaque de l'histoire à escalader plus de 6000m en Bolivie, sur le Mont Sajama , accompagné de son cardiologue. En 2018 Sylvain devra subir une deuxième greffe cardiaque après une attente de 4 ans. Depuis 2016, Sylvain est patient partenaire au CEPPP (Centre d'Excellence sur le Partenariat avec les Patients et le Public) , Coordonnateur patient et membre du Conseil exécutif au CDTRP (Programme Canadien de Recherche en Donation et Transplantation), membre du comité exécutif de la Société d’insuffisance cardiaque du Québec, co chercheur sur des projets d’essais cliniques, de science fondamental et des projets d’amélioration des soins, il collabore aussi à des projets en santé numérique et d’innovations en santé ; avec Inforoute, il est aussi membre du Comité tactique de l'Intelligence augmenté du CHUM.

Sylvain Bedard first heard the word transplant in 1980 when he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart disease that had just killed his 18-year-old sister. During 20 years Sylvain will struggle and survive with new approaches to health before receiving the gift of life. After receiving a heart transplant in 2000, in December 2004, he became the first heart transplant recipient in history to climb over 6000m in Bolivia, on Mount Sajama, accompanied by his cardiologist. In 2018 Sylvain will have to undergo a second heart transplant after a 4-year wait. Since 2016, Sylvain is a patient partner at the CEPPP (Centre of Excellence on Partnership with Patients and the Public), Patient Coordinator and member of the Executive Council at the CDTRP (Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program), member of the Executive Committee of the Quebec Heart Failure Society, co-investigator on clinical trials, basic science and care improvement projects, he also collaborates on digital health and health innovation projects; with Infoway, Health Excellence Canada, Bio banque data sharing and +++, he is also a member of the CHUM Augmented Intelligence Tactical Committee.

John Bell

Scientific Director, BioCanRx; Senior Scientist, The Ottawa Hospital; Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology; University of Ottawa

Dr. John Bell is a world-renowned thought leader in oncolytic virus research and development. In addition to his many academic contributions to the field, Dr. Bell established a GMP manufacturing program that has produced clinical grade oncolytic viruses for worldwide use in phase I and II clinical trials. Dr. Bell co-founded and was the Chief Scientific Officer of Jennerex Biotherapeutics, which was acquired by SillaJen. Dr. Bell also co-founded Turnstone LP, an enterprise linking four Canadian research institutes to drive the clinical and commercial development of a proprietary next-generation oncolytic vaccine platform. Dr. Bell is a Senior Scientist with The Ottawa Hospital and Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa. He heads the Canadian Oncolytic Virus Consortium, a Terry Fox funded group that is developing virus based cancer therapeutics and is the Director of the Biotherapeutics Program for the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. He is the Scientific Director of BioCanRx, Canada’s Immunotherapy Network, and a Network Of Centres of Excellence. Dr. Bell is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Gisell Castillo

Gisell is a clinical research coordinator working with Dr. Justin Presseau. She obtained her Masters of Arts in Social Psychology from Carleton University. She has experience working with various qualitative research methods, participatory approaches, program evaluation, and community-based research. She currently supports various health psychology and behavioural science projects that aim to identify and address barriers and enablers to clinical trial interventions.

Anirban Das, MD

Pediatric Neuro-Oncologist and Cancer Geneticist, SickKids, Toronto

Dr. Das is a pediatric neuro-oncologist and cancer geneticist co-leading the International Replication Repair Deficiency Consortium (IRRDC) at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and is a member of the clinician-scientist program at the Brain Tumor Research Center at SickKids. His research focuses on understanding the biology of RRD glial and embryonal tumors and identifying novel immune, targeted and combinatorial therapeutic vulnerabilities. He will be talking on the consortium's registry trial using immune checkpoint inhibition for recurrent hypermutant RRD glioblastoma (Nature Medicine 2021, in press) and the novel translational insights gained from multi-omics analyses on these aggressive and increasingly recognized CNS tumors.

Jean-Simon Diallo

Senior Scientist, Ottawa Hospital; Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa; CEO, Virica Biotech

Dr. Jean-Simon Diallo (Ph.D) is a Scientist with broad expertise in biochemistry, molecular biology, cancer therapeutics, and viral immunology. He is an internationally recognized expert in oncolytic virotherapy and was seminal in the discovery of the Viral Sensitizer technology as well as in its development for virus manufacturing and cancer therapy applications in combination with oncolytic viruses. Since 2012, Dr. Diallo has been a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He is also co-founder and CEO of Virica Biotech.

