PRECISION ONCOLOGY CONGRESS

Assistant Professor, Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Oncology
University of Calgary
Director, Tumour Biology and Translational Research, Ohlson Research Initiative
Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute
Calgary, AB

Dr. Pinaki Bose completed his Ph.D. with Dr. Karl Riabowol at the University of Calgary, investigating the role of the ING1 tumour suppressor protein in DNA damage signaling and apoptosis. After completing his Ph.D., Pinaki joined the Ohlson Research Initiative (ORI) as a postdoctoral fellow and trained in the molecular epidemiology of head and neck cancers under the supervision of Drs. Joseph Dort and Nigel Brockton. As part of a second postdoctoral fellowship, Pinaki trained at the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA) Genome Sciences Centre in cancer genomics and bioinformatics under one of the leading bioinformaticians in the world, Dr. Steven Jones. Pinaki was also a member of the personalized oncogenomics (POG) program at BC Cancer. The POG initiative administers genome-guided targeted therapies to recurrent/metastatic cancer patients.

Dr. Bose currently directs the translational research program within the ORI, a multidisciplinary head and neck cancer research initiative. The Bose lab investigates the biology of head and neck, brain and lung cancers focusing on the role of the immune system in carcinogenesis and progression.

Dr. Sylvan Baca is a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Baca received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School. He trained in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and completed his fellowship in Medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Baca received his post-doctoral training in cancer epigenetics with Dr. Matthew Freedman at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. He is on faculty at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a Physician and Translational Investigator. In addition to caring for patients, he conducts research at the interface of computational biology and epigenomics to find better ways to treat cancer.

Dr. Ali Bashashati is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Pathology and School of Biomedical Engineering at UBC and Director of Artificial Intelligence and Bioinformatics Research in the Ovarian Cancer Research Program. Dr. Bashashati’s research area lies at the interface between computational, engineering and biomedical sciences. He is interested in developing machine-learning algorithms to combine various sources of imaging, digital pathology and ‘omics data in the context of cancer. Dr. Bashashati aims to improve pathology efficiency, identify new biomarkers for treatment selection and derive biological insights for various health conditions with a major emphasis on cancer. He has published extensively in cancer genomics, bioinformatics and computational biology and his papers have appeared in top-tier journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics and Nature Medicine.

Jonathan Bramson, PhD, is the Vice Dean, Research for the Faculty of Health Sciences and a Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University.  He holds the John Bienenstock Chair in Molecular Medicine.  His research is focused on the use of cells as drugs.  Specifically, his lab is developing methods to manufacture white blood cell “drugs” that attack cancer.  To optimize the anti-tumor activity of these white blood cell drugs, his research team is using a combination of genetic engineering, synthetic biology and chemical biology approaches to re-wire relevant signaling pathways within white blood cells to bolster their anti-tumour potency.

Ross Camidge, MD PhD

Director of Thoracic Oncology,
Joyce Zeff Chair in Lung Cancer Research
University of Colorado Cancer Centre
Denver, USA

Following a PhD in Molecular Biology at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University, UK, Dr. Camidge completed his medical training at Oxford University, UK. He then became the first person to double train in Medical Oncology and Clinical Pharmacology in the UK, before joining the University of Colorado, USA from October 2005.

Dr. Camidge’s main clinical and research interests are thoracic malignancies and developmental therapeutics. The discoveries he and his team have made have changed the standard of care for the treatment of lung cancer multiple times. He has authored over 300 academic publications, including in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Lancet Oncology, and New England Journal of Medicine. He has received numerous awards including, in 2012, the Bonnie J. Addario International Lectureship Award for which he was credited as a ‘Luminary in the quest to eradicate lung cancer’. In 2013 he became the first physician to receive the Hank Baskett Sr. Spirit Award, for which he was credited as being ‘one of the leading minds in lung cancer today’. In 2014, he was nationally recognized by The Quality of Life Center at Claremont University in California as an ‘Exemplary mentor in the positive development of junior colleagues in the profession’. In 2016, the Lung Cancer Foundation presented him with the Breath Away From The Cure Award describing him as ‘Simply one of the best in treating lung cancer today’.

