PRECISION ONCOLOGY CONGRESS

Steven Yip MD, MSc, FRCPC

Medical Oncologist
Medical Lead, Precision Oncology and Experimental Therapeutics
Chair, Southern Alberta GU Tumour Group
Clinical Assistant Professor
Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine
Tom Baker Cancer Centre
Calgary, AB

Dr. Steven Yip is a Staff Medical Oncologist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, Alberta. He is the Southern Alberta GU Tumour Group Chair, Medical Lead of Precision Oncology and Experimental Therapeutics (POET), and Southern Alberta Prostate Cancer Research Institute (APCaRI) Co-Chair. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He has an academic focus on translational research, PSMA PET/CT imaging and novel radiopharmaceutical drug development in advanced prostate cancer. He completed his medical oncology clinical and translational research genitourinary fellowship, under the supervision of Dr. Kim Chi at BC Cancer. He received his MD at the University of Alberta and trained at the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary. He has a Masters of Science in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University.

Key Publications: 

Reimers MA, Yip SM (Co-First Authors), Zhang L, Cieslik M, Dhawan M, Montgomery B, Wyatt AW, Chi KN, Small EJ, Chinnaiyan AM, Alva AS, Feng FY, Chou J. Clinical Outcomes in Cyclin-dependent Kinase 12 Mutant Advanced Prostate Cancer. Eur Urol. 2019. In Press.

Yip SM, Wells C, Moreira RB, Wong A, Srinivas S, Beuselinck B, Porta C, Sim HW, Ernst S, Rini BI, Yuasa T, Basappa NS, Kanesvaran R, Wood LA, Soulieres D, Canil CM, Kapoor A, Fu SY, Choueiri TK, Heng DYC. Checkpoint Inhibitors in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients (mRCC): Results from the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC). Cancer. 2018;124(18):3677-83.

Herberts C, Murtha AJ, Fu S, Wang G, Schönlau E, Xue H, Lin D, Gleave A,Yip SM, Angeles A, Hotte S, Tran B, North S, Taavitsainen S, Beja K, Vandekerkhove G, Ritch E, Warner E, Saad F, Iqbal N, Nykter Matti, Gleave ME, Wang Y, Annala M, Chi KN, and Wyatt AW. Activating AKT1 and PIK3CA mutation in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Eur Urol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2020.04.058

Jette N, Kumar M, Radhamani S, Arthur G, Goutam S, Yip SM, Kolinsky M, Williams G,

Bose P, Lees-Miller S. ATM-deficient cancers provide new opportunities for precision oncology. Cancers. Cancers (Basel). 2020 Mar 14;12(3). pii: E687. doi: 10.3390/cancers12030687

Yip SM, Loewen SK, Li H, Hao D, Easaw JC. Management of Medical Oncology Services in Canada: Redefined Workload with a Novel Supply-and-Demand Workforce Projection Model. J Oncol Pract. 2018;14(7):e438-e445.

Yip SM, Kaiser J, Li H, North S, Heng DY, Alimohamed NS. Real World Outcomes in Advanced Urothelial Cancer and the Role of Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio. Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2018;16(3):e637-e644.

Yip SM, Ruiz Morales J, Donskov F, Fraccon A, Umberto B, Rini BI, Lee JL, Bjarnason G, Sim HW, Beuselinck B, Kanesvaran R, Brugarolas J, Koutsoukos K, Fu SYF, Yuasa T, Davis I, Alva A, Kollmannsberger C, Choueiri TK, Heng DYC. Outcomes of Metastatic Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma (chrRCC) in the Targeted Therapy Era: Results from the International Metastatic Renal Cell Cancer Database Consortium (IMDC). Kidney Cancer J.2017;1(1):41-47.

Dr. Todd Anderson is a Professor of Cardiac Sciences at the University of Calgary. He is the Dean of the Cumming School of Medicine.

Dr. Anderson was awarded his medical degree from the University of Calgary in 1985 and then undertook residency training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology in Calgary. He pursued further research training in coronary physiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School and then returned to Calgary. He has been on staff since 1995.

After graduating from the University of Rome, Michele flew to Berkeley for his post-doctoral training in David Raulet’s lab. In 2016, he was recruited by a joint effort of the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. His lab is interested in understanding why Natural Killer cells, despite their name, fail to eliminate cancers, and more broadly to gain a more sophisticated understanding of the immune response against 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 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 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.

