Since inception in 2009, BHCRI has awarded over $6.9M in stipend support to 207 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and medical residents pursuing cancer research careers within Atlantic Canada. CRTP provides trainees with opportunities to develop leadership skills, gain an appreciation of decision making processes such as peer review and contribute to the overall operation of BHCRI. The skills learned through CRTP provide the building blocks for success, regardless of career direction.
Some of our alumni:
January 2023:
Sabateeshan Mathavarajah
Supervisor: Dr. Graham Dellaire
Project Title: The role of the PML gene in protecting our genetic material and preventing development of cancer
CRTP Term: January 2023 – December 2023
Mika Park
Supervisor: Dr. Graham Dellaire
Project Title: Investigating the role of promyelocytic leukemia protein in lung cancer cell migration and tumour formation
CRTP Term: January 2023 – August 2023
Aditya Vardhan
Supervisor: Dr. Amitabh Jha
Project Title: Design, Synthesis and Bioevaluation of Novel Curcumin Analogs
CRTP Term: January 2023 – August 2023
September 2022:
Dharmapal Burne
Supervisor: Dr. Daniel Gaston
Project Title: Bioinformatic analysis of clinically oriented molecular genomics testing in Lung Cancer
CRTP Term: September 2022 – August 2023
Stefan Heinze-Milne
Supervisor: Dr. Scott A. Grandy
Project Title: The impact of prehabiliation exercise on frailty and treatment outcomes in people diagnosed with ovarian cancer
CRTP Term: September 2022 – August 2023
Rachel Lee
Supervisor: Dr. Sheila N. Garland
Project Title: Exploring Canadian Cancer Survivors’ use of Cannabis as a Sleep Aid
CRTP Term: September 2022 – August 2023
Lia Massoeurs
Supervisor: Dr. Gabriela Ilie
Project Title: A Realist Evaluation of the heterogeneity in mental health outcomes in a sample of participants in the Prostate Cancer Patient Empowerment Program (PC-PEP Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial)
CRTP Term: September 2022 – August 2023
Roopa Nanjundappa
Supervisor: Dr. Jean Marshall
Project Title: Understanding mast cell response to oncolytic virus
CRTP Term: September 2022 – August 2023
Miranda Steeves
Supervisor: Dr. Marya Ahmed
Project Title: Development of Target Delivery Carriers for Breast Cancer Treatment
CRTP Term: September 2022 – August 2023
January 2022:
Farideh Badichi Akher
Supervisor: Dr. Jan Rainey
Project Title: Engineering of recombinant spider silk-based fusion proteins with specific functionality to sequester target bioactive proteins
CRTP Term: January 2022 - September 2022
Elias Bashir Habib
Supervisor: Dr. Graham Dellaire
Project Title: Activation of Pro-Survival Signaling Pathways in Breast and Cervical Cancer Cells Occurs in Response to Loss of Pre-mRNA Processing Factor 4 Kinase
CRTP Term: January 2022 – August 2023
Jae Ho Han
Supervisor: Dr. Adrienne Weeks
Co-supervisor: Dr. Jeremy Roy
Project Title: Modelling extracellular vesicles in patient plasma and organotypic-derived cultures for predicting recurrence or progression of astrocytomas
CRTP Term: July 2022 – June 2023
Naeimeh Jafari
Supervisor: Dr. Brendan Leung
Project Title: The oral microbiome impact on chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis (CIOM)
CRTP Term: January 2022 – December 2022
Michaela Kember
Supervisor: Dr. Zhenyu Cheng
Project Title: Characterization of the Effects of RACK1 Expression on Mitochondrial Physiology
CRTP Term: January 2022 – August 2023
Stephanie Kendall
Supervisor: Dr. Scott A. Grandy
Project Title: Using metabolomics to analyze the effects of aerobic exercise on anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity in breast cancer patients
CRTP Term: January 2022 – August 2023
Samlau Kutana
Supervisor: Dr. Sheila N. Garland
Project Title: User-centered development and testing of a smartphone app to treat insomnia in cancer survivors
CRTP Term: January 2022 – August 2023
Rhea Nickerson
Supervisor: Dr. Brent Johnston
Project Title: The Role of the Chemokine Receptor CXCR3 Axis in the Efficacy of Oncolytic Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Therapy in Combination with Natural Killer T Cell Activation Immunotherapy in Melanoma
CRTP Term: January 2022 – August 2022
Patrick Pearson
Supervisor: Dr. Thomas Belbin
Project Title: Characterizing the tumour suppressive properties of Krüppel type zinc finger gene ZNF154 in head and neck cancer
CRTP Term: January 2022 - August 2022
Olivier Philips
Supervisor: Dr. J. Patrick Murphy
Project Title: Investigation of functional metabolites produced by the serine biosynthesis pathway in triple negative breast cancers
CRTP Term: January 2022 – August 2023
September 2021:
Jaganathan Venkatesh
Supervisor: Dr. Paola Marcato
Project Title: LINC01929 is a novel mediator of breast cancer progression and tumour immune suppression
CRTP Term – September 2021 – December 2023
Mohsen Aziz Pouri Aghdam
Supervisor: Dr. Scott A. Grandy
Project Title: Investigating the neurophysiological outcomes of Postoperative Resistance Exercise Intervention for Patients following Grade II and III Astrocytoma treatment: A Quasi-randomised Trial
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
Zara Forbrigger
Supervisor: Dr. Andrew Stadnyk
Co-supervisor: Dr. Ketan Kulkarni
Project Title: Can the characterization of post-induction treatment ALL cells be used to predict pegaspargase treatment failure?”