Every year since 2017, he has been internationally recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher ranked in the top 1% of all of Clinical Medicine by Clarivate Analytics Web of Science. Every year from 2019 he has ranked at the ‘World Expert’ level by Expertscape for scholars writing about Lung Neoplasms over the past 10 years. He is also the National Medical Director of the Academic Thoracic Oncology Medical Investigators Consortium (ATOMIC) – a collaborative network of 15 US and Canadian sites conducting trials in thoracic oncology, Co-chair of the Elsevier ClinPath (formerly VIA) Oncology Lung Cancer Pathways Committee and a past-member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Lung Cancer Committee.

Jennifer Chan, MD

Director, Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
University of Calgary
Calgary, AB

Dr. Jennifer Chan is the Director of the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute at the University of Calgary and the Consortium Leader of the Prairie Cancer Research Consortium in the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network. As a pathologist-scientist and research leader, Dr. Chan’s ability to traverse between the lab and the clinic has enabled her to bring together investigators from across the cancer research continuum. She has led, co-led, and contributed to projects to discover new genes and therapeutic targets in a range of cancers (with a particular emphasis on brain tumours) through her expertise in tissue histopathologic and molecular analysis, biologic correlates of clinical studies, biobanking, and patient-derived model generation. She currently directs the Clark Smith Tumour Bank at the University of Calgary, is the principal investigator of the Alberta Cancer Research Biobank, serves on Canadian Tumour Repository’s College of Advisors, and is a member of the Correlative Sciences and Tumour Biology Committee of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group. Previously, she was the Pathology Leader at the Broad Institute’s Biological Samples Platform. Dr. Chan earned a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Dartmouth College, an MD from McGill University, and completed her clinical training in Anatomic Pathology and Neuropathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Boston. She completed her research training at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Winson Y. Cheung, MD, MPH, FRCPC

Professor, Departments of Medicine and Oncology
University of Calgary
Director, Oncology Outcomes (O2) Program
Charbonneau Cancer Institute
Calgary, AB

Dr. Winson Y. Cheung, MD, MPH, is a senior medical oncologist and real-world data scientist with over 15 years of cancer research experience. He is currently a Full Professor in the Departments of Oncology, Medicine, and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary where he is also the Provincial Director and Chair of the Health Services Research and Real-World Evidence (RWE) Generation Program. Dr. Cheung’s main research interest is health outcomes research and RWE generation across all cancer types, including solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. He has cultivated strong and effective partnerships with public and private sectors. He is the Principal Director of the Oncology Outcomes (O2) Program that focuses on enriching data sources and leveraging new technologies to facilitate “fit-for-purpose” cancer RWE generation. His track record consists of over 150 invited presentations and over 300 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts in the RWE space. He has received over 15M in competitive grant funding. He acts as a sounding board for projects using cancer data and serves as a preferred point of first contact for oncology RWE queries.

Todd Hollon, MD

Assistant Professor, Neurological Surgery
Affiliate Assistant Professor, Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics
Affiliate Assistant Professor, Michigan Institute for Data Science
Ann Arbor, MI

Dr. Todd Hollon is a neurosurgeon specializing in the treatment of brain tumors. He grew up in Ionia, MI and attended the University of Michigan for his undergraduate degree. He then earned his Doctor of Medicine from Ohio State University, graduating with High Honors. He went on to complete a seven-year residency in Neurological Surgery at the University of Michigan. Dr. Hollon completed a clinical fellowship specializing in skull base neurosurgery at the University of Utah under the training of Dr. William Couldwell.

Dr. Hollon’s clinical interests include the diagnosis and treatment of skull base and malignant brain tumors, including pituitary adenomas, meningiomas, and gliomas. He is trained in both open and endoscopic neurosurgical techniques. Dr. Hollon is committed to providing comprehensive oncologic care and improving the overall quality-of-life of his patients.

