Hyojin Song – Committee Chair

Postdoctoral Associate, University of Calgary

Hyojin is a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Calgary (Cumming School of Medicine) under the supervision of Dr. Sorana Morrissy. Through her PhD training in Cancer Biology and her first career experience at a hospital, she has become highly interested in bridging scientific findings toward precision medicine to address unmet clinical needs, using bioinformatics. Based on her research interest in cancer immunotherapy, she focuses on understanding the immunotherapeutic responses in solid cancers (especially sarcoma) by integrating multi-omic analysis results.

Nouf Alluqmani

Postdoctoral Fellow, OHRI

Dr. Nouf Alluqmani is a postdoctoral fellow at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Carolina Ilkow, where she researches utilizing extracellular vesicles/exosomes as a delivery system for various therapeutic targets. She is particularly focused on the impact of cell-derived exosomes in generating antigen-specific targeted therapies and developing a dual exosome-based vaccine platform for lung cancer. Nouf studied Laboratory Medicine at Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia, which led to her receiving a scholarship to pursue higher education abroad. She obtained a Master's degree in Science from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology, specializing in oncolytic immunotherapy, from the University of Ottawa. During her Ph.D., she contributed significantly to the field of immunotherapy, focusing on the immune response following treatment with OV-mediated immunotherapy in combination with viral enhancers and immunostimulatory complementary agents. This work has enhanced understanding of these complex interactions, paving the way for more effective treatments.

Nouf is also a member of several committees, a Research Information Outreach Team (RIOT) volunteer and a research partner in the knowledge exchange initiative "the Bed to Bench program". She is passionate about research and the continuous exchange of knowledge. She firmly believes that accessible learning is crucial, as it allows us to master new skills and continue our intellectual journey.

Nafiseh Keshavarzian

PhD Student, Hospital Maisonneuve-Rosemont Research Center

Nafiseh is a PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Denis-Claude Roy at the Hospital Maisonneuve-Rosemont Research Center. Her research concentration is on engineering primary T cells with minor histocompatibility antigen (MiHA) specific T cell receptor (TCR) in order to create cytotoxicity against the Leukemic Cells. Prior to her PhD, she was a research assistant involved in several research projects related to COVID-19, Leukemia, and liver fibrosis, with expertise in optimizing and developing procedures for experiments, analyzing data with SPSS and teaching serology and Molecular tests to undergraduates and graduates.

Sarah Nersesian

Postdoctoral Researcher, OHRI

Dr. Sarah Nersesian is a postdoctoral researcher at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute working with Dr. David Cook and Dr. Barbara Vanderhyden to investigate the relationship between ovarian cancer and the immune system. Sarah obtained her BSc (Honours) in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Guelph in 2016, followed by her MSc in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Queen’s University in 2018. She then completed her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at Dalhousie University in 2024, under the supervision of Dr. Jeanette Boudreau, where she focused on researching how to use natural killer cells as cancer immunotherapy, particularly in the context of ovarian cancers. The publication summarizing the findings of her doctoral work, where she discovered immune cell neighbourhoods with prognostic impact in ovarian cancer, was selected to receive the bi-annual Anita Unruh Award by Ovarian Cancer Canada. Prestigious national scholarships, including the Vanier Canada Graduate and Killam Predoctoral Scholarships, have fully funded Sarah’s academic studies. She has co-authored over 25 manuscripts and commentaries published in peer-reviewed journals, including Frontiers in Immunology, Cell Reports, The British Medical Journal, The Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer and Scientific Reports.

Outside her academic work, Sarah founded the first research-centred scientific illustrations and communications company in Canada, Designs that Cell. She has grown this business into a team of talented sci-artists with advanced degrees and real-world experience creating visual scientific communication tools. With over 320 projects completed, Sarah and her team have worked with clinicians, scientists, students, institutions, academic journals and organizations globally to elevate their work. She has also been an active member of several organizations, sitting or leading committees for ComSciConCAN, The Canadian Society of Immunology, the Canadian Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium, The Science Writers and Communicators of Canada, The Canadian Natural Killer Cell Consortium and BioCanRx.

Abishek Wadhwa

PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia

Abishek Wadhwa is a 3rd year PhD Candidate in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. As a seasoned graduate student in the field of immunotherapy and nanomedicine, and an aspiring entrepreneur in Canada, Abishek is passionate about empowering HQPs with further strengthening their soft skills for their professional development, fostering research collaboration, and knowledge exchange, among others. His current work focuses on developing and optimizing mRNA-LNP based strategies for cancer immunotherapy. His interdisciplinary project sits at the interface of immunology, genomics, and nanotechnology, and is rich in translational potential.

Suzy Wang

PhD Candidate, University of Alberta

Suzy is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta (Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology) under the co-supervision of Dr. David Evans and Dr. Ryan Noyce. Her PhD project combines her interest in basic virology and translational research related to human health by focusing on the development of oncolytic vaccinia viruses as a means to increase tumour immunogenicity. Characterization of the viruses in cell culture and murine cold tumour models will reveal whether the viruses can be used in cold tumours to increase clinical success rates of cancer immunotherapy.