​Prof Torsten Nielsen is an MD/PhD clinician-scientist in the department of pathology who specialized in sarcomas and breast cancer. He works to translate genomic discoveries into practical clinical diagnostics and treatments. Some of his successes include the development of new diagnostic immunohistochemistry assays for synovial sarcoma and breast cancer molecular subtypes, FDA and EU clearance of the NanoString-based PAM50 (Prosigna) assay for breast cancer risk, and contributions to clinical trials for translocation associated sarcomas, tenosynovial giant cell tumors, SMARCB1 deficient cancers and for the safe de-escalation of breast cancer therapy. His current projects listed at http://www.gpecdata.med.ubc.ca/torsten/Currproj.html and lab members shown at http://www.gpecdata.med.ubc.ca/torsten/Lab.htm

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Lab website: http://www.gpecdata.med.ubc.ca/torsten/

Email: torsten@mail.ubc.ca

Dr. Christopher Ong is a Senior Research Scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of British Columbia.  He is a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Senior Scholar.  Dr. Ong’s research interest is focused on studying disease mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels. A strong underlying emphasis of his research efforts is in translational research with the aim of translating laboratory-based discoveries into tangible clinical applications. 

In particular, his research interests are primarily focused on understanding molecular mechanisms that control treatment resistance of prostate cancer.  Dr. Ong believes that insights into these pathways will guide the development of new molecular targeted therapeutics for treating castration resistant prostate cancer.

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Lab website: http://www.vchri.ca/researchers/christopher-ong

Email: chris.ong@ubc.ca

Daniel Renouf is a medical oncologist at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver Centre, and an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, Department of Medicine. 

He received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Alberta and completed his internal medicine and medical oncology training at the University of British Columbia and British Columbia Cancer Agency.  He undertook further training in early drug development and gastrointestinal oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital and the University of Toronto, and obtained a Masters of Public Health from Harvard University. 

Daniel’s research interests include developmental therapeutics, genomics, and biomarker development within gastrointestinal cancers, with a focus on pancreatic cancer.  He is the leader of the BC Cancer Agency Phase I program, the Co-Director of Pancreas Centre BC and is the Co-chair of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group Pancreatic Cancer disease group.

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Lab website: http://medicine.med.ubc.ca/profiles/daniel-renouf/

Email: drenouf@bccancer.bc.ca 

Dr. Rennie, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Science, is a co-founder and Director of Laboratory Research for the Vancouver Prostate Centre, which is one of the world’s largest research institutes focused exclusively on urological cancers.  His lab has had a long history of characterizing hormone regulation of prostate cancers and has contributed much of the mechanistic basis for intermittent androgen suppression treatment protocols. His research has long been aimed at determining how androgens regulate gene transcription and how to use this knowledge to treat castration resistant prostate cancer. Currently, in collaboration with in silico drug designer Dr. Artem Cherkasov, he is working on the development of small molecule inhibitors of the androgen receptor (AR) which target novel alternative sites on this protein, including the allosteric BF3 site and a recently discovered pocket in the AR DNA binding domain. He has co-developed new compounds that can effectively inhibit all known AR mutations as well as constitutively active AR variants that are associated with the development of castration resistance. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles, many book chapters & reviews, and holds several patents.

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Lab website: http://www.prostatecentre.com/about-us/people/dr-paul-rennie

Email:  prennie@prostatecentre.com

Research Interests:

• Development of biomarkers to identify early biological changes in the premalignant process

• Human studies using genetic and phenotypic biomarkers of exposure and risk

• Reduction in cancer risk through chemoprevention

• The potential role of reactive oxygen species in chromosomal breakage in humans: identification of mutations that increase sensitivity to such agents

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Lab website: https://www.bccrc.ca/dept/ccr/people/miriam-rosin

Email: mrosin@bccrc.ca