Wendy Beauchesne is the CEO of the Alberta Cancer Foundation, the largest provincially based health care foundation and non-government investor in cancer research in Alberta. She joined the Foundation in 2020 with a mandate is to lead the organization through a period of transformation, and to deliver the greatest value for partners and Albertans facing cancer. This includes leading one of the largest health campaigns in western Canada in support of innovation and excellence at the new Arthur JE Child Cancer Centre in Calgary. Wendy has spent the majority of her career working in the health-care sector. She joined STARS air ambulance in 2011 to help expand the program into Saskatchewan and Manitoba and was named executive vice president for the STARS Foundation in 2017. Wendy was the recipient of the Calgary Influential Women in Business award for social enterprise.

Dr. Scott Bratman, MD PhD, is an innovator and thought leader in the liquid biopsy field, having developed cutting edge technologies targeting circulating tumor DNA. His discoveries have had immense scientific impact and are being investigated in the settings of cancer early detection, treatment response monitoring, and molecular residual disease. Scott was trained at Princeton University, Columbia University, and Stanford Cancer Institute, and he now serves as the Dr. Mariano Antonio Elia Chair in Head and Neck Cancer Research at University Health Network, Staff Radiation Oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Associate Professor at University of Toronto.

Dr Peter Campbell is Head of the Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutation Programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, having started a Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellowship in 2010. He completed specialist training in Haematology in New Zealand and Australia in 2002. Following this, he completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge in the molecular pathogenesis of myeloproliferative disorders. Since 2007, Dr Campbell has been employed at the Cancer Genome Project, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

His major interest is cancer genomics, and in particular genome-wide analyses of somatic mutations in tumours. The four major areas of interest have been:

• the discovery of new cancer genes;
• the identification of somatic mutation processes operative in tumours;
• the characterisation of patterns of cancer evolution; and
• the translation of these fundamental insights about cancer biology into better management of patients.

Further details are available at: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/people/directory/campbell-peter

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.

I have been a medical oncologist at the Cross Cancer Institute since April 2005 with medical oncology training in Canada and subsequent phase I/clinical research fellowship in novel anti-cancer drugs at the Institute for Drug Development in San Antonio, Texas. During which I was involved in a large number of novel anti-cancer agents, and had extra training in novel trial design and clinical pharmacology. Currently, I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology of University of Alberta. I continue my clinical and translational research in novel drug development, including targeted agents and immune-oncology agents, in thoracic oncology. I am the co-Lead and Lead for Phase I unit and the Thoracic Research Unit, respectively, at the Cross Cancer Institute.

Lars Dyrskjøt is a Professor of Molecular Medicine at Aarhus University in Denmark. He leads a research group at the Department of Molecular Medicine at Aarhus University Hospital, where his team focuses on translational bladder cancer research.

Dr. Dyrskjøt’s research is primarily centered on translational bladder cancer, with a particular emphasis on biomarker models for predicting treatment outcomes in both early and late-stage bladder cancer. His work also includes liquid biopsy analysis for monitoring early relapse and therapy response, as well as understanding disease biology, tumor subtypes, and tumor evolution.

In addition to his research, Dr. Dyrskjøt is an active member of several scientific committees and advisory boards, including the Scientific Congress Office of the European Association of Urology (EAU) and the International Bladder Cancer Network (IBCN).

More information is available here:
https://www.moma.dk/research/bladder-cancer
https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/lars%40clin.au.dk

James leads the development of Epigenomics, and the search and evaluation of novel liquid biopsy, technologies in AstraZeneca’s Translational Medicine function. This includes developing internal assay and technology capabilities to support clinical studies through external collaboration and partnering opportunities; and requires increasing the knowledge of Epigenomics opportunities across the company. The search and evaluation for novel ctDNA liquid biopsy is focused on MRD/monitoring, and to a lesser extent cancer early detection, and includes the subsequent initial testing of these methods using contrived (MATRIX) and clinical samples. But, as a very wide field Epigenomics, in tissue or in plasma, offers many such opportunities but perhaps just one challenge – too many choices. As such, his technical focus is on DNA methylation, nucleosome positioning and histone modification.

Before joining AstraZeneca he led the Genomics Core at the University of Cambridge CRUK Cambridge Institute and has worked with genomics/ transcriptomics technologies, especially NGS, for more than 20 years. In this time he has co-authored multiple influential papers in cancer genomics including one of the largest genomic studies of Breast Cancer (Nature 2012), some of the first reports of ctDNA analysis by amplicons (STM 2012) and by ctDNA exome sequencing (Nature 2013), and development of a sWGS CNV pipeline in exome sequencing (Cell 2016). He also published a case report describing the identification of a novel mutation in a complex proband that led to a curative transplant (JCI 2017). James got his degree (1997) and PhD (21014) at the University of East Anglia.

