Director Cellular Therapy
Alberta Precision Laboratories, Canada
Received my PhD in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of Saskatchewan with a specific interest in the spread of colon cancer cells. After that moved to the USA working first in Houston, TX and then Philadelphia, PA. My research in the US involved the early stages of utilizing gene repair/editing for blood stem cell gene therapy of diseases including sickle cell disease and hemophilia. Returned to Canada to take up the position as Director of the Cellular Therapy Lab here at APL in Calgary in 2007. I also hold appointments as a clinical assistant professor in the Departments of Hematology and Pathology/Laboratory Medicine. I am the chair of Standards for the Foundation of Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) and the Director at Large for Regulatory & Quality for the CTTC. In CTL, we focus on providing innovative, novel cellular therapy products for clinical application in our transplant patients. Including, using liver cells for treatment of neonatal patients with urea cycle disorders, participation in the first blood stem cell gene therapy clinical trial in Canada which treated patients with Fabry’s disease, generating the first alphabeta depleted T cell transplant product for clinical use in Canada, and generation of Alberta made CAR-T cells to treat various diseases.
