John Bell

University of Ottawa, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8M5. Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8L6.

Dr. John Bell received his PhD from the University of McMaster in 1982. The three years that followed, he trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa and then at the Medical Research Council in London, England. Dr. Bell began his independent research career at McGill University in 1986 and moved to the University of Ottawa, Department of Medicine, in 1989. He is a member of the Center for Cancer Therapeutics at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Center, a Senior Scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He heads the Canadian Oncolytic Virus Consortium, a Terry Fox funded group from across Canada that is developing virus-based cancer therapeutics and is the Director of the Biotherapeutics Program for the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. He is the Scientific Director of the National Centre of Excellence for the development of Biotherapeutics for Cancer Therapy and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Taha Azad

University of Ottawa, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8M5. Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8L6.

During his PhD, Dr. Azad studied the role of a novel Hippo signaling pathway including tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes, in the development of breast and lung cancer, cell proliferation, and migration, and response to chemotherapeutics using various techniques. His current research is based on the identification and characterization of novel cancer killing therapeutic viruses that selectively infect, and kill cancer cells, while leaving the healthy cells, and tissues unharmed. His lab focuses on designing new therapeutic viruses with an aim to manufacture them for eventual clinical translation and commercialization.

Stephen Boulton

University of Ottawa, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8M5. Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8L6.

Dr. Stephen Boulton received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of McMaster, where he developed a specialization in structural biology, and pharmacology.  Throughout his thesis, he studied the mechanisms of ligand selectivity in cAMP-binding proteins and developed strategies to specifically target individual cAMP receptors over others.  For his post-doctoral degree, Dr. Stephen joined Dr. John Bell at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute where he began investigating the therapeutic potential of oncolytic viruses with modulators of cAMP signaling pathways.  In his free time, Dr. Stephen enjoys hockey, biking and watching movies. 

Ragunath Singaravelu

University of Ottawa, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8M5. Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8L6.

Dr. Singaravelu completed his PhD at the National Research Council of Canada in Dr.John Pezacki’s lab, studying hepatitis C virus host-virus interactions with a focus on microRNA and activity-based protein profiling.  During his time in the Pezacki lab, he also contributed to several protein engineering studies.  Subsequently, he completed a one-year post-doctoral training at University of Massachusetts Medical School studying non-coding RNAs role in innate immunity in Dr. Katherine Fitzgerald’s lab.  He is currently working on engineering novel oncolytic viruses as platforms for combinatorial immunotherapies.