He has been highly involved in the NGS community and writes/wrote a very well received blog and is considered a thought-leader in the field. James is married with two kids and lives in Wymondham Norfolk.

Blog: http://enseqlopedia.com/coregenomics
Twitter: @coregenomics
LinkedIn: James Hadfield

Tim Halim is a group leader at the University of Cambridge, Cancer Research UK – Cambridge Institute. He did his PhD training in the laboratory of Prof. Fumio Takei at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), followed by a postdoc with Dr. Andrew McKenzie at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK). He contributed to the characterization of ILC2 in the airways, and their role in promoting allergic inflammation by engaging both innate and adaptive arms of the immune system. His laboratory continues investigating the cellular and molecular interactions whereby ILC2 locally regulate different aspects of the immune response in cancer, tissue homeostasis and inflammatory diseases. Besides CRUK funding, Tim has been supported by CIHR Banting postdoctoral and Wellcome Sir Henry Dale independent research fellowships.

Halim Group

Dr. David Huntsman, a pathologist and clinical molecular geneticist at the University of British Columbia is the Canada Research Chair in Molecular and Genomic Pathology. Dr. Huntsman directs OVCARE, BC’s multidisciplinary ovarian cancer research team and conducts his research at the BC Cancer Agency and the Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Huntsman’s research has led to development of diagnostic, predictive and prognostic tissue based cancer biomarkers for ovarian cancer and a wide variety of other tumour types. His team created a blueprint for subtype specific ovarian cancer control and have been leaders in the application of novel genomic technologies to better prevent, diagnose and treat ovarian cancer. Dr. Huntsman is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Dr. Omar Khan is a clinical assistant professor at the Cumming School of Medicine and medical oncologist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. He completed his Medical Doctorate at the University of Calgary in 2013, followed by Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology residency training at the University of Calgary from 2013 – 2018. He completed a fellowship in Breast Cancer and Health Administration from 2018 – 2019. He also completed an executive MBA degree at the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario, graduating in 2020. His current clinical practice includes the breast cancer and sarcoma tumour groups. His research interests are in the application of artificial intelligence to clinical cancer care.

For three decades, Jocelyn Laidlaw has been a trusted voice in the Canadian news landscape. First a reporter, producer and anchor in B.C., in 2003, Jocelyn moved to Calgary to anchor the CTV News at Noon and 5. She remained on the anchor desk for 21 years, guiding Southern Albertans through some of the biggest stories in the region’s history.

Over the years she has covered high profile criminal cases and trials, including the case of serial killer Robert Pickton, as well as the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Canadian Tour, and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She has interviewed celebrities, politicians, community leaders and many regular Canadians.

In September 2022, Jocelyn was diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer. She underwent radiation and chemotherapy and continues to recover. Named the National Ambassador for Colorectal Cancer Canada in 2024, she has become an advocate for CRC awareness, screening and early detection, sharing her journey publicly through social media and interviews across the country. She uses her experience to encourage Canadians to be strong advocates for their own health.

Jocelyn and her husband share a teenage son, who keeps them busy. They love skiing, traveling, kayaking, yoga and reading.

Dr. Laskin is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Associate Member in Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, and an active member of the medical oncology staff at BC Cancer, Vancouver. Dr Laskin’s clinical and research interests have primarily focused around lung and head and neck cancers. In recent years her research has evolved towards genomic and personalized medicine and she is the clinical program leader for the Personalized Oncogenomics (POG) Program which is a collaborative research program that involves the clinicians of BC Cancer and the Genome Sciences Centre. The POG program is truly a translational research effort that uses in-depth genomic sequencing to guide chemotherapy decision-making.

Dr. Natasha Leighl leads the Thoracic Medical Oncology Group at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and is Professor in the Department of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She holds the OSI Pharmaceuticals Foundation Chair in Cancer New Drug Development through the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. She has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, has held (as principal or co-investigator) over $600 million in peer-reviewed grant funding, and has mentored many oncology trainees that have gone on to leadership roles in oncology around the world. Recently, she was awarded the American Society of Clinical Oncology Excellence in Teaching Award (2019).

