Confirmed Speakers
Fei-Fei Liu, MD, FRCPC
Affiliation: Canadian Institutes for Health Research;University Health Network; UofT
Dr. Fei-Fei Liu is the current Scientific Director of the Institute of Cancer Research at the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). Her mandate is to define cancer research priorities whilst advancing the health for all Canadians, in collaboration with many national and international partners. Dr. Liu has held many leadership roles including Head of the Radiation Medicine Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto (2012-2022). She continues as a practising Radiation Oncologist, and Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret, investigating novel molecular therapeutic strategies in conjunction with radiation therapy; novel biomarkers for human malignancies; as well as understanding the biological mechanisms underlying cancer treatment toxicities. Dr. Liu has published over 200 peer-reviewed publications on these topics, and has filed three patents. She is also the founding Director of a CIHR/Terry Fox Foundation Research Training Initiative, with the objective to train the next generation of trans-disciplinary scientists in Radiation Medicine.
Ming Tsao, MD, FRCPC
Affiliation: University Health Network; UofT
Dr. Tsao is a Consultant Thoracic Pathologist and Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, and Professor of Medical Biophysics the University of Toronto. He received his BSc (Hons) from Simon Fraser University (1973) and MD from the University of British Columbia (1976). He trained as an Anatomic Pathologist at McGill University and as an experimental pathologist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill. He was a past faculty member in the Department of Pathology at McGill University and the Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, Canada. He has published extensively in lung cancer pathology, prognostic and predictive biomarkers, molecular pathobiology of non-small cell lung cancer, and standardization of molecular testing in lung cancer. Dr. Tsao is a member of the Board of Directors of International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). He was the recipient of the 2015 Mary Matthews Pathology Award from IASLC, and the 2011 O. Harold Warwick Award from the Canadian Cancer Society. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Lillian Siu, MD, FASCO
Affiliation: University Health Network; UofT
Dr. Siu is a senior medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is the Director of the Phase I Trials Program, co-leads the Tumor Immunotherapy Program and holds the BMO Chair in Precision Genomics. Dr. Siu had served on the Board of Directors of both the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She is a fellow of ASCO, AACR and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS). Dr. Siu is the 2024-2025 President-Elect of the AACR. Dr. Siu’s major research focus is in the area of new anticancer drug development, with respect to phase I trials and head and neck malignancies. Internationally, Dr. Siu was the recipient of the US National Cancer Institute’s Michaele C. Christian Award in 2010, European Society of Medical Oncology’s Targeted Anticancer Therapies (TAT) Honorary Award in 2020, Canadian Cancer Trials Group’s Maria Ricci Memorial Lectureship in 2023, and ASCO’s highest honor - David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award in 2024. In 2020, Dr. Siu received the International Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award from ASCO. Dr. Siu has published nearly 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and she is the co-Editor-in-Chief for AACR’s Cancer Research Communications, and is on the editorial board for Cell and Cancer Cell.
Ren-Ke Li, MD, PhD. FRSC, FCAHS
Affiliation: University Health Network; UofT
Dr. Ren-Ke Li is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, University Health Network. He was the recipient of the Canada Research Chair in Cardiac Regeneration (Tier 1) and a Career Investigator of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
Dr. Li has been on the forefront in the field of cardiac regeneration. Over 30 years his research group has defined muscle cell transplantation for Cardiac Repair, followed by stem cell transplantation for Cardiac Regeneration. Currently, his research group is attempting to Rejuvenate aged stem cells and aged recipients. Clarifying these mechanisms of Repair, Regeneration and Rejuvenation will allow to develop the “next generation” of cell therapy for restoration of heart function of aged patients. He has also utilized tissue engineering technology to develop conductive biomaterials aimed at reducing cardiac arrhythmia.
Peter Liu, MD, FRCPC
Affiliation: University of Ottawa
Peter Liu is the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and also Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and University of Toronto. He was the former Scientific Director of the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He is also the co-lead of a new research program on Brain-Heart Interconnections, a $109 million new research program funded by the federal government.
Professor Liu’s research focuses on the pathophysiology and clinical outcomes of heart failure from bench to bedside. He has published over 480 peer-reviewed articles in high impact journals and received numerous awards in recognition of his research and scientific accomplishments.
