FOUNDING MEMBERS
Jonathan Bramson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University
Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
Professor, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University
Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
Dr. Bramson holds a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Translational Cancer Immunology and the John Bienestock Chair in Molecular Medicine.The Bramson lab is focused on developing methods to direct cancer patients’ immune systems to attack their tumors. To this end, the lab has been developing vaccines based on recombinant viruses (namely adenoviruses and rhabdoviruses) to boost immunity against specific tumor antigens. More recently, the lab has been focused on engineering T cells with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) directed against cancer. The Bramson lab has created a novel chimeric receptor, known as the T cell antigen coupling (TAC) receptor, that displays enhanced anti-tumor activity and reduced toxicity relative to conventional CARs in pre-clinical models; this technology was licensed to a recent spin-off from McMaster, Triumvira Immunologics, Inc. The Bramson lab works closely with clinical partners at the Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton to optimally develop these exciting new immune strategies to address unmet needs within the cancer community in Southern Ontario. Together, Bramson and his colleagues have established an infrastructure at McMaster, which includes GMP production and GLP correlative assays, for conducting clinical trials of novel cancer immunotherapies that is unparalleled in Canada.
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Rejean Lapointe, Ph.D.
Professor, Département de Médecine, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal
Head of the cancer research department, Centre de recherche du CHUM
Scientific director, Institut du Cancer de Montréal (ICM)
Professor, Département de Médecine, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal
Head of the cancer research department, Centre de recherche du CHUM
Scientific director, Institut du Cancer de Montréal (ICM)
Dr. Lapointe is a researcher specialized in human tumor immunology since 1997. He got his basic training at Université Laval from 1987-1997 in microbiology and immuno-virology, and moved to the NIH in the group of Drs. Steven Rosenberg and Patrick Hwu while working on tumor immunology. He was recruited at Université de Montréal/CHUM/Institut du cancer de Montréal in 2002, where he is now full professor. He also is the current head of the CRCHUM Cancer research department and Scientific director of the Institut du cancer de Montréal. Objectives of his lab in the last 10 years were oriented at both fundamental and applied research to: study T and B lymphocyte biology, establishing a Cell therapy program, and a clinical Immuno-monitoring platform, study tumor-immune system interactions, and develop new vaccination systems and immunotherapies. He is part of 2 FRQS Networks (cancer and cell/tissue/gene therapy), the National Center of Excellence (NCE) on Biotherapeutics for Cancer Treatment (BioCanRx), the immunotherapy network (iTNT) and the Montreal Cancer Consortium (MCC), the last 2 being supported by the Terry Fox Research Institute. He manages the FRQS/CHUM Breast Cancer Bank and has established the clinical CHUM immune-monitoring platform (6 clinical trials with Pharma).
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Brad Nelson, Ph.D.
Distinguished Scientist and Director, Deeley Research Centre,
Co-Director, Immunotherapy Program, BC Cancer, Victoria BC, Canada
Distinguished Scientist and Director, Deeley Research Centre,
Co-Director, Immunotherapy Program, BC Cancer, Victoria BC, Canada
Dr. Nelson is a native of Vancouver BC. He received his B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia in 1987 and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. He completed postdoctoral training with Dr. Phil Greenberg and held faculty positions at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington in Seattle. In 2003, he became the founding Director of BC Cancer's Deeley Research Centre in Victoria BC. He is a Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia and a Professor of Biochemistry/Microbiology at the University of Victoria. Dr. Nelson’s lab uses genomic and molecular approaches to study the immune response to cancer, with an emphasis on ovarian cancer. As Co-Director of BC Cancer’s Immunotherapy Program, he is leading a phase I clinical trials program focused on adoptive T cell therapy for gynecological cancers, leukemia, lymphoma, and other malignancies.
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Pamela Ohashi, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto
Co-Director, Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto
Dr. Ohashi received her PhD from the University of Toronto with Dr. Tak Mak, and did her post-doctoral training at the University of Zurich with the Nobel Laureate Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel, and Dr. Hans Hengartner.
Dr. Ohashi’s research interests involve understanding T cell tolerance, strategies to promote tissue specific immune responses and translating these findings in clinical trials. She has received a number of prestigious awards and honors including the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Pharmingen Investigator Award, the National Cancer Institute of Canada’s William E. Rawls Award, The Canadian Society of Immunology’s Investigator Award as well as a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. She previously served as the Chair of the Cancer Immunotherapy Steering Committee of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and also previously served on the Board of Directors of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). She has also been elected as a member of the Royal Society of Canada. |