Dr. Faisal Mahmood is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Division of Computational Pathology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Imaging from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan and was a postdoctoral fellow at the department of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Mahmood’s research focuses on developing generative and multimodal AI for pathology applications. Dr. Mahmood is a full member of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Cancer Center ; an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and a member of the Harvard Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics (BIG) faculty. Learn more about his research lab at www.mahmoodlab.org

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.

Florent Mouliere leads the Nucleic Acids Biomarker team at the Cancer Research UK National Biomarker Centre, University of Manchester. Florent research aims to identify biological patterns in human bio-fluids (liquid biopsy), develop experimental and computational methods to mine these data, and create tools to put these resources into the hands of biologists, engineers, and clinicians. Florent graduated in 2012 from the University of Montpellier (France), did his postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge, and was Assistant Professor from 2018 to 2023 at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre (the Netherlands).

Dr. Trevor Pugh, PhD, FACMG is a cancer genomics researcher, board-certified molecular geneticist, and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Translational Genomics. He is appointed as Professor in the University of Toronto Department of Medical Biophysics, Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Senior Investigator at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. He is Director of the OICR Genomics Program and the Princess Margaret Genomics Centre, genomics cores that specialize in single cell, cell-free DNA and clinically-accredited whole genome sequencing. He has contributed to multiple large-scale genomics and data-sharing programs including NCI TARGET, AACR GENIE, and the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network. Most recently, he was recognized by Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, the Canadian Cancer Society Bernard and Francine Dorval Prize, and the Allan Slaight Collaborator of the Year Award. He leads the national CHARM Consortium, an initiative to use cell-free DNA monitoring for all people with an inherited predisposition to cancer.

Dr Steidl is the Research Director of the Centre for Lymphoid Cancer, Senior Executive Director Research at BC Cancer and Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He has expertise in clinical malignant hematology, molecular pathology, genomics and lymphoma biology. Dr Steidl’s translational research group focuses on the pathogenesis of B cell lymphomas, tumor microenvironment biology and applied genomics. He is most known for his discovery and characterization of novel gene mutations and microenvironment-related biomarkers in Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Dr Steidl is lead investigator of a team grant on modeling lymphoma evolution and clinical trajectory using multiomics funded by the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI), and project leader of a Genome Canada Large-Scale Applied Research Project to advance personalized treatments of lymphoid cancer patients. Dr Steidl is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lymphoma Research Foundation, past Chair of the American Society of Hematology Scientific Committee on Lymphoid Neoplasia and Member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee. He was inducted as a member of the Royal Society of Canada, College for New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in 2017, and won an Allen Distinguished Investigator award in 2018.

Dr. Walsh is an Associate Professor at the Goodman Cancer Institute and Department of Human Genetics at McGill University. He holds the Rosalind Goodman Chair in Lung Cancer Research and is the Director of The Single Cell Imaging and Mass Cytometry Analysis Platform. Dr. Walsh’s lab uses spatial technologies combined with artificial intelligence to help develop personalized medicine strategies for cancer patients. Today he will be describing some of his more recent work in understanding how we can leverage AI to better understand cancer progression and response to therapy.

Dr. Matt Warkentin is an epidemiologist working in the areas of cancer epidemiology, biostatistics, and machine learning. His research is at the intersection of molecular epidemiology, quantitative imaging (radiomics), and big data. His focus is on lung cancer screening, early detection, clinical management, and outcomes, and the application of artificial intelligence to medical images (e.g., CT).

Dr. Wyatt is an associate professor in Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is a senior research scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre and a senior scientist at BC Cancer. Dr. Wyatt has a DPhil in genetics from the University of Oxford.

His research goals are to identify associations between genomic alterations and patient outcomes in metastatic prostate and bladder cancer, and to translate these findings into clinical biomarkers.

Dr. Wyatt has developed novel laboratory and computational techniques to study plasma circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). Through application of these methods to clinical trial cohorts, his team has demonstrated that ctDNA is highly representative of metastatic lesions, and that somatic alterations detected in ctDNA can help predict prostate cancer therapy resistance or response.

Dr. Wyatt is the chair of correlative sciences and tumour biobanking for the Canadian Cancer Trial Group (CCTG) and through this role is involved in design and execution of phase I-III clinical trial protocols across Canada. Dr. Wyatt directs the ctDNA screening strategy and the molecular tumor board for the first multi-center phase 2 umbrella trial in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (NCT03385655, NCT02905318).