Michel Duval

Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Université de Montréal
Head of the CHU Sainte-Justine Department of Hemato-Oncology

Michel Duval is a pediatrician and hematologist-oncologist, specializing in hematopoietic transplantation and holds a Master's degree in immunology. Trained in Paris, he joined CHU Sainte-Justine in 2001. For 10 years, he was the medical director of the Hematopoietic Transplant and Cell Therapy Program at the Charles-Bruneau Cancer Centre at CHU Sainte-Justine. He is a full clinical professor at the Université de Montréal.

For more than 20 years, his research work has focused on immunotherapy for childhood cancers, more specifically on the exploitation of innate immunity after transplantation: Natural Killer (NK) cells and their natural activators, dendritic plasmacytoid cells. A translational researcher, he has published both laboratory and clinical research. He is Director of the Laboratoire de Recherche sur la Greffe de Sang de Cordon de Cordon at the Centre Charles-Bruneau, supported by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Santé, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, C17, the Fondation Charles-Bruneau, BioCanRx and the Oncopole LeadAction Fund. He is part of a team of clinical researchers who are developing clinical trials of immunotherapy for childhood cancer, focusing on hematopoietic transplantation.

The difficult situations faced by his patients and their families have motivated him to pursue a second field of research and teaching: ethics and palliative care. He is a professor at the Master's Degree in Clinical Ethics at the Université de Montréal, a member of the Palliative Care Consultation Unit and the Clinical Ethics Unit at CHU Sainte-Justine.

Dr. Duval heads the Hemato-Oncology Department at CHU Sainte-Justine. He is the author of more than 100 scientific articles and a reference book on transplant decision support for families, recently translated into English, with the support of Cell Therapy Transplant Canada.

Dean Fergusson

Senior Scientist/Director, Clinical Epidemiology Program
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Full Professor, University of Ottawa

Dr. Fergusson is a Senior Scientist & Director, Clinical Epidemiology Program, at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He is also a Full Professor, Departments of Medicine, Surgery, & of the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa. Dr. Fergusson holds the position of Endowed Chair, OHRI/uOttawa, Clinical Epidemiology Program.

He holds a PhD (Honours) in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from McGill University and a Masters of Health Administration from the University of Ottawa. Dr. Fergusson's clinical research interests are mainly in the field of transfusion medicine with a focus on transfusion alternatives and the effectiveness of blood products. His research interests also extend to the methodology and ethics of clinical trials and systematic reviews. Dr. Fergusson is also the co-lead of the Rethinking Clinical Trials (REaCT) Program which performs practical patient-focused research that ensures that patients receive optimal, safe, cost effective treatment. It includes the pragmatic evaluation of standard, usual care interventions using efficient informed consent, efficient routinely collected electronic administrative and clinical data, and immediate implementation of findings into routine TOH practice. Dr. Fergusson is a principal investigator on a number of large, peer-reviewed clinical trials in transfusion medicine including “Blood Conservation Using Antifibrinolytics: Randomized Trial in High-Risk Cardiac Surgery (BART)”, Age of Red Blood Cells in Premature Infants (ARIPI), “Age of Blood Evaluation (ABLE)”. Dr. Fergusson has contributed over 450 articles, abstracts, and book chapters to medical literature.

Madison Foster, MSc

Madison Foster is a Clinical Research Assistant in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She completed her Master of Science in Epidemiology at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa. Her current research projects with the BLUEPRINT Translational Research Group focus on patient engagement in early phase clinical trials and basic science (where patients and caregivers are engaged as collaborators or partners in the research projects).

Elena Godbout, PhD

Senior Research Associate
Jean-Simon Diallo Research Lab
Cancer Therapeutics
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Elena Godbout is a Senior Research Associate in Ottawa Hospital. Elena received her PhD from the University of Freiburg, Germany, where she researched on connective tissue disorders. She completed her postdoctoral training at University of Toronto, in regenerative medicine and fibrosis. She researched on small molecule therapeutics for blood cancers using mass-spectrometry approaches at York University. Her current work is focused on industrial applications of viral sensitizers including development of viral sensitizers formulation for assisted viral medicines and analytical assay development.

