OICR researchers
OICR supports approximately 1,900 highly qualified personnel at institutions across the province of Ontario. This page lists the recipients of OICR Investigator Awards, Associates, Affiliates, research fellows and the leaders of OICR’s research programs and initiatives. Find out more about OICR’s Investigator Awards Program.
Sagi Abelson
Dr. Abelson studies the extrinsic selective pressures and cell-intrinsic mechanisms governing clonal dominance and cell transformation.
Laurie Ailles
Dr. Ailles and her team are focusing on two major research areas: intra-tumoural heterogeneity and epigenetics in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
Rima Al-awar
Dr. Al-awar, Head of Therapeutic Innovation and Drug Discovery, discovers and develops new drugs for various cancers in collaboration with both academic and industry partners.
Philip Awadalla
Dr. Awadalla and his team focus on the development of genomics approaches, model-based tools and population-based approaches to study mutation rates, genome biology and cancer.
John Bartlett
Dr. Bartlett and his team focus on the development of novel diagnostic approaches to stratified medicine, predominantly in breast and prostate cancer.
Philippe Bedard
Dr. Bedard is working to bring next-generation sequencing to more Ontario cancer patients through the Ontario-wide Cancer TArgeted Nucleic Acid Evaluation (OCTANE) study.
John Bell
Dr. Bell’s lab is developing novel oncolytic virus products that both kill cancer cells while stimulating anti-tumour immunity.
Marcus Butler
Dr. Butler is the clinical lead of OICR’s Immuno-oncology Translational Research Initiative (ACTION). His expertise includes clinical trials in a variety of immune therapies.
Tricia Cottrell
Dr. Tricia Cottrell is a clinician scientist whose research focuses on tumour-immune interactions in solid tumours.
Janet Dancey
Dr. Janet Dancey is the leader of the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Network and the Canadian Cancer Trials Group.
John Dick
Dr. Dick, who co-leads OICR’s Acute Leukemia Translational Research Initiative, is a pioneer in cancer stem cell biology.
Peter Dirks
Dr. Dirks is a pediatric neurosurgeon and senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. He co-leads OICR’s Brain Cancer Translational Research Initiative.
Aaron Fenster
Dr. Fenster is driven by the opportunity to use technological innovations to meet the challenges of cancer diagnosis and therapy needs. He co-leads OICR’s Imaging program.
Geoffrey T. Fong
Dr. Fong is the founder of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project. This project’s objective is to evaluate the impact of policies designed to control tobacco use.
Steven Gallinger
Dr. Gallinger is Head, Clinical Translation, OICR and co-leads OICR’s Pancreatic Cancer Translational Research Initiative (PanCuRx)
Eva Grunfeld
The focus of Dr. Grunfeld’s research is the evaluation of access to and quality of cancer care across the cancer control continuum – from screening to end-of-life care.
Bishal Gyawali
Dr. Gyawali’s areas of interest include cancer policy, evidence-based oncology, financial toxicities of cancer treatment, clinical trial methods, supportive care and global oncology.
Masoom Haider
Dr. Haider’s research focus is abdominal and pelvic MRI with an interest in therapeutic response assessment and quantitative imaging of cancer.
Timothy Hanna
Dr. Hanna’s research focuses on three translational streams of health services research: quality of care, value of care and access to care.
Naoto Hirano
The overarching goal of Dr. Hirano’s research is to devise novel anti-tumour immunotherapeutic modalities that can cure cancer.
Kristin Hope
Dr. Hope aims to identify the underlying processes that lead to the transformation of healthy cells into leukemic cells and contribute to the progression of the disease.
Hartland Jackson
Dr. Jackson aims to understand the formation and evolution of tissues and tumours as multi-cell systems.
Tamara Jamaspishvili
Dr. Jamaspishvili is working to identify and validate promising diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for early prostate cancer.
Courtney Jones
Dr. Jones’ research focuses on improving outcomes for patients with leukemia.
David LeBrun
Dr. LeBrun’s research group studies perturbations in the regulation of gene transcription that underlie acute lymphoblastic leukemia and other cancers.
