Congratulations to Dr. Poul Sorensen on Terry Fox Medal

Dr. Poul Sorensen has been awarded the Doctors of BC Terry Fox Medal by BC Cancer. This prestigious award recognizes his outstanding contributions to pediatric cancer research and his leadership in translating groundbreaking scientific discoveries into clinical practice.

Meet the New Graduate Students in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

We are happy to welcome 14 new graduate students to our department. This year, 7 students are pursuing their PhDs, while 7 are working towards their MSc degrees. We look forward to seeing their contributions to the department and the wider field of pathology and laboratory medicine. Please follow the link below to learn more about their backgrounds and research projects. Read about our new graduate students here!

Weekly Province-wide Pathology Rounds Return

Date & Time: October 4th, 12:00PM | Presenter: Dr. Andrew Minchinton

Title: “A rollercoaster ride with hypoxia through oxygen mimetics to DNA repair inhibitors and visiting extravascular drug distribution on the journey.”

Learning Objective: Hypoxia was identified as a modulator of radiosensitivity over 100 years ago, and more recently, the presence of hypoxic cells in many cancers and its role in outcomes following radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and even surgery has been widely recognized. In this talk, Dr. Minchinton will describe evidence linking hypoxia to treatment resistance and highlight potential therapeutic strategies, including oxygen mimetics, bioreductive cytotoxins, and DNA repair inhibitors. Hypoxia represents a clinically validated target with significant potential, but one that remains underutilized in treatment.

Read Dr. Andrew Minchinton's bio here

You can also view previous rounds here. Rounds.

We welcome your participation and suggestions for topics or speakers. Please email your ideas to pathassist@pathology.ubc.ca.

The same Zoom link will be used for all rounds: Join Zoom Meeting
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61199076992?pwd=3Ix1R2FwPB9rwimuOEfPmfhaO6onAa.1

Recently Published Work

We are pleased to highlight the recent scholarly contributions of our faculty members. Below are some of the latest refereed publications:

• 🔹 New paper from Dr. Stephen Yip: "Enhancing clinical genomic accuracy with panelGC: a novel metric and tool for quantifying and monitoring GC biases in hybridization capture panel sequencing." Read more.
• 🔹 For World Alzheimer’s Month, we'd like to share Dr. Mari DeMarco’s recent study in the personal and clinical values of Alzheimer’s disease biomarker testing. "Personal value of Alzheimer's disease biomarker testing and result disclosure from the patient and care partner perspective" Read more. and "Clinical value of Alzheimer's disease biomarker testing" Read more.
• 🔹 Our new Clinical Assistant Professor, Dr. Eugene Yeung, has published his latest research article in the BC Medical Journal Yeung EYH: "Prevalence of intestinal parasites identified by microscopy prior to implementation of infectious diarrhea panel multiplex nucleic-acid amplification testing in British Columbia". BCMJ. 2024;66:248-254. Read more.

UBC-Led Study by Dr. Mari DeMarco Confirms Impact of Biomarker Testing in Dementia Care

A recent UBC-led study, led by Dr. Mari DeMarco, confirms the value of biomarker testing in improving dementia care. Published by Brain Canada, this research highlights how early detection through biomarkers can significantly enhance diagnosis and treatment options for Alzheimer's disease. Dr. DeMarco's program, based at St. Paul’s Hospital, has been pivotal in developing Canada’s first biomarker testing initiative, providing critical insights into disease management. For more details, you can read the full study here.