Hong-Shuo Sun, MD, PhD
Affiliation: University of Toronto
Dr. Hong-Shuo Sun is a professor at the Division of Anatomy, Department of Surgery Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. His research focuses on understanding neurobiology of stress and diseases, including: 1.) the cellular, molecular and functional mechanisms of cerebral ischemia and hypoxia in different species, and 2.) gene and protein alternations after ischemia and hypoxia in different species which could apply to potential neuroprotection in these animal models - using multidisciplinary approaches in combination with molecular biology, biochemistry, advance imaging (immunocytochemistry/immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy and Laser Capture microdissection), in vivo animal models of stress and diseases (hypoxia, global / focal ischemia), electrophysiology, behavioral and functional assessments, and bioelectric signal approaches (biomedical engineering / instrumentation).
Jim Hu, PhD
Affiliation: The Hospital for Sick Children; UofT
Dr. Hu is a Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto and the Physiology and Experimental Medicine Department at the Hospital for Sick Children. He has been well trained in the area of gene regulation at the levels of gene transcription in his graduate stdues at Harvard and RNA splicing in his postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto. He has a long-standing interest in developing therapeutic strategies for cystic fibrosis. He made major contributions to lung gene therapy research through designing and producing novel helper-dependent adenoviral vectors for airway gene expression as well as developing efficient delivery methods for lung gene delivery in large animal models. The viral vectors developed by his group have major advantages for gene replacement therapy as well as gene editing, such as high efficiency in airway transduction, large DNA carrying capacity and low toxicity. He has extensive experience in obtaining and managing research grants as well as in training post doctoral fellows and graduate students. He has collaborated locally, nationally and internationally with scientists around the world. His major research goal is to develop novel gene therapy approaches to permanently correct genetic airway diseases through gene editing or gene integration in airway stem cells
Hong Han, PhD
Affiliation: McMaster University
Dr. Hong Han is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) and a Principal Investigator at the Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR) at McMaster University. Dr. Hong Han's research focuses on high-throughput discovery and characterization of coordinated multilayer gene regulation in health and disease, and developing novel approaches for cancer therapeutics. Dr. Han and her team have pioneered developing and applying several integrated technological platforms for large-scale genetic/drug screening and ultra-high-throughput single-cell profiling. Leveraging the power of these systematic experimental and computational approaches, together with in vitro, in vivo, and patient cohort studies, they uncover multilayer gene regulatory maps of key cell fate control, including master gene and RNA/splicing regulators of cancer development, recurrence, and metastasis. In addition, they identify small molecule modulators and mechanistic insights to advance therapeutics for treatment-resistant cancers.
Kelsie Thu
Affiliation: St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto; UofT
Kelsie Thu is a Scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science at St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto and an Assistant Professor in the Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology Department at the University of Toronto. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia and her postdoctoral fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Dr. Thu is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Lung Cancer Therapy Response and her work focuses on identifying molecular mechanisms governing tumour biology and drug resistance using clinical and functional genomic approaches in translational lung cancer models. Her ultimate goal is to develop new and improved therapeutic approaches.
Chao Zheng
Affiliation: Brain Health Imaging Centre, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH); UofT
Dr. Chao Zheng is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Chemistry, and Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto. He is also a Scientist at the Brain Health Imaging Centre and the Azrieli Centre for Neuro-Radiochemistry at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Dr. Zheng’s research has been funded by prominent institutions, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The Zheng research group focuses on the development and application of innovative radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and assessment of treatment in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Chao Zheng’s research program has specific objectives: 1) Discovery of cutting-edge radiopharmaceuticals for brain imaging applications; 2) Developing and applying novel PET imaging methods that directly capture biochemical or phenotypic changes in vivo. This involves integrating disciplines such as medicinal chemistry, radiochemistry, quantitative PET imaging from in vitro and preclinical in vivo studies, and pharmacology.
Daniel Drucker MD, FRCPC
Affiliation: Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute Mount Sinai Hospital, UofT
Dr. Daniel Drucker is a Canadian endocrinologist. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he is a professor of medicine at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto.
His key achievements include the discovery, characterization, and application of incretin hormones, namely GLP-1 and -2 and the therapeutic value of inhibition of DPP4, an enzyme that degrades GLP peptides. GLP-1, GLP-2 and DPPP4 inhibitors are widely used clinically for type-2 diabetes and short bowel syndrome (GLP-2). Most recently, GLP-1 agonists have been approved for the control of obesity.