Mathieu Lupien
Dr. Lupien’s research highlights the need to characterize and understand the role of noncoding regulatory elements as targets of genetic and epigenetic changes in oncogenesis.
Brian Nieman
Dr. Nieman is studying the developmental impact of chemotherapy agents with a goal of improved brain development and quality of life in childhood cancer patients.
Faiyaz Notta
Dr. Notta co-leads OICR’s Pancreatic Cancer Translational Research Initiative (PanCuRx).
Amit Oza
Dr. Oza co-leads OICR’s Ovarian Cancer Translational Research Initiative and specializes in clinical trials for gynecologic cancers.
David Palma
Dr. Palma’s research focuses on new imaging technologies used with radiotherapy to improve tumour targeting and to deliver higher doses of radiotherapy than previously possible.
Shraddha Pai
Dr. Pai works to enable precision medicine by discovering multi-omic signatures for data-driven clinical decision-making.
Anna Panchenko
Dr. Panchenko’s research group studies the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of cancer, including the effects of mutations on protein activity, interactions and dynamics.
Bret Pearson
Dr. Pearson’s lab is working to understand the connection between adult stem cells and cancer by using the freshwater planarian as an in vivo model system.
Gregory Pond
Dr. Pond’s research interest is in statistical methodologies and analysis of cancer clinical trials, with an aim to facilitate the translation of scientific discoveries into the clinic.
Jüri Reimand
The Reimand Lab develops and applies methods to interpret cancer data using pathway and network information.
Robert Rottapel
The Rottapel Lab uses functional genetic screens (both shRNA and CRISPR/Cas9) to identify novel vulnerabilities in ovarian cancer as a strategy to develop new therapeutic targets.
Aaron Schimmer
Dr. Schimmer is the co-leader of OICR’s Acute Leukemia Translational Research Initiative. His work focuses on new therapies for leukemia.
Timothy Scholl
Dr. Scholl is focusing on developing an emergent technique for molecular imaging with magnetic resonance.
Parisa Shooshtari
Dr. Shooshtari develops computational and statistical methods to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of complex diseases.
Jared Simpson
The Simpson Lab develops algorithms and software for the analysis of high-throughput sequencing data.
Lillian Siu
Dr. Siu is Co-Principal Investigator of the Ontario-wide Cancer TArgeted Nucleic Acid Evaluation (OCTANE) study.
Michael Taylor
Dr. Taylor is a paediatric neurosurgeon and senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. He co-leads OICR’s Brain Cancer Translational Research Initiative.
Anastasia Tikhonova
Dr. Tikhonova is an OICR Investigator delineating the mechanisms that underlie dysregulated crosstalk between leukemic cells and their niche.
Brad Wouters
Dr. Wouters’ lab has identified new signaling pathways that influence how tumours respond to environments with reduced oxygenation.
Martin Yaffe
Dr. Yaffe’s research is directed toward development and improvement of imaging techniques for the earlier detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
OICR Associates and Affiliates
Yvonne Bombard
OICR Associate
Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto
Kieran Campbell
OICR Affiliate
Scientist & Principal Investigator, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Harriet Feilotter
OICR Associate
Molecular Geneticist and Scientist, Kingston Health Sciences Centre
Faculty Member, Queen’s Cancer Research Institute
Vincent Ferretti
OICR Associate
Researcher, CHU Sainte-Justine
Professor-Researcher, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal
Director, Digital Platforms, Genome Quebec
Michael Fraser
OICR Affiliate
Scientific Director, The Canadian Prostate Cancer Genome Network (CPC-GENE)
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Staff Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network
Benjamin Haibe-Kains
OICR Associate
Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network
Associate Professor, Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Affiliate, Vector Institute
Elizabeth Kornaga
OICR Associate
Translational Scientist, Tom Baker Cancer Centre
Quaid Morris
OICR Associate
Member, Computational & Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Rola Saleeb
OICR Associate
Director of the Immunopathology Laboratory, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto
Anatomical Pathologist, St. Michael’s Hospital and Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
Assistant Professor, Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto
David Soave
OICR Associate
Assistant Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University
As of October 5, 2020