Terry Hawrysh

Terry Hawrysh is a cancer survivor and advocate for a healthcare system that consistently delivers superior patient outcomes. Trained as a professional engineer, he also dedicates himself to health care initiatives that incorporate and find relevance in the views of patients with lived experience. Terry is a patient advocate and volunteer with the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of Canada and has contributed as a patient partner / advisor to a wide range of programs funded by government authorities, research institutions and charitable organizations. Recently, he has been active as a patient partner engaged in the development of an early phase CAR T clinical trial program centered at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Kevin Hay MD MSc FRCPC, Clinician Scientist

Terry Fox Laboratory & Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplant Program of BC
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Director, Clinical Cellular Therapy Laboratory, BC Cancer
Medical Director, Conconi Family Immunotherapy Laboratory, BC Cancer

Dr. Kevin Hay is a Clinician Scientist at the Terry Fox Laboratory and Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplant Program of BC in Vancouver. Dr. Hay received a Master of Science in Immunology at the University of Manitoba (2008), followed by an MD (2011). After completing residency in Internal Medicine (2014) and a clinical fellowship in Haematology (2016) at the University of British Columbia, he was awarded a scholarship through the Clinician Investigator Program of UBC to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship in cellular immunotherapy which he completed at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle Washington under the mentorship of Dr. Cameron Turtle. Dr. Hay's research focuses on understanding the unique toxicities associated with Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cells, as well as the development of novel CAR T-cell therapies. He is Director of the BC Cancer Clinical Cellular Therapy Laboratory where he oversees the processing of cells for hematopoietic cell transplantation. He also serves as Medical Director of the Conconi Family Immunotherapy Laboratory, a facility in British Columbia dedicated to the manufacturing of cellular immunotherapies, and is a Principal Investigator on a Phase I/II trial in Canada using CD19 CAR T-cells for the treatment of B-cell malignancies.

Carolina Ilkow, PhD

Dr. Carolina Ilkow is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina where she obtained her Bachelor's degree in Science. After working for two year in outreach projects aiming to address the unmet health care needs of the Indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest, Carolina decided to move to Edmonton, Canada to continue her graduate studies at the University of Alberta. Carolina obtained her PhD in cell biology and virology under the supervisor of Dr. Tom Hobman, after which she joined Dr. John Bell's lab as a post-doctoral fellow. Carolina's work in the Bell lab aimed at developing novel and tailored virotherapies to fight Pancreatic cancer.

In 2016, Carolina was recruited as a Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and an Assistant Professor in the department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa. Her research is focused on developing novel biotherapeutics for cancer treatment. Carolina is also committed to educate the next generation of scientists and to address the critical need of High Qualified Personnel in the rapidly growing field of biomanufacturing in Canada. Carolina is a member of both the High Qualified personnel training committee for BioCanRx and the Canadian Partnership for Research in Immunotherapy Manufacturing Excellence (CanPRIME) program.

Jessica Irvine, HITS, B.Sc., RAQC

Jessica completed a Graduate Certificate in Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs and Quality Operations at Seneca College and received a B.Sc. in Microbiology from the University of Guelph. Her education and experience in the pharmaceutical industry provides her with a solid foundation of pharmaceutical quality systems and regulatory requirements. She applies this knowledge daily to implement and maintain the quality system in HITS.

Sabine Ivison

Research Associate, University of British Columbia
Clinical R&D Lead, Levings Lab, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute

Sabine Ivison is a senior scientist in Megan Levings’ lab. Her PhD was in phytopathology at the University of Muenster, Germany and she has been at the University of British Columbia ever since. Her post-doctoral positions have taken her through infectious disease and cancer immunotherapy to engineered immune tolerance in Megan’s lab. Projects she is currently leading include one to bring thymus-derived Tregs to their inaugural clinical trial and another to standardize various common assays in human immunology.