Dr. Hollon is the principal investigator of the Machine Learning in Neurosurgery Laboratory (MLiNS) at Michigan Medicine. His research includes the use of computer science and artificial intelligence to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients with brain tumors. Currently, his work focuses on using advanced intraoperative imaging methods to improve the speed and accuracy of tumor diagnosis and detection of tumor margins. Dr. Hollon has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Neuro-Oncology, Cancer Research, Journal of Neurosurgery, and Neurosurgery.

Don Morris MD, PhD, FRCPC

Facility Medical Director, Tom Baker Cancer Centre, AHS
Department Head, Clinical Department of Oncology, Calgary Zone, AHS
Medical Lead, Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre, AHS
Associate Senior Medical Director, CancerControl Alberta, AHS
Professor and Head, Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
Calgary, AB

Dr. Morris received his PhD in 1990 at Queen’s University in Immunology and obtained his MD in 1992 at the University of Calgary. He is currently Professor and Head of Oncology, University of Calgary; Clinical Department Head of Oncology, Calgary Zone; Facility Medical Director of the Tom Baker Cancer Centre; Medical Lead, Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre and Associate Senior Medical Director of CancerControl Alberta.

Dr. Morris’ clinical areas of interest involve both thoracic and musculoskeletal tumour sites. His research interests include precision medicine implementation, development of novel cancer therapeutics including oncolytic viruses and immunotherapeutics. His work has been funded by the National Cancer Institute of Canada (CCSRI/CCS), Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, Alberta Cancer Board, Alberta Innovates Health Solutions and the Alberta Cancer Foundation. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications and abstracts. Has over 10 scientific patents and has sat on many boards including Biotech startups and the Canadian Cancer Society, Cancer Research Society and Alberta Cancer Foundation.

In the winter he is an avid alpine skier including CAT and Heli-skiing and in the summer he can be found fly fishing in one of Alberta’s many productive trout streams.

Kim Nguyen Chi, MD FRCPC

Medical Oncologist
Chief Medical Officer
BC Cancer
Vancouver, BC

Kim Chi is a medical oncologist and the Chief Medical Officer of BC Cancer, which provides a comprehensive cancer control program for the people of British Columbia (BC), in Canada. He is also Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, and the Shrum Chair in Prostate Cancer Research at BC Cancer.

Prof. Chi’s research in the field of genitourinary cancers focuses on prostate cancer and investigational new drugs, where he has contributed to changing international standards of care practice for patients with advanced prostate cancer.  He also has been investigating circulating tumour DNA as a source of prognostic and predictive biomarkers for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Prof. Chi is the past-Chair of the Genitourinary Disease Site Committee for the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and has held peer-reviewed grant funding from the Canada Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC)/Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), the US Department of Defence, Movember, Prostate Cancer Foundation (USA), and Prostate Cancer Canada.

Prof. Chi has published over 250 articles in prestigious peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Lancet Oncology.

Kevin Hay, MD MSc FRCPC

Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Calgary
Associate Scientist, Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer Research Institute
Affiliate Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Medical Director, Conconi Family Immunotherapy Laboratory, BC Cancer
Calgary, AB

Dr. Kevin Hay is a Clinician Scientist at the University of Calgary and Charbonneau Cancer Institute. 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 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle Washington under the mentorship of Dr. Cameron Turtle. In 2019 he then took a position with Leukemia/BMT Program of BC and UBC, before moving to Calgary in 2023. He continues to serve as Medical Director of the Conconi Family Immunotherapy Laboratory, a facility in Victoria, British Columbia dedicated to the manufacturing of cellular immunotherapies, and maintains a research laboratory at the BC Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Hay’s research focuses on the clinical translation and pre-clinical development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells.

Steven J.M. Jones, Professor, FRSC, FCAHS 

Co-Director and Head, Bioinformatics, Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer
Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia
Canada Research Chair in Computational Genomics, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Jones gained his PhD at the Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK in 1999, where he was involved in the C. elegans genome project. Currently, he is Head of Bioinformatics and Co-Director of the Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer in Vancouver. Dr. Jones has played a role in numerous other genome projects, including that of the human, mouse, rat, bovine, fruitfly and the SARS coronavirus.

