Published: August 14, 2007
The Centre for Lymphoid Cancer (CLC) is composed of a lead group of research-clinicians based at the BC Cancer Agency' s Vancouver Centre and a cooperating group of 40 hemato-oncologists throughout BC that coordinate the treatment of lymphoid cancers for the province. The laboratory scientists of the CLC are from diverse scientific backgrounds such as hematopathology, cytogenetics, molecular genetics, genomics and epidemiology and are located at the BC Cancer Agency Genome Science Center, BC Cancer Research Center and the University of British Columbia (UBC).
The members of our research team are:
Dr. Joseph M. Connors, MD
Medical Oncologist, Director of the Centre for Lymphoid Cancer, Chair of the Research Ethics Board, at the BC Cancer Agency and Clinical Professor at the University of British Columbia
Joseph M. Connors, MD is a clinical professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, at the University of British Columbia and the chair of the Lymphoma Tumor Group for the BC Cancer Agency and Clinical Director of the Centre for Lymphoid Cancer at the BC Cancer Agency. He obtained his medical degree at Yale University, trained in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and completed his medical oncology fellowship with Dr. Saul Rosenberg at the Stanford University Medical Center from 1979 to 1981. He then joined the staff and faculty at the BC Cancer Agency and the University of British Columbia, and has focused his clinical activities and research efforts in the area of understanding lymphoid cancers. Dr. Connors is best known for his clinical investigations into the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemias and multiple myeloma. He has served as the chairman of the hematology site committee for the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group, as a liaison member between the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American College of Radiology, where he focused on the staging and treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma, and is currently a vice-chairman of the Educational Committee of the American Society of Hematology.
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Dr. Randy Gascoyne, MD
Hematopathologist at the BC Cancer Agency, and Clinical Professor of Pathology at the University of British Columbia
Dr. Gascoyne is a Hematopathologist at the BC Cancer Agency and the sole Canadian member of the International Lymphoma Study Group (ILSG). He has expertise in lymphoma diagnosis and classification, molecular genetics of lymphoma and pathogenesis. His research interests include molecular alterations that characterize lymphomagenesis, biomarker analyses in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) and their use as outcome predictors and gene expression microarray profiling . He is involved in many national and international efforts dedicated to study of NHLs. Although a Canadian, Dr. Gascoyne has served as the lymphoma pathology co-chair for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) in the United States since 1999. He is also the co-chairman of the Lunenburg Lymphoma Biomarker Consortium (LLBC), a large and very active international group studying the application of biomarker analyses to clinical practice in lymphoma. He serves as the expert pathologist on several national lymphoma clinical trials organized by the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) and has just been added as the chairman of a subcommittee to introduce biomarker studies into the Hematological Diseases Subcommittee of the NCIC clinical trials group.
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Dr. Douglas Horsman, MD
Pathologist at the BC Cancer Agency, and Clinical Professor of Pathology at the University of British Columbia
Dr. Doug Horsman is the Director of Clinical Cancer Genetics Laboratory at the BC Cancer Agency and Discipline Leader for Genetic Pathology for the PHSA Laboratories. He has extensive experience in the genetic investigation of cancer specimens for clinical and research purposes. He is responsible for the development and supervision of the cytogenetic, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and molecular genetics laboratories that provide for the genetic analysis of leukemia, lymphoma sarcoma, brain tumour and other specimens that are referred to the BC Cancer Agency. In the last five years he has developed and applied advanced molecular cytogenetic techniques to investigate the genetic changes associated with malignant lymphoma, including multi-color karyotyping, multi-color banding and locus-specific fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). His research activities are primarily associated with the cytogenetics and molecular genetics delineation of chromosomal alterations in malignant lymphoma, using multi-colour karyotyping, chromosome microdissection, fiber FISH, translocation breakpoint cloning using LDI-PCR, FISH and whole genome array CGH.
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Dr. Marco Marra, Ph.D.
Director, BC Cancer Agency Genome Sciences Centre
Dr. Marra received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University in 1989 and 1994, respectively. He completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Robert Waterston at the Washington University School of Medicine Genome Sequencing Center, in St. Louis, Missouri. He joined the BC Cancer Agency’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre as Co-Director in 1999. He then became the Director of the Centre in 2000, the position he currently serves. Dr. Marra is also a Senior Scientist at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre. He is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia and an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University.To date, Dr. Marra has authored/co-authored ninety-four scientific papers, eighty-eight of which have been published.
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Dr. Angela Brooks-Wilson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Senior Scientist, Cancer Genetics, at BC Cancer Research Centre
Dr. Angela Brooks-Wilson is Head of the Cancer Genetics group at the Genome Sciences Centre. Previously, while working at Sequana Therapeutics / Axys Pharmaceuticals in San Diego, she investigated the genetics of asthma in DNA samples from the occupants of the remote volcanic island of Tristan da Cunha. She then returned to Canada to lead a genetics team at Xenon Genetics, a Vancouver biotech company, and identify the gene responsible for Tangier disease and Familial Hypoalphaliporoteinemia, or low levels of HDL. In 2001 she moved from biotech to academia by joining the Genome Sciences Centre. Her current work focuses on susceptibility to Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and genetic influences on healthy aging. She also serves on the Ethics Advisory Board of Genome BC and a member of the CIHR Institute of Cancer Research Institute Advisory Board.