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
William Johnston
Supervisor: Dr. Scott A. Grandy
Project Title: EXercise to prevent AnthrCycline-based Cardio-Toxicity (EXACT 2.0) in individuals with breast cancer
CRTP Term: September 2021 - August 2022
Julia Kaal
Supervisor: Dr. Robin Urquhart
Project Title: An evidence-based, practice-oriented approach to transition young adult cancer survivors to community based survivorship care in Nova Scotia (NS): including and optimizing the role of primary care
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
Olaide Abosede Laoye
Supervisor: Dr. Scott A. Grandy
Project Title: The Mediating Role of Exercise on the Relationship between Sleep Quality and Cancer-Related Fatigue in Cancer Survivors
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
Dongpu Li
Supervisor: Dr. Jun Wang
Project Title: Exploring the role of IL-17RA in the development of cancer stem cells
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
Brendan McKeown
Supervisor: Dr. Kerry B. Goralski
Project Title: Jadomycin B Mechanism of Action and Anti-Metastatic Effects in Triple-Negative, Multi-Drug Resistant Breast Cancer
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
Phoebe Phonchareon
Supervisor: Dr. Jean Marshall
Project Title: Investigation of IL-5 Enhanced Production of Type I Interferons by Mast Cells
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
Rahimeh Rasouli
Supervisor: Dr. Marya Ahmed
Project Title: Dual siRNA loaded nanoparticles for Breast Cancer Treatment
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
Margaret Sheridan
Supervisor: Dr. Ravi Ramjeesingh
Project Title: Colorectal and Hepatobiliary Cancer in Nova Scotia: Where We Are and Where We Are Going
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
Jillian Vallis
Supervisor: Dr. Peizhong Peter Wang
Co-supervisor: Dr. Alex Mathieson
Project Title: Effects of genetic biomarkers on clinical outcomes in colorectal cancer in the Newfoundland and Labrador population
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
Jessica Vickery
Supervisor: Dr. Robin Urquhart
Project Title: Investigating How the Type and Magnitude of Needs Post-Treatment Impact Health Care Utilization in Cancer Survivors
CRTP Term: September 2021 - August 2023
Sajeev Wagle
Supervisor: Dr. H.P. Vasantha Rupasinghe
Project Title: Anti cancer effect of natural products in Dogs. This project involves screening of natural products in human and canine osteosarcoma and find suitable mode of action of natural extracts
CRTP Term: September 2021 – August 2023
January 2021:
Nick Dawe
Supervisor: Dr. Brenden Leung
Project Title: Fabrication and validation of a sandwiched spheroid platform to preserve tumour heterogeneity for in vitro drug screening
CRTP Term: January 2021 – August 2022
Smitha George
Supervisor: Dr. Francesca Di Cara
Project Title: Defining conserved metabolic networks that promote abnormal growth and division in tumorigenesis using the genetic model system Drosophila melanogaster
CRTP Term: January 2021 – December 2021
Vishnupriyan Kumar
Supervisor: Dr. Shashi Gujar
Project Title: HLA ligandomics of Pulmonary-Only metastatic Prostate Cancer (PO-mPCa): Implications for precision medicine
CRTP Term: January 2021 – December 2022
Modeline Longjohn
Supervisor: Dr. Sherri L. Christian
Project Title: Monitoring of pediatric B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) disease progression: an extracellular vesicle-based approach
CRTP Term: January 2021 – December 2022
Kateryna Kratzer
Supervisor: Dr. Graham Dellaire
Project Title: Exploring the relationship between homologous recombination and chemotherapy sensitivity
CRTP Term: January 2021 – December 2022
Danick Martin
Supervisor: Dr. Gilles Robichaud
Project Title: Functional Characterization of Pax-5 circular RNA in B Lymphocytes Malignancies
CRTP Term: January 2021 – December 2022
Sina Mazinani
Supervisor: Dr. Kirill Rosen
Project Title: PPAR gamma antagonists as tools for blocking progression of ErbB2-positive trastuzumab-resistant breast cancer
CRTP Term: January 2021 – December 2021
Wasundara Fernando
Nikitha Kendyala, CEO/Co-Founder
Nucliq Biologics Inc.
CRTP Trainee 2015 — 2016
I am originally from Hyderabad, India where I started my science career with a bachelor’s major in Biotechnology, Bioinformatics and Chemistry and little did I know back then that I would be part of starting a biotechnology company largely based on bioinformatics analysis. My research career started with my Master’s thesis on therapeutic vaccine development for cervical cancer. This work experience and learnings encouraged me to pursue my Ph. D. in cancer research. I moved to Canada to pursue my Ph.D. with Dr. Sherri Christian at Memorial. During my Ph.D. I worked on two projects and was supported by CRTP for the Development of 3D co-culture system to study the epithelial and mesenchymal transition of breast cancer cells in presence of adipocytes. Being a CRTP trainee was a great opportunity to get the exposure to other research and researchers and understand the progress of the outside world relative to your lab research. The interactions during the conferences, seminar series and presentations helped me to assess my work and presentation abilities. I could also use the skill training program and develop a novel 3D co-culture methods to study the cells in 3D microenvironment at University of Guelph, Guelph. In addition, I had exposure to different lab culture and people from different backgrounds whom I still in contact with. Apart from scientific knowledge enhancement, networking and interacting through various opportunities provided by CRTP allowed me to understand and apply the cultures that involves the inclusion and diversity in our company, Nucliq Biologics Inc. I am thankful to Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute for providing the opportunity which helped me learn and understand various aspects of my research world.