Natasha Kekre, BSc, MD, MPH, FRCPC

Associate Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Hematologist, Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, The Ottawa Hospital
Assistant Professor University of Ottawa

Dr. Natasha Kekre has been appointed to the Department of Medicine in the Division of Hematology, within the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at The Ottawa Hospital, effective October 2015. She is also an associate scientist within the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa. She completed her Bachelor's in Science at the University of Windsor then obtained her medical degree from the University of Ottawa. She then trained at the University of Ottawa in Internal Medicine and Hematology. She went on to do a fellowship in stem cell transplantation at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA with a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University.

Her research is focused on developing early phase clinical trials and moving home grown therapeutic strategies into patients. She collaborates with a number of local investigators and scientists in Ottawa, studying hematologic malignancies and blood and marrow transplant recipients more specifically. Her laboratory research focuses on oncolytic virus infected cell vaccine therapy in leukemia. She is also collaborating with scientists and physicians across Canada to build a Canadian CAR T-cell platform (chimeric antigen receptor T cells are immune cells engineered to kill cancer cells), bringing this exciting new therapy to Canadian patients. Her other clinical research interests include improving transplant related outcomes and projects with an epidemiologic focus, including but not limited to decision modeling and meta-analyses.

She also participates with a number of cooperative groups in North America including the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, the Canadian Blood and Marrow Transplant Group, the American Society of Hematology and the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Parvathy Raman Krishnan

Patient Advocate Partner, Founder of Krishnan Family Foundation

Parvathy Krishnan is CEO and Founder at the Krishnan Family Foundation, a 501(c)(3) healthcare advocacy organization. She began her efforts in advocacy and awareness after both her children were with multiple ultra and nano rare genetic conditions. Parvathy is an accomplished speaker and has spoken at various conferences, workshops and events engaging various stakeholders across the Rare Disease Landscape. Parvathy is passionate about empowering others through advocacy, patient-family engagement, and collaborating with various stakeholders to bridge the gap.

Parvathy serves on advisory councils as a leader across various institutions and organizations around the world. She is a Subject Matter Expert on patient and family centered care, surgical oncology family experiences, palliative/complex care and nano rare clinical trial patient experiences. Parvathy also serves as a Community Congress member providing insights on urgent policy initiatives.

Aly-Khan Lalani

Assistant Professor, Oncology, McMaster University

Dr. Lalani is an Assistant Professor at McMaster University and a Medical Oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre. After completing Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology training, he was awarded the TD Insurance Meloche Monnex & Alberta Medical Association Scholarship. Thereafter, he pursued a Fellowship in Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, mentored by Dr. Toni Choueiri. He has also completed the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is a member of the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute. His academic interests include clinical trial design and translational work for genitourinary malignancies.

Manoj Lalu

Associate Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
The University of Ottawa

My group is interested in optimizing preclinical to clinical translation - i.e. "bench-to-bedside". At the bench we believe this can be accomplished by improving methodological rigour and promoting transparent reporting. Moving to the bedside we believe that interdisciplinary teams, including patients and other stakeholders, will help prevent failures and improve efficiency of translation.

We are particularly interested in cell therapies (e.g. mesenchymal stem cells, chimeric antigen receptor T-cells) that may be useful for cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Marie-France Langlet

In 2004, Marie-France Langlet's nine-year-old son, Lucas DiTecco, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine (CHUSJ), where he would go through several chemotherapy treatments. Unfortunately, chemotherapy would not be sufficient to keep him in remission. He would then receive a bone marrow transplant in 2005. From the beginning and throughout the hospitalizations and follow-up process, Mrs. Langlet and her husband were actively involved in the treatment, in close partnership with the healthcare practitioners. All along, she also felt the need to help other parents who shared her struggles as they fought for their child's return to health and happiness.

Since her son's complete recovery in 2013, Mrs. Langlet has been an active participant in numerous initiatives concerning patient partnership at the CHUSJ, particularly within the oncology department. She has also been a member of the CHUSJ Patients' Committee from 2014 to 2017 and on the CHUSJ Board of directors in 2017. Since 2018, she leads the Bureau du Partenariat Patients-Familles-Soignants (Patient-Family-Caregiver Partnership Office) of the CHU Sainte-Justine. Along with the Direction collaboration et partenariat patient (DCPP), the Centre d'excellence en partenariat avec les patients et le public (CEPPP) and the Université de Montréal, she has also been involved in various educational projects on healthcare partnership that target both the general population and the community of healthcare professionals.

