In 2008, Dr. Al-awar founded the OICR Drug Discovery Program. The Drug Discovery group, is comprised of dozens of researchers with deep industry expertise, focuses on translating the most promising ideas coming from Ontario’s academic community into therapeutic benefits for cancer patients by identifying hit and lead molecules and optimizing them as potential drug candidates.

Dr. Al-awar earned her PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from North Carolina State University and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill prior to joining Eli Lilly and Company in 1995. During her time at Eli Lilly, she served as Head in Discovery Chemistry Research and Technologies, and later as Head in Route Selection in Chemical Product Research and Development.

Dr Al-awar is a full Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology & Toxicology as well as Chemistry, at the University of Toronto.