SickKids

Dr. Taylor is a paediatric neurosurgeon and senior scientist at the University of Toronto affiliated Hospital for Sick Children. His research centres on the molecular genetics of medulloblastoma and ependymoma, two of the most common malignant paediatric brain tumours. He has published over 375 peer-reviewed publications, many in high-impact journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, Cancer Cell, and Lancet Oncology. His publications have been cited over 42,000 times and his findings adopted to improve clinical practice. His group demonstrated that medulloblastoma is comprised of at least four distinct diseases (Journal Clin. Oncol., 2012; Cancer Cell, 2017; Nature, 2017) and that there is clinically significant heterogeneity in metastatic medulloblastomas (Nature, 2012, 2016; Nature Genetics, 2017). His team recently showed that cerebellar tumours are a disorder of early brain development (Nature, 2019), that CAR-T-cells are an effective pre-clinical treatment for Group 3 medulloblastoma and PFA ependymomas (Nature Medicine, 2020) and that PFA ependymomas have a unique metabolic program which leads to a phenotype that appears to be unique among mammalian cells (Cell, 2020).

Dr. Daniels is a Senior Project Manager in the Developmental and Stem Cell Biology program and the Brain Tumour Research Centre at SickKids in Toronto. He has a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Adelaide, South Australia and has published over 60 articles. He has knowledge of techniques from multiple disciplines including cell biology, biochemistry, molecular biology and microbiology, which allow a better understanding of biological mechanisms and health issues. He also has extensive experience in writing and editing of successful grant/fellowship applications, scientific manuscripts, book chapters and editorials, and has amassed over 15 years of project management experience. He uses his scientific knowledge, writing skills and business expertise to foster the development and effectiveness of the academic environment, while promoting and maintaining all group members.

Daniel Morgenstern is a Staff Oncologist at Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. He originally trained and worked in the UK, primarily at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London where he was clinical lead for the neuroblastoma and autograft programs, and an active member of SIOPEN. Dr Morgenstern moved to SickKids, Toronto in 2016 as Director of the New Agent and Innovative Therapy (NAIT) and Therapeutic mIBG Programs, and co-lead of the neuroblastoma service. He is also Medical Director of the Oncology/BMT Clinical Trials Support Unit. Dr Morgenstern’s clinical activities are focussed on neuroblastoma and solid tumour patients participating in early phase clinical trials. His research interests are in early phase trials and, in particular, the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in paediatric cancers and the development of precision medicine approaches for paediatric solid tumours.

Vijay Ramaswamy is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, and a Staff Neuro-Oncologist at the Hospital for Sick Children. Vijay is originally from Northern Alberta and completed medical school and a child neurology residency at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, followed by a Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and proceeded to return to Canada where he completed his PhD in Cancer Genomics at the University of Toronto. His research works have focused on the genomics of medulloblastoma and ependymoma, with a specific interest in recurrent disease. His laboratory is focused on improving classification and identification of novel therapies for recurrent ependymoma and medulloblastoma, where he also has an interest in early phase trials.