Her son's exceptional courage and determination have been her greatest source of inspiration. Over the years, she has attempted to celebrate him through her involvement, paying forward and lending her support to those who have dedicated their lives to caring for our children. Mrs. Langlet has a creative spirit, the will to act, and an extensive management experience in large organizations enabling her to devote her strength and personal beliefs to her cause.

Megan Levings

Professor, Department of Surgery and School of Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia
Canada Research Chair in Engineered Immune Tolerance
Lead, Childhood Diseases Theme, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute

Dr. Megan Levings is a Professor in the Department of Surgery and School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia and BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Her lab studies how a special kind of white blood cell, known as a T regulatory cell, could be used as a cellular therapy to stop harmful immune responses. She is internationally recognized in the field of human immunology and leads a vibrant group of trainees and staff who are researching how to use T regulatory cells to replace conventional immunosuppression in the context of transplantation and autoimmunity. She has won numerous awards, including the Canadian Society for Immunology Investigator Award, YWCA Woman of Distinction, Science, Research & Technology and Simon Fraser University Outstanding Alumni award.

Deborah Maskens

Deborah Maskens, is a kidney cancer patient and patient advocate. Along with another patient, she Co-Founded Kidney Cancer Canada in 2016 and played an active leadership role for 10 years. During this time she focused on advocacy, health technology assessment, patient support and navigation.

Most recently, Deb served as a Patient Advocate on the NCI Renal Task Force and as Co-Lead of the CanCertainty Coalition campaign of 35 cancer organizations advocating for health policy change (CanCertainty.ca). Previous roles include 10 years as a Founding Member and Vice Chair of the International Kidney Cancer Coalition (IKCC).

In 2016, Deb was awarded the Canadian Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal, Canada’s highest award for her dedication and professionalism in patient advocacy and volunteer service.

Deb is a frequent speaker at national and international cancer meetings where she provides the patient voice perspective, along with sound advocacy knowledge and experience.

Donna McCarty

Donna McCarty is a clinical research professional with over 20 years of experience within the clinical trials environment, working both in the academic setting and within industry.

Donna currently holds the position of Clinical Research Manager within the Ontario Clinical Oncology Group (OCOG), an academic-based clinical trials development and coordination organization, located within the Department of Oncology, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON. OCOG works with clinician investigators to design, conduct, analyze and publish clinical trials with a focus primarily on cancer research, and a secondary interest in venous thrombosis research. Donna’s portfolio includes oversight of Phase I, II, and III clinical trials with participation from clinical sites located across multiple countries.

Donna is involved with research program development for the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute (ECRI), a joint partnership between McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, located in Hamilton, ON, that focuses on research through a collaborative process that involves clinician experts from the Juravinksi Cancer Centre Disease Site Teams and ECRI Scientists.

Donna was a member of the program development team and is a current Instructor for the Applied Clinical Research program offered through McMaster University Centre for Continuing Education, affiliated with the Faculty of Health Sciences. Donna received the Educational Innovator Award from McMaster CCE in 2019.

Donna is a member of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP). Donna is involved with a number of research organizations including the Network of Networks (N2), Canadian Cancer Research Alliance, Initiative to Streamline Clinical Trials (ISCT).

Scott McComb, PhD

Research Officer, Cancer Immunology, Human Health Therapeutics, National Research Council Canada
Adjunct Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa

My lab is focused on understanding how design drives function for synthetic immunotherapies like chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapies, multi-specific immune cell engaging antibodies, and genome-edited cellular immunotherapies. Within the National Research Council Cell and Gene Therapy program, we are working with researchers across the country to push the development of next-generation cell and gene therapies, and accelerate their translation into clinical trials in Canada. Our lab has technical expertise in high-throughput mammalian cell assays, flow cytometry, plasmid libraries, lentiviral gene transfer, xenograft cancer models, CRISPR-gene editing, and synthetic biology. Through applying these advanced technologies we hope to help accelerate the transition to cost-effective and accessible cell and gene therapy in Canada.

Joshua Montroy

Joshua Montroy is a Clinical Research Associate in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Associate. He holds a master's degree in epidemiology, where he trained under Drs. Rodney Breau, Brian Hutton, and Dean Fergusson, with a focus in knowledge synthesis methods in the field of transfusion research. He is currently the project manager for the BLUEPRINT Translational Research Group, where he leads a number of knowledge synthesis and meta-research projects aimed at accelerating and optimizing the ‘bench-to-bedside' translation of novel therapies.

