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.

John Bell

Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, BioCanRx

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jennifer Quizi

BioCanRx

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.

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.

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.