All Terry Fox Laboratory faculty have cross-appointments in various Departments of the University of British Columbia and have built an international reputation for standards of excellence in research and training. Previous trainees now hold appointments at the Universities and biotech companies. This reflects a tradition of selecting superior students who are, themselves, equally committed to the pursuit of a career of scientific discovery and contribution to advances in patient care and the commercialization of new reagents and devices.
Training
Graduate Study
Faculty within the Terry Fox laboratory are affiliated with various academic departments at the University of British Columbia and have trained ~150 graduate students. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees can be pursued through UBC in Medical Genetics, Interdisciplinary Oncology, Experimental Medicine, Cell & Developmental Biology, Bioinformatics, Genome Science & Technology, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine as well as through the newly formed School of Biomedical Engineering. The program chosen depends on interests of the student and the UBC affiliations of their supervisor.
Postdoctoral Training
Postdoctoral training (not leading to a further degree) is available at both the post-PhD and post-MD level. Typically such training is for 2-3 years. The TFL is a highly sought research environment for postdoctoral fellows and has trained nearly 250 such fellows from around the world.
Undergraduate / Exchange Studies
A variety of training opportunities exist for individuals without a bachelor's degree or haven't enrolled into a graduate program but wishing to gain experience in the TFL research environment. These include co-op studies, summer studentships, directed studies, visiting student programs etc.
Resources for Trainees
The BCCRC Graduate Student and Post Doctoral Society (GrasPods) is a trainee-run society whose mission is to further enrich the wonderful training environment at BC Cancer by providing academic, social, and personal well-being support for their members. GrasPods events include: Academic Workshops, Sport Events, Trainee Lunches, and Jobs in Science Interview Series. More information
Featured Recruiter
Gerald (Gerry) Krystal, PhD
Distinguished Scientist
Our lab is interested in both the effects of various diets on cancer (CA) incidence and in determining who is at risk of developing CA so we can prevent it by adopting life style changes. In regard to the first goal, since tumour cells are more dependent on blood glucose than normal cells for their growth, we have been testing low carbohydrate (CHO) diets on mice and found they reduce the incidence, growth rate and metastasis of primary tumours.
Florian Kuchenbauer, MD, PhD
Distinguished Scientist, Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer
Dr. Florian Kuchenbauer received his M.D. education at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany in 2001 and completed an M.D. thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry in 2002. He then started residency training at the Department of Hematology/Oncology, Klinikum Grosshadern, Munich, Germany (2001-2004) before obtaining a PhD degree at the Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer and Department of Experimental Medicine, University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. Keith Humphries (2005-2009).
Peter M Lansdorp, MD, PhD, FRS(C)
Distinguished Scientist, Terry Fox Laboratory, BC Cancer
Peter Lansdorp was born and raised in the Netherlands. He was trained as a medical doctor at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and obtained a PhD from the University of Amsterdam. In 1985 he moved to the Terry Fox Laboratory in Vancouver, where he worked on the purification and biology of human and murine blood forming stem cells. This work led him to studies of telomere biology for which he developed quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization (Q-FISH) techniques. These techniques have become standard in the telomere field.
Ly Vu, PhD
Scientist
The overarching goal of our laboratory is to understand the control of stem cells in development and diseases. Our research group is focused on uncovering novel mechanisms of post-transcriptional and translational regulation during normal and malignant hematopoiesis. We aim to develop innovative therapeutic approaches targeting these regulatory pathways in cancer.
Andrew Weng, MD, PhD
Distinguished Scientist
Dr. Andrew Weng pursued his undergraduate studies in Biological Sciences at Stanford University before earning both MD and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago/Pritzker School of Medicine. His professional journey continued with residency training in Anatomic Pathology and a fellowship in hematopathology, followed by postdoctoral research at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Carol Chen, PhD
Scientist
Dr. Carol Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan and grew up in Calgary, Alberta. She obtained her PhD in the lab of Dr. Matthew Lorincz at the University of British Columbia, where she studied chromatin mechanism of transcription, specifically looking at histone phosphorylation. She then completed a post-doc fellowship in the lab of Dr. Nada Jabado at McGill University, where she studied histone mutations found in cancer and germline developmental disorders. In 2023, she joined Terry Fox Laboratory at BC Cancer to start her own independent research group.
BC Cancer Foundation is the fundraising partner of BC Cancer, which includes BC Cancer Research. Together with our donors, we are changing cancer outcomes for British Columbians by funding innovative research and personalized treatment and care.