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Dr. Wan L. Lam, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Cancer Genetics and Developmental Biology, at the BC Cancer Research Centre, and Clinical Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, at the University of British Columbia
Dr. Lam is a Senior Scientist at the BC Cancer Agency, and Clinical Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Lam completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc (Microbiology) at the University of Alberta and completed his Ph.D. (Biochemistry at Dalhousie University. Dr. Lam was a student of Dr. W. Ford Doolittle, a member of the National Academy of Sciences. As a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University he trained with Dr. Walter Gilbert, a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. Today, Dr. Lam's primary research interest is in understanding the events leading to cancer progression. Early detection and treatment is key to a favorable prognosis in cancer. His laboratory has developed novel whole genome approaches for tracking genetic, epigenetic and gene expression changes in order to identify genes and pathways critical to cancer progression, and signatures for treatment response.
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Dr. Laurie Sehn, MD
Medical Oncologist at the BC Cancer Agency, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia
Dr Laurie Sehn has been a Clinical Assistant Professor with the BC Cancer Agency and University of British Columbia, Canada, where she is a Medical Oncologist and Clinical Investigator with the lymphoma tumour group, since 1998. Dr Sehn graduated from McGill Medical School, Montreal, Canada, in 1991 and received her training in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Columbia University, New York, USA. She was trained in haematology-oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, and received a Masters of Public Health degree from Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University in 1997. Prior to returning to Canada, she spent a year at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute as a Bone Marrow Transplant specialist. Dr. Sehn has served on the Board of Directors of the Lymphoma Foundation Canada (LFC) since 2002, and is currently the Director of Research Fellowships for the LFC.Dr Sehn's research interests include all of the lymphoid cancers with particular interest in the biology and treatment of large cell lymphoma, the application of new imaging techniques such as PET scanning to lymphoma management and innovative new approaches to treatment. She is the lead investigator of a major new clinical trial focusing on the use of PET scanning in the therapy of large cell lymphoma.
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Dr. Kerry Savage, MD
Medical Oncologist at the BC Cancer Agency, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia
Dr Kerry Savage is an Associate Professor with University of British Columbia and she is a Medical Oncologist and Clinical Scientist at the BC Cancer Agency with the lymphoma tumour group, since 2003. She obtained her medical degree at the University of British Columbia in 1996 and received a Masters of Science in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2004. Prior to working at British Columbia Cancer Agency, she spent two years at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to complete a Lymphoma Research Fellowship under the supervision of Dr. Shipp.
Dr Savage's research interests include all of the lymphoid cancers with particular interest and the training of new clinical fellows.
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Dr. Richard Klasa, MD
Medical Oncologist at the BC Cancer Agency, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia
Dr. Klasa received his undergraduate degree at McGill University in 1976, and completed his postgraduate training in Vancouver. Up until 2004, Dr. Klasa was the program director for the Medical Oncology Residency Training Program. Research within our group has focused on the use of biological agents in the treatment of malignancy. Cytokines, such as IL-2, are capable of inducing tumor regression by activation of various subsets of cytotoxic lymphocytes. His research group in the Division of Medical Oncology and Department of Advanced Therapeutics developed protocols for patient treatment supported by pre-clinical in vitro cell culture work as well as animal models. Immunological assays, (MLC, NK, LAK, flow cytometric immunophenotyping) supported and enhanced phase I and II clinical trials of IL-2 allowing a "bench to bedside" interface. Recent work involves the development and conduct of clinical studies of gene therapy in advanced malignancy. Pre-clinical efforts looked at feasibility of non-retroviral gene transfer with lipid/liposome vectors. On-going clinical protocols are testing the efficiency of involved HLA-B7 gene transfection into tumor nodules in vivo (genetic allogenization of tumor) with pre and post-treatment monitoring of immune parameters. His major area of clinical research is in lymphoma and melanoma. Very recently, we have begun pre-clinical work with antisense oligonucleotides targeting the BCL-2 gene in a SCID xenograft model that we have developed. Our interdisciplinary group is a translational research unit whose goal is rapid transition from concept to clinical trial.
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Dr. Carolyn J. Brown, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia
Dr. Carolyn Brown has a long-standing interest in the unique biology of the X chromosome. During Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies with Dr. Huntington Willard she discovered the key gene (named XIST) involved in silencing of one X chromosome in females. Research in her lab at the University of British Columbia continues to focus on X chromosome inactivation, particularly upon how expression of the XIST RNA leads to silencing of adjacent genes through epigenetic events including DNA methylation and histone modification and replacement. As a member of the Center for Lymphoid Cancer her research interests include the role of the X chromosome and global epigenetic silencing events in lymphoma.
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