THE CENTRE FOR TRANSLATIONAL CANCER RESEARCH PRESENTS
4th Annual Immuno-Oncology Symposium
March 29, 2023 - 8:30 to 17:30pm EST
Register Here (NOW CLOSED)
Confirmed Speakers:
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.
Jeanette Boudreau, PhD - Associate Professor, Division of Medicine and in the Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, and Pathology, Dalhousie University. Cameron Cancer Chair and the Scientific Director of the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute, an Atlantic Canada-wide initiative that networks the cancer researchers and trainees in the 4 Atlantic provinces. Dr. Boudreau's lab focused on understanding how the naturally-occurring diversity driven by human immunogenetics, expression and co-expression of receptors, and microenvironmental features impacts the function of natural killer (NK) cells, and impact their response to cancer. Her research program focuses on understanding the roles of NK cells in cancer treatment - especially solid cancers - with a goal of mobilizing NK cells as off-the-shelf and scalable, effective cellular therapies.
Marcus Butler, MD - Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto. Medical Oncologist Lead for Melanoma/Skin Oncology; Member of the Princess Margaret Tumor Immunotherapy Program; Clinical Head of the Immune Monitoring Team at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network. Dr. Butler’s research focus is on the development of novel therapies and clinical trials that include targeted therapy, immune modulation and adoptive T-cell therapy.
Tracy McGaha, PhD - Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto. Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network. Dr. McGaha’s research interests involve mechanisms of immune tolerance induced by cell death and communication between innate and adaptive cells in regulatory immunity.
John Ronald, PhD - Associate Professor, Department of Medical Biophysics, and Oncology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. Scientist, Robarts Research Institute. Associate Scientist, Lawson Health Research Institute. His lab’s research focuses on pioneering novel molecular and cellular imaging technologies.
Ian Watson, PhD - Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, McGill University. Member, Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute. Investigator, Research Institute-McGill University Health Center (RI-MUHC). Canada Research Chair II in Functional Genomics of Melanoma. Dr. Watson has led a number of multi-institutional collaborations (Hodis, Watson et al., 2012 Cell), which include The Cancer Genome Atlas project (TCGA, 2015 Cell), to characterize the melanoma genome and perform integrative analysis with multiple data platforms at the DNA, RNA, and protein levels. His lab's work has identified a number of novel significantly mutated genes in melanomas, which possess hotspot mutations in coding and non-coding regions. Based on the frequency and correlation of the most frequently significantly mutated genes, we established a framework for genomic classification into one of four subtypes: mutant BRAF, RAS, NF1, and Triple-WT (wild-type) melanomas.
Organizing Committee Members:
Saman Maleki, PhD - Conference Chair - Assistant Professor, Departments of Oncology, and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Medical Biophysics. Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. Principal Scientist, Lawson Health Research Institute.
Gabriel DiMattia, PhD - Interim Director, Cancer Research Laboratory Program, London Regional Cancer Program. Associate Professor, Departments of Oncology, and Biochemistry, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. Senior Oncology Scientist, Lawson Health Research Institute.
Joe Mymryk, PhD - Professor, Departments of Oncology, and Microbiology & Immunology, and Otolaryngology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. Distingushed Oncology Scientist, Cancer Research Laboratory Program, London Regional Cancer Program. Scientist, Lawson Health Research Institute.
John Ronald, PhD Co-Chair - Associate Professor, Department of Medical Biophysics, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. Scientist, Robarts Research Institute.
Kimberly Scott, Conference Coordinator - Coordinator for the Centre for Translational Cancer Research, London Regional Cancer Program Wellness, and Resiliency Task Force Coordinator, and Oncology Grand Rounds Coordinator.
