12th edition of the Symposium of the Quebec Network on Drug Research

Dr John Stagg is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of University of Montreal and Lab Head at the CHUM Hospital Research Center since 2010. An established cancer immunologist, Dr Stagg cumulates over 100 research publications. Dr Stagg is known for having identified the adenosine-producing enzyme CD73 as a novel target in immuno-oncology for contributing to the develop therapeutic agents targeting the extracellular adenosine pathway. Dr. Stagg is also scientific co-founder and Scientific Advisory Board member of SURFACE ONCOLOGY, a clinical-stage biotech, and co-director of the Montreal Cancer Consortium part of the upcoming Marathon of Hope Cancer Centers, an initiative supported by the Terry Fox Research Institute and its partners to accelerate the delivery of personalized cancer medicine in Canada.
Dr. Stagg received several distinctions, including the FRQS young investigator award, the CIHR New Investigator Award, the Terry Fox Research Institute New Investigator Award and the Excellence award for outstanding contribution from a new investigator under 10 years of Faculty appointment by the CHUM hospital. Since 2010, Dr. Stagg is recipient of the Jean-Guy Sabourin Research Chair in Pharmacology from the Université de Montréal Faculty of Pharmacy.

Marie-Claude Bourgeois-Daigneault is an assistant professor at the University of Montreal’s Département de microbiologie, infectiologie et immunology and a researcher at the CHUM research center where she leads the oncolytic virotherapy laboratory since July 2018. Her research program covers many aspects of the therapy, including the design of anti-cancer vaccines and the manipulation of the tumor microenvironment to the benefit of the treatment.

Dr. Maureen Trudeau is a Medical Oncologist, specializing in breast cancer. She is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Affiliate Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. As former co-chair and now member of the Breast Cancer Disease Site Group in the Program in Evidence-Based Care of Cancer Care Ontario, Dr. Trudeau is involved in practice guideline development. Dr. Trudeau has participated and led numerous clinical trials for breast cancer therapies. She has also been involved with the approval for funding of cancer drugs provincially since 2006; and nationally since 2012; as Vice Chair and then Chair for the Expert Review Committee of the Pan Canadian Oncology Drug Review.

Denis Soulières pratique à titre d’hématologue et d’oncologue médical au Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal depuis 1998. Il y exerce aussi des rôles clinico-administratifs en dirigeant la clinique d’hémoglobinopathie et thalassémie (qu’il a fondée) et en agissant à titre de gestionnaire médical du groupe tumoral de la sphères ORL au sein du CICC. Il supervise les activités de biologie moléculaire en lien avec l’hématologie depuis son arriveèe et plus spécifiquement dans le département de diagnostic moléculaire récemment formé. Il détient le titre de professeur titulaire de la faculté de médecine de l’Université de Montréal. Ses intérêts cliniques et de recherche couvrent 3 axes principaux: les cancers de la sphère ORL, les cancers urologiques et les hémoglobinopathies. Il est activement impliqué dans le développement clinique et participe à de nombreux essais cliniques nationaux et internationaux, certains à titre d’investigateur principal. Plusieurs de ses initiatives couvrent aussi le champ de la recherche corrélative pour l’identification de facteurs prédictifs de réponse au traitement. Dr Soulières a aussi agi à titre de membre du comité exécutif de CCTG (antérieurement le NCIC-CTG).

Dr Soulières est auteur dans plus de 150 publications dans les domaines de l’oncologie principalement et a co-édité un textbook d’oncologie en 2011. Il est invité à titre de conférencier tant nationalement qu’internationalement.

Dr. Bertrand Routy MD, PhD is a FRQS J1 clinician-researcher, holder of the Canada Research Chair and associate professor in the department of hemato-oncology at the CHUM (University of Montreal). With extensive clinical expertise in the management of lung cancer patients, Dr. Routy directs the immunology/onco-microbiome laboratory of the CRCHUM (University of Montreal Research Center) and the thoracic oncology biobank since 2018. Dr. Routy pioneered the unexpected role of the gut microbiome as a prognostic biomarker of immunotherapy response and the deleterious impact of antibiotics on prognosis of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. His team focuses on strategies to modulate the composition of the microbiome to improve patient outcomes. He is now leading several microbiome-centered clinical trials. Dr. Routy’s research and expertise in the onco-microbiome field has led to the publication of more than 80 articles, as first and co-author, including a recent paper in Cancer Discovery (Routy senior author), and co-first in Nature Medicine (Derosa, Routy et al.), with more than 10,500 citations and h-index of 33. His laboratory is funded by several provincial and national grants. In 2021, his effort to improve the life of patients living with cancer has recently been awarded by the CRCHUM’s Young Investigator Award, the Faculty of Medicine Research Award and the Early Career Investigator Competition, Gairdner Foundation.

M^me Sylvie Bouchard est diplômée en pharmacie de l’Université Laval, à Québec et détient également un diplôme et une maîtrise en pharmacie d’hôpital ainsi qu’un MBA en gestion des entreprises, obtenus au sein de la même université. En 2017, l’Ordre des pharmaciens du Québec lui décernait le prix Louis-Hébert, soit la plus haute distinction pour la reconnaissance de l’excellence dans ses accomplissements professionnels, tout au long de sa carrière.

M^me Bouchard s’est jointe au Conseil du médicament en avril 2010, devenu l’Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) en 2011, et y a assumé plusieurs rôles de gestionnaire. M^me Bouchard a notamment occupé le poste de directrice du médicament à compter d’avril 2016. Elle est maintenant directrice de l’évaluation des médicaments et des technologies à des fins de remboursement

Dr. Wood’s clinical and research interests are in Genitourinary Malignancies especially Renal Cell Cancer and Testicular Cancer. She participates in a number of phase II and III clinical trials as well as a number of national research initiatives. She is also involved in all levels of medical education as both a teacher and mentor and supervises a number of students and residents in research initiatives.