Faculty Members - Experimental Oncology Graduate Program UofA

Faculty Members Currently Qualified to Supervise Graduate Students

Dr. Bassam Abdulkarim	Breast cancer and neuro-oncology, clinical and translational research. More...
Dr. Vickie Baracos	Metabolism in wasting disorders: skeletal muscle atrophy and cancer-associated cachexia. A number of pathological states may be defined as wasting disorders - several examples include cancer, AIDS, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. My research program focuses on the metabolic abnormalities that underlie this wasting, particularly of the skeletal muscles. More...
Dr. Carol Cass	We study nucleoside transporter proteins and their role in nucleotide metabolism, with a focus on nucleoside drugs. Examples of clinically important anticancer nucleoside drugs are capecitabine, cladribine, cytarabine, fludarabine, and gemcitabine and of antiviral nucleoside drugs are lamivudine, zalcitabine, and zidovudine. We are also interested in the role of nucleoside transporters in cell signaling by adenosine. More... Dr. Cass is not accepting new graduate students as the primary supervisor.
Dr. Gordon Chan	In my laboratory, research is centered on the mechanism of cell cycle control and particularly the regulation of accurate, chromosome segregation during mitosis. The mitotic checkpoint is a failsafe mechanism by which the cell prevents premature anaphase and ensures accurate chromosome segregation. By investigating the molecular mechanism of the mitotic checkpoint, we can better evaluate these genes as potential cancer drug targets as well as contributing to the basic understanding of cancer.More
Dr. Roseline Godbout	Retinoblastoma, a childhood tumour of the retina, results from malignant transformation of precursor cells. Retinal precursors are multipotent neuroectodermal cells that can differentiate into all the different types of neuronal and glial cells that make up the mature tissue. There are currently two major projects in the lab. The first is to study the function and regulation of genes that are expressed at the early stages of retinal development. The second is to study the role of the DEAD box gene DDX1, encoding an RNA unwinding protein, in normal retinal development and in retinoblastoma. More...
Dr. Michael Hendzel	In my laboratory, we are examining how chromatin and regulatory molecules are compartmentalized within the cell nucleus. Our current research programs involve defining the dynamics of movement of chromatin, subnuclear structures involved in compartmentalizing regulatory molecules that act on chromatin and RNA, and the movement of individual regulatory molecules within the cell nucleus. We have found that most molecules move considerably slower than expected for their molecular weight. More...
Dr. Mary Hitt	My research focuses on the development of gene therapy vectors that minimize these side effects without compromising anticancer activity. Currently we are investigating adenovirus vectors carrying modified fiber proteins and/or tissue-specific promoters to target expression of toxic genes specifically to the tumor. More...
Dr. Richard Lamb	One of the most exciting current questions in biomedical research is how the environment- in the form of nutrients- interacts with genes to affect cell growth and metabolism. Understanding the interplay between these factors is the focus of research in my laboratory. The answers that emerge are likely to influence how we treat diseases in which nutrients play a major role, including cancer and diabetes. More...
Dr. Sandy McEwan	Functional imaging in cancer. More...
Dr. John Mercer	Therapy of metastatic bone cancer, liposome guided radiation therapy in the treatment of ovarian cancer, development of novel selective agents for imaging breast cancer. More...
Dr. David Murray	The basic research in my laboratory focuses on understanding the basic mechanisms by which mammalian cells respond to ionizing radiation and DNA-damaging anticancer drugs, with an emphasis on DNA-repair pathways. My major area of translational research interest is in identifying the genetic factors (polymorphisms) that determine the extreme response of some cancer patients to anticancer therapeutics such as radiation therapy and cisplatin-based chemotherapy. More...
Dr. Linda Pilarski	Research in the Pilarski laboratory focuses on the cellular and molecular biology of the malignant clone in multiple myeloma, a deadly and incurable cancer of the immune system. A second research focus is an analysis of molecules involved in the migratory traffic of normal and malignant lymphocytes throughout the body, and on the adhesion receptors that mediate interactions to the extracellular microenvironment in the vasculature, the bone marrow and the thymus. An emerging area of research in the Pilarski laboratory is the development of novel, high throughput technology to detect and monitor cancer cells as the disease progresses, and to facilitate the design of therapy customized to target the vulnerabilities of the malignant clone in each patient. More....
Dr. Andrew Shaw	Our laboratory is interested in a novel and exciting family of proteins which may be prototypic suppressors of tumor metastasis. Transmembrane four (TM4) proteins are an ancient and conserved family of channel-like proteins with fourpresumed transmembrane domains. Although their unique function is obscure TM4 proteins are known to modify receptor mediated signaling, affecting cell adhesion, cell proliferation and cell migration. Recently loss of TM4's has been shown to correlate with progression in several human tumors suggesting that TM4's may act as unique suppressors of metastatic spread. More....
Dr. Joan Turner	My lab studies mechanisms of tumor resistance to ionizing radiation. Radiotherapy (RT) is a mainstay of cancer treatment; however, a large number of tumors are resistant to RT, leading to local failure and ultimately poor survival. In particular, hypoxic tumor cells are ~3-fold more resistant to RT. We approach this problem by investigating how tumor cells survive in hypoxic environments. More...
Dr. Jack Tuszynski	Research Interests: Models of motor protein function Microtubule assembly and function Integration of mathematical modelling into the pharmaceutical development process Rational drug design More...
Dr.Alan Underhill	The Underhill laboratory is interested in deciphering how master regulators of melanocyte development contribute to melanoma pathogenesis. In addition, we are also examining how histone modifications regulate the balance between cell proliferation and differentiation, and how this is overridden in cancer.. More....
Dr. Michael Weinfeld	Several years ago we developed a postlabelling assay that allowed us to detect a number of lesions in irradiated DNA. We have applied this assay to the study of drugs that enhance the level of DNA damage in radioresistant and chemotherapy-resistant hypoxic cells. We observed that these drugs can mimic oxygen by producing DNA strand breaks with specific termini that require additional processing before the strands can be rejoined. We have also made use of the assay to monitor the repair of these lesions by purified enzymes and cell-free extracts. More....