Dr. Drucker has been recognized by numerous awards that include:, Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation Distinguished Scientist Award (2002), Claude Bernard Award from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes for Outstanding Diabetes Research (2012), Banting Medal for Scientific Achievement, American Diabetes Association (2014), Officer of the Order of Canada (2015), Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London (2015), Rolf Luft Award in Endocrinology and Diabetes Research, Karolinska Institute (2017), the Harold Hamm International Prize for Diabetes Research (2019), the Novo Nordisk Foundation EASD Prize for Excellence in Diabetes Research (2019), the Gairdner International Award (2021), and the Wolf Prize (2023). Dr. Drucker was elected to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2022.
Marcelo Cypel, MD, MSc, FRCSC
Affiliation: UHN, UofT
Dr. Cypel is a Staff Thoracic Surgeon at University Health Network (UHN) and Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is the director of the ECLS program at UHN. He received his MD in 1999 and completed his general surgery and thoracic surgery residency program in 2004. In 2005 he started his post-doctoral research fellowship at the Latner Thoracic Surgery Laboratory. During this time, he developed a new method of lung preservation and donor lung repair called Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP). This method is now used clinically in Toronto and in many other centers, and has significantly increased the number of transplantable lungs. He subsequently performed a 3 years fellowship in thoracic oncology, cardiac surgery, and lung transplantation at the University of Toronto. During his training, he has received 13 awards, including the McMurrich Award given for the best fundamental science work by any level trainee in the Department of Surgery and the 1st Annual Zane Cohen Clinical Fellowship Achievement Award. He also achieved a large number of 1st and senior author peer review publications including high impact journals such as Science TM and The New England Journal of Medicine. His main clinical interests are in minimal invasive thoracic surgery for lung cancer, treatment of pulmonary metastases, artificial lung devices and lung transplantation. Dr. Cypel currently holds the prestigious Canada Research Chair in Lung Transplantation from the Government of Canada and he is the principal investigator in very innovative clinical trials, such as the use of uncontrolled donation after cardio-circulatory death for lung transplantation and in vivo lung perfusion with chemotherapy to treat patients with lung metastases. He is a Member of the American Association for Th
Anthony Gramolini
Affiliation: Ted Rogers Center
Dr. Anthony Gramolini is a Full Professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Physiology. His lab primarily investigates the cellular mechanisms involved in the regulation of calcium cycling at the level of sarcoplasmic reticulum and its role in cardiac disease.
Scott Heximer
Affiliation: UofT
Dr. Scott Heximer is Professor and Chair of Physiology at University of Toronto.
Heart Failure is often associated with altered cardiac signaling and function within myocytes and supporting cells including fibroblasts. His work aims to understand cardiac signaling in normal and diseased states between all of the different cell types within the heart. Two primary areas of focus for his group are currently: 1) understanding how altered heterotrimeric G-protein signaling can lead to altered cardiac function; and 2) characterizing how different subpopulations of cardiac-resident fibroblasts respond to altered signaling cues during the development of heart failure.
James Rutka
Affiliation: The Hospital for Sick Children
Born in Toronto, and educated at Princeton University (1975-1977), Queen's University
Medical School (1977-1981), McGill University internship (1981-1982), University of
Toronto neurosurgery (1982 – 1989), and University of California San Francisco PhD
(1984-1987), Dr. Rutka assumed his appointment at the Hospital for Sick Children in
the Division of Neurosurgery, the Department of Surgery, the University of Toronto in
1990. Dr. Rutka's primary research and clinical interests relate to the science and
surgery of human brain tumors and epilepsy. He has over 600 peer reviewed
publications. Over the course of his career, he has received more than $25M in research
grant funding.
In 2015, he received the Margolese
National Brain Disorders Prize from the University of British Columbia, the Robert L.
Noble Award from the Canadian Cancer Society, and was made an Officer of the Order
of Canada. In 2017, he received an honorary degree, Doctor of Science, from his
Medical School Alma Mater, Queen’s University. In 2019, he received the Cushing
Medal from the AANS, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon one of its
members. In 2022, Dr. Rutka he received the Distinguished Service Award from the
AANS; the Golden Neuron Award from the World Academy of Neurological Surgeons;
and the Medal of Honour from the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies
(WFNS). In 2024, Dr. Rutka was awarded with the Charles Drake Medal and Lifetime
Achievement Award from the Canadian Neurosurgical Society.