Dr. Nicolette Fonseca
Dr. Nicolette Fonseca is an Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria, Canada. She is a Scientist at BC Cancer Research Institute and affiliated with the Vancouver Prostate Centre. Dr. Fonseca completed her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia and trained in prostate cancer clinical genomics as postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Alexander Wyatt’s laboratory. During this time, Dr. Fonseca worked extensively on prostate cancer-related research projects with Dr. Kim N. Chi’s clinical team and the GU Biobank.
Dr. Fonseca’s laboratory focuses on defining the immune microenvironment of prostate tumours with specific genetic dependencies. Dr. Fonseca’s goal is to understand why prostate cancer is unresponsive to immunotherapy. Her laboratory integrates genomics and spatial imaging technologies to investigate how aggressive prostate tumours evade the immune system.
Dr. Fonseca is a Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Systems Approaches to Cancer Biology. Her research has been supported by funding from Canadian Cancer Society, Canada Foundation for Innovation and the UBC Immunotherapeutics Cluster. She is a recipient of the Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award.