Dr Steidl is the Research Director of the Centre for Lymphoid Cancer at BC Cancer and Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He has specific expertise in clinical malignant hematology, molecular pathology, genomics and lymphoma biology. Dr Steidl’s translational research group focuses on the pathogenesis of B cell lymphomas, tumor microenvironment biology and applied genomics.
Dr Steidl contributed to the discovery of novel somatic gene mutations in B cell lymphomas using next generation sequencing, and established microenvironment composition, and tumor-associated macrophages and normal B cells in particular, as novel biomarkers for outcome prediction in Hodgkin lymphoma. These seminal studies have led to multiple high-impact publications with him as the first or senior author including publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Genetics, Cancer Discovery, the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Blood. His leading role in the Centre for Lymphoid Cancer, associated membership to BCC’s Lymphoma Tumor Group as well as active collaborations with scientific consortia (Leukemia and Lymphoma Molecular Profiling Project, Interlymph Hodgkin lymphoma group) and clinical trials groups (Canadian Cancer Trials Group, Eastern Clinical Oncology Group, Children’s Oncology Group) enable the use of primary biopsy material as the start and end points of discovery and biomarker studies in his lymphoma program promoting precision oncology. The Steidl lab is ideally positioned to perform next generation sequencing experiments, downstream data analysis and biological/clinical interpretation of large datasets. With specific relevance to the feasibility of the experiments in the current proposal, the Steidl lab has produced single-cell RNAseq data in primary cell suspension of Hodgkin lymphoma and follicular lymphoma to characterize microenvironment composition and functional state at unprecedented resolution. Single-cell sequencing methodologies will form the basis of novel and detailed genetic and phenotypic investigations into the crosstalk of malignant cells with their microenvironment as proposed in this grant application in the context of ovarian cancer.
Dr Steidl holds a CIHR Foundation grant investigating the biological underpinnings of cellular crosstalk in lymphoma and is lead investigator of a team grant on treatment failure in lymphoid cancers funded by the Terry Fox Research Institute (TFRI). He is also project leader of a Genome Canada Large-Scale Applied Research Project (LSARP) to advance personalized treatments of lymphoid cancer patients. Dr Steidl is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lymphoma Research Foundation, past Chair of the American Society of Hematology Scientific Committee on Lymphoid Neoplasia and Member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee. In 2017, he was inducted as a member of the Royal Society of Canada, College for New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.