PROFYLE Team

Dr. David Malkin, Program Director

Dr. David Malkin is leading the PROFYLE initiative as Program Director. He is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, and oncologist and senior scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). He also holds the Pediatric Oncology Group (POGO) Chair in Childhood Cancer Control at the University of Toronto. Dr. Malkin is recognized internationally for his landmark contributions to the field of pediatric cancer genetics.

Mr. Patrick Sullivan, PROFYLE Co-Chair, Leader - Partnership and Advocacy Node

Patrick Sullivan is a passionate childhood cancer research advocate, and the president and founder of the Team Finn Foundation, a volunteer-based organization dedicated to raising funds for cutting edge pediatric cancer research. Since 2009, the foundation has raised well over $2-million for pediatric cancer research. In addition, Patrick is a board member of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance, a member of TFRI’s Pacific Regional Advisory Committee and is an advocate on the Stand Up to Cancer‐St. Baldrick’s Pediatric Cancer Dream Team. Professionally, Patrick is a securities and corporate‐commercial litigator based in Vancouver, B.C.

Dr. Dominik Stoll, Program Manager

Dr. Dominik Stoll is a certified project manager with a PhD degree in Molecular Biology from the University of British Columbia (UBC). As a member of the project management team at Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre (GSC), he has managed large scale research projects, such as the Medulloblastoma Advanced Genomics International Consortium (MAGIC) and the Canadian arm of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

PROGRAM EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The Program Executive Committee (PEC) is responsible for planning and managing all of PROFYLE program activities. The twelve member committee will meet regularly to review progress and finances, plan necessary program changes and identify solutions to problems that might arise in the course of the program. Each of the project research nodes (groups that oversee the activities of one or more PROFYLE research projects), is chaired by a member of the PEC.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Dr. Rebecca Deyell, Clinical Node

Dr. Rebecca Deyell is a pediatric oncologist, Clinical Assistant Professor and Clinician Investigator in the Division of Pediatric Hematology / Oncology / BMT at BC Children's Hospital and the Michael Cuccione Childhood Cancer Research Program at the BCCH Research Institute. Dr. Deyell's research interests include developmental therapeutics and early phase clinical trials in pediatric oncology as well as personalized oncogenomics as part of the BC Pediatric Personalized Oncogenomics (POG) study.

Dr. Poul Sorensen, Proteomics Node

Dr. Poul Sorensen is Johal Endowed Chair in Childhood Cancer Research and Professor of Pathology at the University of British Columbia. He is Chair of the Translational Research Committee of the Children's Oncology Group. Dr. Sorensen is also PI of the Genome Canada/CIHR/C17 Canadian Pediatric Cancer Genome Consortium, using next‐generation sequencing to identify drivers in high‐risk childhood cancers. His group has discovered many novel translocation‐associated alterations in childhood cancer, and recently identified pathways underlying the adaptation of tumours to cellular stress.

Dr. Steven Jones, Genomics and Data Node

Steven Jones is a Professor, FRSC, FCAHS Associate Director and Head of Bioinformatics at the BC Cancer Agency's  Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre. Dr. Jones is also Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia Professor, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University

Dr. Rod Rassekh

Dr. Rod Rassekh is a clinician at the BC Children and Women’s Hospital, Associate Clinician Scientist at the Child and Family Research Institute and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Oncology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Rassekh's reasearch interest is in the treatment and long term outcomes of children treated for cancer, with a specific focus on quantifying what complications are seen in survivors of childhood cancer.

ALBERTA

Dr. Jennifer Chan, Biobanking Node

Dr. Jennifer Chan is a neuropathologist and Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Calgary. She was previously Pathology Leader of the Biological Samples Platform at the Broad Institute (MIT/Harvard), overseeing development of its tissue repository, and contributed to the experimental design and execution of all tissue‐based cancer projects. Dr. Chan directs the Brain and Pediatric Tumour Bank at the University of Calgary, including the development of unique live cell resources.

Dr. David Eisenstat, Model System Node

Dr. Eisenstat is a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Medical Genetics at the University of Alberta and the Division Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Palliative Care at the Stollery Children’s Hospital. He is also a consultant to the Brain Tumour Group at the Cross Cancer Institute and a member of the Alberta Provincial Neuro‐Oncology Tumour Group. 

