Personal information
Verified email addresses
Biography
Physician Scientist (MA, MD, PhD) in the BRAvE Precision Medicine Program for Childhood Cancer at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Currently working on AI-guided high-dimensional analytical approaches to characterize the phenotypic identity of relapse-propagating B-ALL subpopulations during patient-specific disease progression and their matched patient-derived xenografts (PDX) in order to develop novel therapies that exploit subpopulation-specific vulnerabilities before relapse occurs (first/corresponding author on submitted manuscript).
Pediatrician with completed Clinical Fellowship Training in Pediatric Hem/Onc/BMT and recently finished 5-year Postdoctoral Translational Research Fellowship in Pediatric Tumor Immunology and Childhood Cancer at the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute in the Lab of Gregor Reid. Passionate about clinically integrated translational research in the areas hematological malignancies, tumour immunology and patient-specific disease heterogeneity with the goal of deepening our understanding of early therapy-response biology in childhood cancers in order to improve patient-specific disease monitoring and develop novel approaches for eradicating relapse-driving mechanisms.
Significant expertise in a wide range of immune and cell biology techniques as well as clinically applicable research methodology, particularly in state-of-the art phenotype-driven single-cell technology in both clinical and pre-clinical models.
Research projects and interests:
(i) Dissection of the patient-specific intra-leukemic phenotypic heterogeneity during leukemia progression to resolve subpopulations with relapse-propagating capacity.
(ii) Tumor immunology of pediatric leukemia: understanding immune evasion, immune escape and functional relapse-driving capacity of residual leukemia
(iii) Anti-leukemic activity of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated immune stimulation.
(iv) Anti-tumor activity of the endogenous immune system at end-of-induction chemotherapy (and relationship with absolute lymphocyte counts, ALC) in pediatric malignancies.
(v) Optimized clinical MRD monitoring to better predict relapse in the individual patient.
(vi) AI-based high-dimensional analysis at single-cell level to deconvolute phenotypic trajectories
(vii) Complex phenotyping of leukemia and immune environment: high-dimensional and clinically standardized flow cytometry and AbSeq.
(viii) Patient-derived xenografting (PDX) model of Minimal Residual Disease (MRD+) acute leukemia.
(ix) Immune contexture of hematological tumors.
Extensive interdisciplinary and team-building leadership experience in the integration of clinical medicine and translational research at BC Children's Hospital by successfully designing and implementing the Translational Research Infrastructure for the Precision Medicine BRAvE Platform (Better Responses through Avatar-omics Evidence) as well as the local Pediatrics Biobank.
International Leadership:
- Long-standing member of the Quality & Standards Committee of the International Clinical Cytometry Society (ICCS) dedicated to the optimization, standardization and implementation of diagnostic clinical flow cytometry including the publication of peer-reviewed guidelines (https://www.cytometry.org/web/quality.php) and working group recommendations for best practice.
- Third consecutive year on the Scientific Program Planning Committee for the Annual ICCS Meeting as well as Plenary Chair (e.g. organized and co-chaired 1st Plenary Session on the utility of artificial intelligence for clinical flow cytometry with M.C. Béné in 2023).
- Invited Expert on the ISAC-ICCS Task Force on Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning in Clinical Flow Cytometry (recent publication 2024: Recommendations of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Flow Cytometry, DOI: 10.1002/cyto.b.22166)
- Invited Expert on the Document Development Committee that will extensively revise the CLSI-H43 "Guideline for Clinical Flow Cytometric Analysis of Neoplastic Hematolymphoid Cells" (Chairs: Prof. Wolfgang Kern, Dr. Sindhu Cherian).
Recipient of the EHA-ASH Translational Research Training in Hematology (TRTH) Award, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellowship Grant, and multiple other seed grants, awards and co-applicant research funding.
Over 250 hours of PBL/CBL/Clinical Skill teaching at the UBC Faculty of Medicine, wide-ranging teaching experience in formal and informal settings in both clinical and research contexts.
Passionate about mentoring students, technicians, research-interested physicians and clinically-interested basic scientists.
Committed to providing excellent and innovative care to children with cancer and blood disorders, dedicated to guiding young patients and their families through their cancer journey with compassion, thoughtfulness, trustworthiness and attention-to-detail.
Habilitation equivalence of academic achievements.
Activities
Works (24)
2-s2.0-85017469176
2-s2.0-85004093017
2-s2.0-84973637141
2-s2.0-75149135588
2-s2.0-77953168823
2-s2.0-66749147422
2-s2.0-58449090961
2-s2.0-58149302754
2-s2.0-43149116562
2-s2.0-33845244566
2-s2.0-19644363406