DSR Sarma Lectureship in Oncologic Pathology: Defining Mediators of Cellular Plasticity in Cancer
As part of our Monday seminar series, we are delighted to welcome our speaker:
Talk title: DSR Sarma Lectureship in Oncologic Pathology: Defining Mediators of Cellular Plasticity in Cancer
Lynne-Marie Postovit, PhD
Vice Provost, Academic Affairs
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Translational Cancer Research
Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University
Hosted By
How to join
The event will be in person only, no need to register.
MSB 2172
Medical Sciences Building
University of Toronto
1 King’s College Circle
Toronto, ON M5S 1A8
If you have any questions about this event, please contact Debb Yorke at lmp.chairadmin@utoronto.ca.
Speaker: Lynne-Marie Postovit PhD
Dr. Lynne-Marie Postovit is a Professor and Provost (academic affairs) at Queen’s University. She is also a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Translational Cancer Research. She obtained her PhD which examined hypoxia-induced cellular invasion from Queen’s University with Charles Graham in 2004 and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship related to epigenetic plasticity in cancer with Mary Hendrix in 2007. Overall, her work has yielded many fundamental discoveries, leading to highly cited papers as well as putative clinical applications. As examples, she is recognized for her work related to the role of NODAL, a stem-cell associated protein, in cancer progression, as well as significant contributions related to extracellular matrices, the role of hypoxia in cancer progression and more recently the role of mRNA translation in cancer cell plasticity. Dr. Postovit’s work has yielded over 100 peer-reviewed publications. Her discoveries have also provided the foundations for three patents. While focused on fundamental biology related to cancer cell plasticity, Dr. Postovit’s research has often been translated to the clinic, for the benefit of patients. For example, her work related to the role of nitric oxide in hypoxia-induced metastasis led to the establishment of a start-up company (NOMETICS) and a clinical trial. Her work related to NODAL led to a patent and the development of therapies that are poised to be tested in trials by TaiRx USA. She was also recently a PI on a clinical trial testing the efficacy of Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for the treatment of breast cancer.
Dr. Postovit has served on the editorial boards of journals (i.e., Cancer and Metastasis Reviews and eLIFE) and has presented her work at international conferences and institutions around the globe. Dr. Postovit has participated on scientific advisory boards, adjudication panels, and planning committees around the world. For instance, she was a member of the Standing Committee on Research Excellence [Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI)], the Scientific Advisory Board for the Cancer Research Society, the AACR Regional Advisory Subcommittee of Canada, and the Medical Review panel (Gairdner Foundation). Dr. Postovit has also received several awards and accolades: For example, she was the top ranked New Investigator at the CIHR (2009) and in 2016, was nominated to the college of the Royal Society of Canada. In addition to obtaining salary support and research grants. Dr. Postovit has also participated in and/or led several team grants. She was lead investigator for the Prairie Node of the Terry Fox Research Institutes Marathon of Hope Strategy and a member of the SU2C (Stand Up 2 Cancer) dream team in metastatic breast cancer. To establish a new core facility for the Queen’s Translational Institute of Medicine (TIME) consisting of six world-class research platforms, Dr. Postovit, with Co-PA Dr. Stephen Archer, was recently awarded a CFI Innovation Fund grant.
Importantly, Dr. Postovit is an outstanding mentor and educator. All her students received scholarships, and many have gone on to impressive careers in academia, medicine and industry. Dr. Postovit has also been a dedicated advocate for the research enterprise at large. She was a founding co-director of the Cancer Research Institute of Northern Alberta, wherein she built educational programming and organizational structures to support translational cancer research. More recently she has been building core research capacities at Queen’s, obtaining funds from sources such as the Transformative Educational Research Fund, to establish team based experiential learning opportunities in the health sciences and to ensure equitable access to research infrastructure.