Dr. Paul Grundy, AYA Node

Paul obtained an MD and Pediatric specialty training in Edmonton, and Hematology/Oncology fellowship and initial research training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He has spent the last 24 years in Edmonton, 16 of those as Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of Alberta/Stollery Children’s Hospital.

ONTARIO

Dr. Cynthia Hawkins, Biomarker Node

Dr. Hawkins obtained her PhD in 1996 and her MD in 1997 from the University of Western Ontario. She completed her residency training in neuropathology at the University of Toronto in 2002, including a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Zurich. Dr. Hawkins joined The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) as a neuropathologist in 2002 and has been appointed at the Research Institute in the Cell Biology program since 2004. She is a principal investigator at the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre and a Professor at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Michael Taylor

Dr. Michael Taylor is a pediatric neurosurgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) where he practices general paediatric neurosurgery, with a special focus on paediatric neuro-oncology. Dr. Taylor is also a principal investigator at the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, where his laboratory group focuses on the molecular genetics of medulloblastoma and ependymoma, two of the most common malignant paediatric brain tumours.

Dr. James Whitlock, Clinical Node

Dr. James A. Whitlock is the Division Head and Women’s Auxiliary Millennium Chair in Haematology/Oncology and Director of the Garron Family Cancer Centre at The Hospital for Sick Children, Senior Associate Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences Program at the SickKids Research Institute, and Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Meredith Irwin

Dr. Meredith Irwin is a pediatric oncologist and clinician-scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics & Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto. Dr. Irwin's main areas of research are p53-family protein biology, signaling, apoptosis, and neuroblastoma. Her neuroblastoma studies include the identification of signaling pathways involved in cell survival and invasion, identification of drug targets and therapies through functional screens, and cellular and animal models of metastatic neuroblastoma.

Dr. Adam Shlien, Genomics and Data Node

Dr. Shlien's research uses the tools of modern sequence-based genomics to discover the mutations that are present in the genomes of paediatric cancer patients, and to understand how these mutations alter the somatic transcriptome. He has a strong interest in sarcoma biology, and is directly involved with the  introduction of cutting-edge genomics, such as whole genome sequencing, into clinical practice.

QUEBEC

Dr. Nada Jabado, Biomarker Node

Dr. Jabado is a professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Montreal Children’s Hospital, McGill University. Her research focuses on genetic/genomic basis of pediatric high grade brain tumours for which she was recently awarded a large multi‐centre Genome Canada grant. She was awarded the 2012 CCS William E. Rawls Award.

Dr. Daniel Sinnett

Dr. Daniel Sinnett is a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry at the University of Montreal and holds the François-Karl Viau Research Chair in Pediatric Oncogenomics. Dr. Sinnett is currently spearheading two Canadian childhood leukemia initiatives aimed at using next-generation sequencing technologies to fully characterize the genomic determinants of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His group has made significant contributions in the understanding of genetic determinants of childhood leukemia both at the gene and at the genomic levels.

NOVA SCOTIA

Dr. Jason Berman

Dr. Jason Berman is Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist in Pediatric Oncology at Dalhousie University. Dr. Berman's lab uses the zebrafish model to study mast cell biology and model human cancers. His group has pioneered a human zebrafish cancer xenograft platform to study tumour-drug responses and interaction with the microenvironment. They also study genotype-phenotype correlations in rare genetic diseases.

Dr. Conrad Fernandez, Ethics Node

Dr. Conrad Fernandez is a professor at Dalhousie University and Head, Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Departments of Pediatrics and Bioethics, at IWK Health Centre. He is vice‐Chair of the COG Bioethics committee and co‐Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group Return of Research Results committee. His research focuses on the return of research results to participants, both as a summary of results and more recently in the context of genomic individual targeted and incidental findings. He was the lead GE3LS researcher in two Genome Canada funded consortia (The Canadian Pediatric Cancer Genome Consortium [CPCGC] and Identifying New Genes and Medicines for the Treatment of Orphan Diseases [IGNITE]).