VANCOUVER - The BC Cancer Agency and BC Cancer Foundation announce the appointments of Drs Victor Ling and Marco Marra as co-directors of the Genome Sequence Centre, effective immediately. This appointment is made following the death of the founding director, Dr. Michael Smith, in October 2000.

Dr. Marra assumes responsibility for scientific direction as well as management of the Genome Sequence Centre. Dr. Ling will oversee projects of particular relevance to cancer research.

Dr. Marra joined the BC Cancer Agency as associate director of the Genome Sequence Centre in 1999, following five years at the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The Genome Sequencing Center in St. Louis is the largest facility of its kind in the United States and a major contributor to global initiatives in DNA sequencing. Dr. Marra received his B.Sc. and his PhD from Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Dr. Ling joined the BC Cancer Agency as vice-president, Research, in 1995. He holds a joint appointment at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine as Assistant Dean, Cancer Research. He is also Associate Chair of the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Dr. Ling is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work on drug resistance in cancer cells. This research has led to new ways of making cancer cells more responsive to chemotherapy. Dr. Ling studied at the University of Toronto, doing undergraduate work in biochemistry. He completed his PhD in biochemistry at the University of British Columbia and served as a post-doctoral fellow at Cambridge, in England.

The Genome Sequence Centre was founded in 1998 by the Dr. Michael Smith, Nobel laureate (Chemistry 1993) and Peter Wall Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology, University of British Columbia. It was the first DNA mapping and sequencing program in Canada devoted to cancer research and treatment, and is one of a handful of laboratories contributing to the global undertaking of mapping and sequencing the genomes of a variety of organisms and determining their specific roles in illness and health.

"The BC Cancer Agency is home to one of the world's finest gene-sequencing programs thanks to the commitment of Dr. Michael Smith," said Dr. Simon Sutcliffe, president and CEO of the BC Cancer Agency.

"We are truly fortunate to have Drs. Ling and Marra, two scientists of such high-caliber, ready, willing, and capable of carrying not only Michael's vision forward, but the vision of our entire organization. We will continue to work to develop the vast potential gene science offers us in the fight against cancer," Dr. Sutcliffe added.

The Genome Sequence Centre is one of eight research departments at the BC Cancer Agency dedicated to advancing cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The Genome Sequence Centre (GSC) is funded by the BC Cancer Foundation and the GSC's own grant-writing initiatives.

The GSC also partners with the Biotechnology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia to form the Centre for Integrated Genomics (CIG). The CIG links BC Cancer Agency and UBC researchers to consolidate a critical mass of genome research in Vancouver.

E-photos are available by contacting lbrown@bccancer.bc.ca