Dr. Jones’s research focus is the computational analysis of DNA sequence and the analysis of genomic and transcriptomic data. He has applied next-generation DNA sequencing technology to determine the mutations and rearrangements driving many tumour types. A key goal is to develop bioinformatic approaches to predict the most efficacious therapies from the genetic analysis of patient tumour samples to help guide clinical decision-making.

Amongst Dr. Jones’s many and varied honours and awards, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada as well as the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In 2014 and again in 2016, he was named by Thomson Reuters as one of the world’s most influential researchers being in the top 1% of cited scientists. In 2018, 2019, and 2020 Dr. Jones was recognized as one of the most highly cited scientific researchers and named one of the world’s most influential scientific minds by Clarivate Analytics. In June 2019 Dr. Jones was named Canada Research Chair in Computational Genomics at the University of British Columbia.

He has been invited to give over 160 presentations, nationally and internationally, is an author on over 525 peer-reviewed publications (Google Scholar h-index 149) and is Principal Investigator and co-applicant on grants that have totalled over $615 million to date.

Staff Scientist, Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre
BC Cancer Research Center
Vancouver, BC

I present clearly, connect broadly, spark imagination and encourage enthusiasm for inquiry. I create visuals with analytical clarity and artistic dimensions. In 1999 I built the Genome Sciences Centre’s first computing systems, and later invented port knocking, and optimized keyboard layouts that spawned a Brazilian fashion line. I have an affinity for parody and tragedy. I love rabbit holes. I created Circos (a community standard) and hive plots (a farewell to hairballs). I am triggered by slipshod visualizations of science and pie charts. My information graphics have appeared in the New York Times, Wired and on covers books and scientific journals such as Science, Nature, and PNAS. I am a co-author of the Nature Methods Points of Significance and Points of View columns. I contribute to Scientific American’s Graphic Science and teach how to design scientific figures and scientific posters. My method is critique by redesign. I’ve made maps of nothings in the Universe, shot fashion photography, and found poems in spam. Every year I make Pi Day art, which can be graphics, words or music. I made a music video about infinity, I love typography, and run Hitchmas. I am a former owner of Alex, the world’s most popular rat.

Assistant Professor, School of Computing Science
University of Glasgow
Scotland, UK

Jake Lever is a lecturer (assistant professor) in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow focused on biomedical applications of machine learning and natural language processing. His research focuses on mining the biomedical literature and extracting complex biomedical knowledge for applications including precision medicine and drug discovery. He gained his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver focusing on NLP applications to cancer and completed his postdoctoral research at Stanford University.

Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Toronto, ON

 Dr. Liu graduated sum laude from the University of Toronto medicine program, followed by residencies at the University of Toronto and a fellowship at the Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center in Boston. He was Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School before returning in 2006 to the Ontario Cancer Institute–Princess Margaret Hospital. Dr. Liu’s major research focus is in molecular prognostic factors and pharmacogenomics of lung and esophageal cancer, with additional interest in head and neck, pancreatic, ovarian and testicular cancers, mesothelioma and thymoma. Trained in clinical and molecular epidemiology, he is the principal investigator of over two dozen completed, ongoing and upcoming cancer pharmacogenomic and molecular epidemiologic analyses of cancer observational studies and clinical trials funded by the National Cancer Institute (US), National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group, Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute, the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research, Cancer Care Ontario, Doris Duke Foundation and the Lung Cancer Foundation of America. He has research interests in epidemiological outcomes database methods, novel analyses of high dimensionality biologically rich data, pharmacogenomic analyses of conventional and molecularly targeted agents using primary human xenograft models, patient-reported outcomes in pharmacogenomics, and knowledge translation of personalized medicine and pharmacogenomic algorithms into clinical practice.

