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Congratulations to Ahmed Aman on another successful Movember fundraiser

Dr. Ahmed Aman poses for a photo in front of a window

Dr. Ahmed Aman, Principal Research Scientist and Group Leader, Analytical Chemistry and ADME in OICR’s Drug Discovery Program, recently demonstrated that his commitment to cancer research goes beyond his work in the lab. For the sixth straight year Aman participated in Movember by growing a moustache to raised funds and awareness for men’s health issues, including prostate cancer. This year Aman exceeded his fundraising goal of $500 by collecting $770 in donations and has now raised $3,445 since beginning in 2011.

More information about Movember can be found here: https://ca.movember.com/

Expanding the DNA alphabet to understand cancer

Dr. Michael Hoffman poses for a photo at his desk.

The base components of DNA – adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine (commonly referred to as ATCG) are so fundamental to the study of genetics that they are probably familiar to anyone who has taken a high school biology class. Now, one team of researchers has expanded the ‘DNA alphabet’ to help aid in efforts to learn how cancers develop.

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TorBUG welcomes Arfon Smith from GitHub on Wednesday, November 30

Torbug - Lecture illustration

The Toronto Bioinformatics User Group (TorBUG) continues on Wednesday, November 30 with another session of leading-edge bioinformatics topics and speakers. TorBUG sessions encourage learning, sharing and networking with colleagues in bioinformatics. All those who are interested are welcome to attend.

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OICR and OMPRN celebrate International Pathology Day with educational events

A technician works in OICR pathology lab

On November 16 OICR and the Ontario Molecular Pathology Research Network (OMPRN) joined other organizations around the world celebrating International Pathology Day.

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New research highlights the importance of family physicians in the cancer system

Dr. Eva Grunfeld

Family physicians are often a patient’s first point of contact in the healthcare system. For those patients with cancer, their family physician plays an important role in their care not just at their time of diagnosis, but also throughout their treatment and for the rest of their lives.

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OICR participates in the fastest, long-distance academic big data transfer in Canada

A picture from OICR's Data Center

OICR was part of a group of organizations to achieve history when they helped reach an important milestone in Canadian computing. As part of the ORION network, OICR participated in an exercise to perform the fastest, long-distance big data transfer between academic institutions in Canada.

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International Pathology Day 2016

A pathology researcher looks at a slide.

Today is International Pathology Day. Around the world and here in Ontario events will be held to raise awareness of the field and its contributions to modern medicine. The work of the Transformative Pathology Program, coupled with the launch of the Ontario Molecular Pathology Research Network (OMPRN), has made for a very successful year thus far for OICR’s efforts in pathology research. Here are some of the highlights. (more…)

The return of an annual tradition: The Great Canadian Hair “Do”

Participants of the 2015 Great Canadian Hair "Do" pose for a photo in two rows.

Participants of the 2015 Great Canadian Hair “Do” pose after ‘braving the shave’.

This Wednesday, September 14 at noon, a group of brave OICR staff members and others from the community will once again muster the courage to participate in the Great Canadian Hair “Do” in support of The Terry Fox Foundation. The team of 14 will have their heads shaved or have their hair styled in an outrageous fashion in the atrium of the south tower of the MaRS Centre.

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OICR’s Geoff Fong receives major funding to examine e-cigarettes and the impact of public health policy

Around the world it has become common to walk down the street and see a new trend – people vaping (using e-cigarettes). The widespread use of e-cigarettes has caught the attention of the scientific community. Recently, OICR Investigator Dr. Geoff Fong was awarded funding from Canadian and U.S. federal funding agencies to evaluate the impact of e-cigarettes and determine the effectiveness of policies around their use.

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International team launches community competition to unravel how cancer changes a cell’s RNA

Logos of the Challenge partners

An open challenge that merges the efforts of the International Cancer Genome Consortium, The Cancer Genome Atlas, and the NCI Cloud Pilots with Sage Bionetworks and the open science DREAM Challenge community

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