✨SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT✨
Samuel Bakhoum, M.D., Ph.D. — Keynote Speaker
Bio:
Samuel Bakhoum is a physician-scientist and a leader in the field of chromosomal instability and its role in cancer. He is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Volastra Therapeutics where he serves on the board of directors. He is also an adjunct associate professor at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Prior to joining Volastra full-time, Dr. Bakhoum was an Associate Member (Professor) in the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), where he also served as a practicing radiation oncologist. His research uncovered key insights into how chromosomal instability fuels cancer progression. Dr. Bakhoum’s group established a critical link between chromosomal instability and cancer metastasis through the generation of chronic inflammation, leading to the identification of novel therapeutic approaches and drug targets that are selective to tumors with chromosomal instability. A second area of interest in Dr. Bakhoum’s laboratory uncovered the link between chromosomal instability and epigenetic dysregulation, two hallmarks of advanced and metastatic cancers. Dr. Bakhoum has authored over 80 scientific publications on the subject. Dr. Bakhoum completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Lewis Cantley at Weill Cornell Medicine and his radiation oncology training at MSKCC. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
Talk:
Therapeutic approaches to targeting chromosomal instability in cancer
Emilia Lim, Ph.D. — Faculty Speaker
Bio:
Emilia Lim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Investigator at the Edwin SH Leong Centre for Healthy Aging at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Emilia’s team focuses on studying the impact of environmental exposures on our genomes, transcriptomes and epigenomes, and how this contributes to the promotion of age-related diseases, such as lung cancer. As a bioinformatics lab, they are interested in the multi-omic analyses of data obtained from cancer patients and healthy individuals to uncover how pollutants dysregulate normal cells and transform them into malignant states. Prior to starting her own group in 2024, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Francis Crick Research Institute (London, UK), and before that, a PhD student at Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre and UBC (Vancouver, Canada).
Talk:
Investigating the Impact of Environmental Exposures on Lung Cancer Promotion
Marie-Pier St-Laurent, M.D. — Faculty Speaker
Bio:
Dr. Marie-Pier St-Laurent is a urologic oncologist and an assistant professor in the Department of Urologic Sciences at University of British Columbia. She completed a three-year clinical and research fellowship in uro-oncology at Vancouver General Hospital, working alongside Drs. Peter Black, Martin Gleave and Miles Mannas. She treated patients with all types of urologic cancers, with a particular focus on prostate and bladder cancers. Dr. St-Laurent is also the co-founder and medical lead of the Bladder Cancer Supportive Care Program. Dr. St-Laurent’s research focuses on improving the diagnostics and treatment of prostate and bladder cancers. She designed and is the principal investigator of the Neo-BLAST study which investigate a novel approach of restaging patient with bladder cancer after completion of neoadjuvant therapy, to assess the safety and non-inferiority of active surveillance compared to standard of care definitive bladder treatment.
Talk:
Translating insights into clinical trial; The Neo-BLAST trial
Yaron Butterfield — Patient’s Perspective Speaker
Bio:
Yaron Butterfield graduated from Simon Fraser University (SFU) with a degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, a Minor in Cultural Anthropology, and a Certificate in Liberal Arts. In 2000, he started at Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre as a Cancer Genomics Researcher with a career highlight of playing a large role in the SARS coronavirus in 2003 which led to world wide headlines. He is the first author on 2 publications in scientific journals and the co-author on 56 other refereed articles, including 5 on brain cancer. He is an acrylic painter of portraits, landscape and surreal scenes and he is also a long-term survivor of a devastating form of brain cancer. He has been volunteering in a number of capacities in health care and the brain cancer community for over 20 years now.
Check out Yaron Butterfield’s website: http://yaronbutterfield.com
Talk:
Surviving Brain Cancer