Robert W Woodruff Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Departments of Pathology, Biomedical Informatics, and Radiology and Imaging Sciences
Emory University
Atlanta, GA

Dr. Anant Madabhushi is the Robert W Woodruff Professor of Biomedical Engineering; and on faculty in the Departments of Pathology, Biomedical Informatics, and Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University. He is also a Research Career Scientist at the Atlanta Veterans Administration Medical Center. Dr. Madabhushi has authored more than 475 peer-reviewed publications and more than 100 patents either issued or pending in the areas of artificial intelligence, radiomics, medical image analysis, computer-aided diagnosis, and computer vision.

He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). In 2015, he was named by Crain’s Cleveland Business as one of “Forty under 40” making positive impact to business in Northeast Ohio. In 2017, he received the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) award for technical achievements in computational imaging and digital pathology. His work on “Smart Imaging Computers for Identifying lung cancer patients who need chemotherapy” was called out by Prevention Magazine as one of the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2018. In 2019, Nature Magazine hailed him as one of 5 scientists developing “offbeat and innovative approaches for cancer research”. In 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 Dr. Madabhushi was named to The Pathologist’s Power List of 100 inspirational and influential professionals in pathology.

Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infectious Disease
Associate Director of the Charbonneau Cancer Institute
Scientific Director of the Alberta Cellular Therapy and Immune Oncology Initiative
Calgary, AB

Dr. Mahoney is a translational scientist at Cumming School of Medicine in the University of Calgary with 20+ years of experience studying human health and disease. Over the past 15 years, his research has made important contributions to the development of numerous cancer immunotherapies that have been commercialized and/or tested in human clinical trials. Currently his lab is focused on engineering “designer cells and viruses” to treat various forms of cancer in children, adolescents, and adults. Dr. Mahoney is the founder and Scientific Director of a research initiative called ACTION (Alberta Cellular Therapy and Immune Oncology), which seeks to develop innovative next generation engineered immune cell therapies and deliver them to cancer patients in Alberta and beyond. Outside the lab, Doug spends his time with his wife and three children, mostly enjoying the Alberta/BC wilderness.

Shannon L. Maude, MD PhD

Associate Professor of Pediatrics,
Cancer Immunotherapy Program, Division of Oncology
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Dr. Shannon Maude is an oncologist in the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. After earning her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Virginia, Dr. Maude received her M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and completed her residency in pediatrics as well as a fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Maude developed the Cancer Immunotherapy and BMT Fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and currently serves as a Medical Director in the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania and leads clinical trials of engineered T cell therapies for childhood cancers. Dr. Maude has a special interest in novel therapies for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, particularly targeted therapy approaches and engineered T cell therapy.

Professor, Department Of Physiology & Pharmacology
Killam Memorial Chair
Director, IMC Germ-free Program
Cumming School of Medicine
University of Calgary
Calgary, AB

Dr. Kathy McCoy is a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Cumming School of Medicine, member of the Snyder Institute, Scientific Director of the International Microbiome Center, and holds the Killam Memorial Chair at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her research group uses germ-free and gnotobiotic models to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the microbiome regulates host immunity and physiology. She is particularly interested in the dynamic interplay between the gut microbiota and the innate and adaptive immune systems. Her research aims to understand how exposure to intestinal microbes, particularly during early life, educates and regulates the mucosal, systemic and neuronal immune systems and how this can affect susceptibility to diseases, such as allergy, autoimmunity, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Her lab also investigates how the microbiome regulates the immune system throughout life with the aim to identify microbial therapies that can be employed to enhance current therapeutic approaches, such as in cancer.

Assistant Professor & Physician Scientist
Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology
UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX

Dr. McQuade is an Assistant Professor and Physician Scientist in Melanoma Medical Oncology at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. McQuade completed her medical training at Baylor College of Medicine, residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and her fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center prior to joining the faculty in 2018. Her research focuses on how host factors and the microbiome influence tumor biology and the anti-tumor immune response with the goal of developing novel strategies to improve outcomes with approved therapies in melanoma and other cancers. This includes work showing that obesity is paradoxically associated with improved outcomes with both immune and targeted therapy in melanoma published in Lancet Oncology in 2018 and work showing connections between diet, the microbiome and response to immunotherapy published in Science in 2021. Her translational lab is focused on elucidating the biological basis of the “obesity paradox” and mechanisms underlying diet-microbiome-immunity interactions. She leads both large cohort studies with robust biospecimen collection as well as dietary intervention clinical trials with parallel preclinical studies.