Judy Needham

Judy is a breast cancer survivor and is retired from a corporate marketing career as Director of Campaign Planning. She chose early retirement after her journey with breast cancer and began volunteer work with the Board of Director for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in British Columbia, where she spearheaded major fundraising initiatives and led development of patient-facing decision making material for newly diagnosed patients. Her work led to invitations for volunteer roles with CCS and CCSRI grant panels and Scientific Advisory Councils.

Judy has been instrumental in advancing patient engagement in research in Canada. She was the first Canadian recipient of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance's Award for Exceptional Leadership in Patient Involvement in Cancer Research in 2017. She has been a member of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) since 2012 where as chair of the Patient Representative Committee, she led and implemented the redesign of the CCTG Patient Representative role. She is also a member of the Strategic Executive Advisory Council and the Clinical Trials Committee. In parallel she is a member of the Patient Representative Advisory and Portfolio Committees with 3CTN and is assisting other organizations in implementing their patient engagement frameworks.

Judy stays engaged locally as a member of the BC Cancer Provincial Research Advisory Committee, and her local Abbotsford Cancer Centre. She is currently a patient representative on the IC.8 Trial Team with CCTG.

Brad Nelson, PhD

Distinguished Scientist and Director, Deeley Research Centre
Scientific Co-director, Immunotherapy Program, BC Cancer, Victoria BC, Canada

Dr. Nelson is a native of Vancouver BC. He received his B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia in 1987 and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. He completed postdoctoral training with Dr. Phil Greenberg and held faculty positions at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington in Seattle. In 2003, he became the founding Director of BC Cancer's Deeley Research Centre in Victoria BC. He is a Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia and a Professor of Biochemistry/Microbiology at the University of Victoria. Dr. Nelson's lab uses genomic and molecular approaches to study the immune response to cancer. As Scientific Co-director of BC Cancer's Immunotherapy Program, he is leading a phase I clinical trials program focused on CAR T-cell therapy for lymphoid cancers and novel T cell engineering strategies for gynecological cancers and other malignancies. Dr. Nelson is CEO and co-founder of Innovakine Therapeutics, which is using innovative protein and cell engineering approaches to improve the efficacy and safety of cell-based therapies.

Chris O'Callaghan

Canadian Cancer Trials Group Senior Investigator

Dr. O'Callaghan received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and MSc and PhD degrees in Epidemiology from the University of Guelph, based on work conducted on the epidemiology of infections of livestock while a Medical Research Council of Canada Fellow at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. He continued his research and training in infectious diseases epidemiology as a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. In 2001 he joined the Canadian Cancer Trials Group where he continues to oversee the Gastrointestinal and Brain Site Committees as Senior Investigator. He is also a Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences. His research interests are diverse and include clinical trials design and methodology and infectious disease epidemiology.

Sandy Pelletier

Scientific Coordinator of the Adoptive Cell Transfer (ACT) Immunotherapy Program, CHUM

Dr Sandy Pelletier is the Scientific Coordinator of the Adoptive Cell Transfer (ACT) Immunotherapy Program at the Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM) since 2016. She works under the supervision of Drs Simon Turcotte and Réjean Lapointe to develop new clinical trials focussing on tumor infiltrating lymphocyte ACT to treat metastatic cancers. She has been instrumental in the establishment of cGMP manufacturing of these cell products. Prior to this Dr Pelletier was a research associate in Dr Turcotte’s laboratory specializing in translational tumor immunology. She obtained her PhD in Immunology in 2013 and her MSc in Biomedical Sciences in 2007 both from the Université de Montréal.

Nicolas Poirier

Nicolas Poirier is researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center under Dr. Michel Duval. He is currently completing a master's degree in immunology in affiliation with the University of Montreal. He is primarily focused on immunotherapy for childhood cancer research. For the past two years, he has been working with Dr. Duval's team to design a treatment for childhood leukemia based on one key concept : Natural Killer (NK) cells and their innate activators, plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC). With his findings, he hopes to be a helping hand in paving the way toward better clinical outcome for children suffering from hematological cancers.

