Last chance to register for the 2023 MRM Symposium!

OUR SPEAKERS

Keynote speaker

John Dick is a Senior Scientist and holds a Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Affiliate Faculty Member, McEwen Stem Cell Institute, University Health Network; Professor of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto; University Professor, University of Toronto.

He is recognized for identifying and characterizing normal and leukemic human hematopoietic stem cells. His lab provided direct evidence for the cancer stem cell hypothesis, transforming our views of the origin and nature of cancer and laying the foundation for new approaches to cancer therapy. Similarly, his work on normal human hematopoiesis involving new methods for isolation and characterization of human HSC and downstream progenitors at single cell resolution has changed the textbook view of the human blood hierarchy. He has been internationally recognized through the election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2004); Royal Society of London, UK (2014); AACR Academy (2016) and International Member of the US National Academy of Medicine (2020) and numerous prestigious awards including the Dameshek Prize (2005), Thomas Prize (2009) and Mentor Award (2018) from the American Society of Hematology; Clowes Memorial Award (2008), Outstanding Achievement in Blood Cancer Research (2022) and AACR-Pezcoller Prize for Extraordinary Achievement (2020) from American Association for Cancer Research; the Noble Prize (2000) and the Diamond Jubilee Award (2007) (with Drs. J.E. Till and E.A. McCulloch) from the National Cancer Institute of Canada; the Gold Leaf Prize for Discovery (2017) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; the Tobias Award (2017) and ISSCR Award for Innovation (2019) from The International Society for Stem Cell Research; The KEIO Medical Science Prize (2017); Dr. Chew Wei Memorial Prize in Cancer Research (2019); and the 2022 Canada Gairdner International Award.

Dr. Claudia Kleinman’s research exploits genome-wide technologies and data science to understand mechanisms of gene expression. She has an interdisciplinary training that combines molecular biology, computer science, statistics and evolutionary biology, which she applies to the study of pathological transcriptional and RNA processing events, focusing particularly on cancer and brain development. She has developed and implemented methods for RNA editing and other chemical modifications, alternative splicing, non-coding RNA regulation, and integration with epigenomic data. Recently, her lab has specialized on single-cell transcriptomic technologies to resolve cell-to-cell variation. They have used these tools to define the cell of origin of several brain tumors, and to identify rare cells driving cancer progression. They are now applying them to study key aspects of cancer biology.

Dr. Jianyu Li is Canada Research Chair in Biomaterials and Musculoskeletal Health, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Associate Member in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Surgery at McGill University. He graduated from Zhejiang University and obtained a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Harvard University. He conducted postdoctoral research on biomaterials at the Harvard Wyss Institute. His current research is focused on the design and mechanics of biomaterials for tissue-repair applications. Dr. Li receives the Christophe Pierre Research Excellence Award from McGill University, the Wyss Technology Development Award from Harvard University and is listed in Innovators under 35 China by MIT Technology Review. His work has been supported by numerous funding agencies such as CIHR, NSERC, NIH and NFRF, and covered by the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and many news outlets such as the BBC, the CBC, etc.

Dr. Denis Claude Roy is a hematologist and a full professor in the Department of Medicine at the Université de Montréal. He is Director of the Hematology-Oncology and Cell Therapy University Institute (IHOT) and also directs the Centre of Excellence for Cellular Therapy. Recognized for his expertise in the field of stem cells, Dr. Roy is Executive Director of CellCAN, the Canadian Regenerative Medicine and Cellular Therapy Network for Knowledge Mobilization, and Scientific Director of the C3i Centre for the Translation and Commercialization of Cancer Immunotherapy and Regenerative Medicine. Amongst numerous awards, he received the Persillier-Lachapelle Award from the Government of Quebec in 2020 in recognition of his prolific career.