Associate professor of Hemato-Oncology, University of Montreal (CHUM)
Scientific Director of the Immunotherapy and Microbiome laboratory
University of Montreal Research Centre  (CRCHUM)
Montreal, Quebec

Dr. Bertrand Routy MD, PhD is a young clinician-scientist and associate professor in the department of hemato-oncology at the CHUM (University of Montreal) with clinical expertise in lung cancer. Upon his recruitment to the CRCHUM in 2018 after completing his PhD with Pr. Laurence Zitvogel, Dr. Routy quickly established himself as the scientific director of the CHUM Microbiome Centre where he began his work to develop novel microbiome-based therapeutics in oncology.

His work contributed to the discovery of the gut microbiome as a novel prognostic biomarker for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in various cancers. He characterized the deleterious impact of antibiotic-related gut dysbiosis on ICI outcomes, which led to pivotal changes in clinical oncology practice. Moreover, he demonstrated that modulation of the microbiome by fecal microbiota transplantation, probiotics, and prebiotic supplementation had the potential to circumvent ICI resistance. His team currently leads several microbiota-centered trials in oncology ranging from phase I to phase II trials, with the aim of decreasing primary ICI resistance.

Dr. Routy is internationally recognized as a leader in the microbiome field with more than 15,000 citations including publications in Science, Nature Medicine and Annals of oncology, and h-index of 41. Moreover, his unending commitment to improving immunotherapy responses in cancer patients has led to several awards from prestigious societies, including the FRQS 2023 Clinician-scientist Junior 2 ranked #1, the Prix de la Relève Scientifique du Québec in 2022 and the 2021 Gairdner Foundation award.

Professor, University of Toronto
Medical Oncologist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Director of Phase I Program
BMO Chair in Precision Cancer Medicine
Toronto, ON

Dr. Siu is a senior medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre since 1998 and has been a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto since 2009. She is the Director of the Phase I Program and Co-Director of the Bras and Family Drug Development Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and holds the BMO Chair in Precision Genomics (2016-2026). She is also the Clinical Lead for the Tumor Immunotherapy Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Dr. Siu served on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for a four-year term (2012-2016); she also served on the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Board of Directors for a three-year term (2017-2020).

Dr. Siu’s major research focus is in the area of new anticancer drug development, particularly with respect to phase I trials and head and neck malignancies. She is the Principal Investigator of a phase I cooperative agreement UM1 award sponsored by the United States National Cancer Institute. In addition to her active research in early phase clinical trials, she has been leading genomics initiatives and immuno-oncology trials at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Together, the three programs of drug development, cancer genomics and tumor immunotherapy form a triad of synergy that supports the institution’s core vision to deliver precision cancer medicine. Internationally, Dr. Siu was the recipient of the US NCI Michaele C. Christian Award in Oncology Drug Development in 2010. She has been awarded the TAT 2020 Honorary Award for contributions in the development of anticancer drugs. Dr. Siu has published over 370 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and she is currently the co-Editor-in-Chief for AACR’s newest journal Cancer Research Communications and is on the editorial board for Cell and Cancer Cell.

Professor of Medicine, Immunology and Dermatology
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA

Dr. Hassane Zarour is a Professor of Medicine, Immunology and Dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the James and Frances McGlothlin Chair in Melanoma Immunotherapy Research, coleader of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program and Co-Leader of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer SPORE at the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on novel immunotherapies of melanoma and other solid tumors and the mechanisms of tumor -induced T cell dysfunction. His work has led to the identification of multiple inhibitory pathways that cooperate with PD-1 to impede tumor antigen-specific T cell responses to solid tumors. He is also investigating the role of the gut microbiome in regulating clinical and immune responses to immune checkpoint blockade in the context of a first-inhuman clinical trial with fecal microbiota transplant and PD-1 blockade.