Justin Presseau

Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Associate Professor, University of Ottawa

Dr. Presseau is a Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Associate Professor in the School of Epidemiology & Public Health and School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. He leads the Psychology and Health Research Group (PaHRG) and is a core faculty member of the Centre for Implementation Research at the Ottawa Hospital. He holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Aberdeen (UK). His research program operates at the intersection between health psychology and implementation science, focusing on developing and evaluate interventions to support changing healthcare professional behaviours and health behaviours of patients and the public.

Uri Tabori, MD

Paediatric Oncologist & Senior Scientist, SickKids

Dr. Uri Tabori is a pediatric neuro-oncologist and staff scientists at the Hospital for Sick Children. His research on inherited syndromes has presented a critical opportunity to learn more about the interaction between germline and somatic tumour events, as it relates to cancer development and vulnerabilities. Tabori has focused his efforts on Replication Repair Deficiency (RRD), a pan-cancer mechanism responsible for up to 20% of all tumours. Through the establishment of the International Replication Repair Deficiency Consortium (IRRDC) and biobank, which encompass leading physicians and scientists from more than 50 countries, Tabori’s efforts have enabled discoveries on (1) The treatment of hypermutant & RRD Cancers including novel immune-based therapies and combinations (2) Novel diagnostic tools or the diagnosis of RRD in tumours and germline and (3) Prevention of disease with early detection and surveillance.

Jennifer Quizi

Director, Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Operations, BioCanRx; Director, Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Centre - Virus Manufacturing Facility, The Ottawa Hospital

Dr. Jennifer Quizi is Director of Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Operations at BioCanRx, and Director of the Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Centre - Virus Manufacturing Facility at the Ottawa Hospital. Previously within BioCanRx, Dr. Quizi held the position of Director of Scientific Affairs, where she managed the portfolio of scientific programs funded by the organization, and engineered strategic partnerships to further the BioCanRx mandate. Prior to BioCanRx, Dr. Quizi was the Senior Clinical Research Program Manager for the laboratory of Dr. John Bell at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. In this role she was key in driving a number of large, multi-institutional translational research initiatives forward to the clinic. She also championed the establishment of a first-of-its kind training program that continues to this day to provide trainees with hands-on training in GMP manufacturing. Dr. Quizi has a number of years of experience with manufacturing biologics in her role as Operations Manager for the Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Centre in Ottawa, where they specialize in the production of therapeutic viruses for clinical use. Prior to this, she held the position of Clinical Research Scientist for a pre-clinical SME in the cancer space. Dr. Quizi holds a PhD in cellular and molecular medicine from the University of Ottawa.

Julian Smazynski, PhD Candidate, BCCA

Julian Smazynski, is a PhD Candidate at the BC Cancer Deeley Research Centre. Julian completed his BSc (Hons) in microbiology at the University of Victoria in the lab of Dr. Julian Lum, where he then transferred to the lab of Dr. Brad Nelson to pursue a PhD in Cancer Immunotherapy. His main research interest centres on the exclusion of immune infiltration in “cold” tumor microenvironments and designing novel cell engineering strategies to enhance immunotherapy against solid cancers. For his PhD thesis, Julian has found that the checkpoint TIGIT ligand, CD155 (Polio virus receptor), is over-expressed in ovarian cancer, especially those that are resistant to T cell infiltration. This work has led to the development of a novel genetic engineering strategy to convert the TIGIT/CD155 pathway from an inhibitory ‘off switch' to a co-stimulatory ‘on switch', thereby super-charging the T cell response against ovarian cancer. He is also involved in several projects focused on designing combinatorial approaches aimed at bridging oncolytic virus and cell based strategies.

Abera Surendran

The main focus of my PhD work is focused on how the tumour microenvironment impacts responses to oncolytic virus therapy; however, I also have the great pleasure of contributing to the myriad of diverse projects in the Ilkow & Bell labs, including the exciting work we're doing in generating an engineered biovesicle platform.

Michael Surette

Michael Surette (PhD) is Professor and Canada Research Chair Interdisciplinary Microbiome Research in the Department of Medicine and Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2018). Dr. Surette’s research addresses the human microbiome of the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts in health and disease. The lab is focused on developing high throughput culturing and phenotyping methods to investigate infectious disease and the microbiome, applying and improving next-generation sequencing approaches to characterize the microbiome, and how the microbiome changes with age. Dr. Surette e is also Director of the Farncombe Genomics Facility.

