News & Events

News

• Ontario Tumour Bank samples contributed to international kidney cancer genomics project (May 1, 2024)
  • The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a part of the World Health Organization (WHO), sequenced 962 kidney tumours from 11 countries. This study revealed unique genetic patterns based on geography, offering new insights into what might cause cancer in different regions.
• Ask a Cancer Researcher: What happens to samples donated to tumour banks? (July 19, 2023)
• New Associate Director says Ontario Tumour Bank can be ‘bridge’ to future cancer innovations (April 4, 2023)
  • The ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Project (PCAWG), known as the Pan-Cancer Project, a collaboration involving more than 1,300 scientists and clinicians from 37 countries, analyzed more than 2,600 genomes of 38 different tumour types, creating a huge resource of primary cancer genomes.
• Q&A with Monique Albert: Ontario’s international leader in biobanking (May 21, 2020)
• The donations behind the discoveries: The Ontarians who made the Pan-Cancer Project possible (March 24, 2020)
• Deep freezing allows researchers to dig deep into tumour samples (March 26, 2019)

Events

• “Custom prospective viable tissue procurement from the Ontario Tumour Bank (OTB) London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) site: supporting the next generation of precision medicine initiatives” presented at the Western University/London Health Sciences Centre 20th Annual Oncology Research & Education Day (London, ON; June 13, 2024).
• “Ontario Tumour Bank: Sample and data collection for research” presented at The Ottawa Hospital Research Day (Ottawa, ON; November 15, 2023).
• “Association of Ontario Tumour Biobanks (AOTB):  A proposed provincial network to expand academic and industry research capacity” presented at the Canadian Cancer Research Conference (Halifax, NS; November 12, 2023)
• “Biobanks: Partners in research for quality patient samples and data” presented at the University of Toronto Temerty Research Showcase (Toronto, ON; July 7, 2023)
• “When The Decision To Close A Repository Is Reversed: The Ontario Tumour Bank Experience” presented at the ISBER 2023 Annual Meeting (Seattle, USA; May 3-6, 2023)

Training

• Curriculum Coordinator (DC) LMP2208, The Science of Biobanking, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto (Toronto, ON; 2020-2024)
• Guest lecture (DC) LMP2001, Biomedical Research Methods, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto (Toronto, ON; 2022-2024)

Outreach

• Association of Ontario Tumour Biobanks (AOTB) workshops (Toronto, ON; 2022-2024)
• MaRS Impact Health (Toronto, ON; June 12 & 13, 2024)
• Soaring: Indigenous Youth Empowerment Gathering (Ottawa, ON; April 16 & 17, 2024)
• OICR Translational Research Conference (Toronto, ON; March 26 & 27, 2024)
• “St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton site of the Ontario Tumour Bank: Partner in research for quality samples and data” presented at the Celebrate Research event at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (Hamilton, ON; November 9, 2023).
• OMPRN-OHCRN Joint Conference (Toronto, ON: October 23 & 24, 2023)
• “Ontario Tumour Bank and Ontario Health Study: Machine learning resources and projects” presented at the Machine Learning in Medical Imaging Consortium (MaLMIC) forum (September 29, 2023)
• Great Lakes Genomics Conference (Toronto, ON; May 18, 2023)
• OICR Patient Family Advisory Council meeting (Toronto, ON; November 9, 2022)
• Terry Fox Research Node Symposium (Toronto, ON; December 19, 2019)