Anand Swaminath

Dr. Swaminath is a clinician scientist and radiation oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton. His clinical and research interests are in the application of new technologies in radiation therapy, specifically stereotactic radiation for a wide variety of indications including kidney, lung and liver cancer. He has a particular interest in radiation for kidney cancer - he is a member of the International Radiation Oncology Consortium of Kidney (IROCK) group, the CKCIS steering committee, and the medical advisory board for Kidney Cancer Canada. He is also a co-PI on several local and national trials evaluating SBRT in both the primary and metastatic RCC setting.

Kednapa Thavorn

Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Assistant Professor, University of Ottawa

Dr. Thavorn is a Scientist and a Scientific Lead of the Health Economics Unit at the Ottawa Methods Centre at the OHRI. She received her bachelor's in Pharmacy from Chiang Mai University and master's degrees in Pharmacy from Naresuan University, Thailand. She earned a doctoral degree in Health Services Research from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), University of Toronto. She completed post-doctoral fellowship programs in Applied Pharmacoeconomics from the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital and Health Services Research from IHPME, University of Toronto.

Lindsay Thompson

Lindsay Thompson, a former pediatric infectious disease nurse, was diagnosed with acute myelocytic leukemia in August 2007 and received a bone marrow transplant which saved her life but left her with severe acute and then chronic graft vs. host disease. Her previous experience in the medical field, which included working with patients on clinical trials, combined with her first-hand knowledge of the devastating impact that graft vs. host disease can have on the mental, physical and financial well-being of a cancer survivor makes her a perfect patient partner and storyteller. She has been an active participant in patient organizations and disease networks (CDTRP, CTTC) for several years.

Simon Turcotte

Université de Montréal, Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM)

Dr. Turcotte is a young Canadian surgeon-scientist with bench-to-bedside expertise in solid cancer immunology and immunotherapy. After his general surgery training and a Masters in cancer immunology at Université de Montréal, he completed post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute and at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, focusing on metastatic gastrointestinal cancer immune recognition. During those years, he established that endogenous T cells could recognize antigens derived from somatic mutations in gastrointestinal cancers refractory to chemotherapy, and that these reactive T cells could mediate cancer regression after adoptive T cell transfer to patients.

Since 2013, he is an assistant professor at the Université de Montréal, works as an hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) surgical oncologist and full scientist at the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM). His laboratory focuses on identifying new types of tumour antigens and therapeutically actionable immune checkpoints in colorectal cancer liver metastases. He co-leads the launch of the CHUM adoptive T cell cancer immunotherapy program. He has set-up and leads the CHUM HPB Cancer Prospective Clinical Database and Tissue Repository, to which more than 2000 patients have contributed thus far. He holds a Clinician-Scientist Research Scholarship from the Fond de recherche-santé Québec. In 2017, he was nominated the Université de Montréal Roger Des Groseillers Research Chair in HBP surgical oncology and received an Innovator Award from the Canadian Association of General Surgeons.

Eva Villalba

Eva Villalba is the Executive Director of the Quebec Cancer Coalition, a non-profit patient advocacy group dedicated to improving the Quebec health-care system for people affected by cancer. Since 2008, she has been involved in health-care charities, advocacy groups and non-profits. She graduated from McGill University with double majors in Psychology and Applied Linguistics, then completed an MBA from HEC Montréal in order to apply best business practices to the non-profit sector. She is currently completing an MSc. in Health Care Transformation at the UT Austin - Value Institute for Health & Care with the goal of sharing Value-Based Health Care (VBHC) expertise in Quebec and Canada. Eva is passionate about good governance, government relations, public policy, community impact, health-care transformation and social innovation.

Mackenzie Wilson

Mackenzie is a clinical research assistant in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Mackenzie obtained her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Guelph. Her interests span topics in human health and behaviour, and she is passionate about health equity and high-quality care. Leveraging her experience in qualitative research methods and stakeholder engagement, Mackenzie is working with Dr. Presseau and Dr. Thavorn to involve key stakeholders in the conduct of an early economic evaluation with the aim to advance such inclusive methodologies in future similar studies.