New academic publication in Blood Advances
Feature Article for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
My first ever feature-length article is now published on the website of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It features their cancer survival research and the contributions of the patient advocates they work with. The piece is here and can be republished under a creative commons agreement subject to their terms here.
#AtlanticCancer Event, Washington DC 22nd May. Video now available.
It was an absolute pleasure to be a panelist at #AtlanticCancer on childhood cancer survivorship in Washington DC on Wednesday this week with Brittany Avin, teenage thyroid cancer survivor and now PhD student at Johns Hopkins University and Dr Otis Brawley, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins and former CMO of the American Cancer Society. Some really important discussions, including whether healthcare systems are ready for the number of childhood cancer survivors and their needs and what needs to be improved to better provide for survivors and their families. I highly recommend watching the entire event, but the direct link to the panel I was on is here
The Atlantic - Children and Cancer event, Washington DC, 22nd May 2019.
I’m delighted to have been invited to be a panelist at The Atlantic’s Children and Cancer event, to be held in Washington DC on the morning of 22nd May. The topic of discussion will be ‘Pediatric cancers are treatable, but how do they affect children as they grow up?’ More information about the event can be found here and you can follow the discussion on the livestream on the website during the event or by using the event tag #AtlanticCancer.
Guest Lecture at Let's Talk Cancer - McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.
Wonderful to be invited to the excellent McMaster University to give the keynote lecture at their Let’s Talk Cancer event. Nearly 100 high schoolers from the Hamilton area had a day of lab visits, talks and demos, learning about cancer research from scientists at McMaster. Some wonderful questions and discussions instigated by the new generation of cancer researchers!
Introducing Cancer Survivor Social Media
Cancer survivor social media is a new scheme run by volunteers including cancer survivors, healthcare professionals and researchers looking into the long-term effects of cancer treatment. The co-founders are myself and Professor Jennifer Jones from Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto.
More people are surviving cancer than ever before and we firmly believe that the best way to shape what the future looks like for those who have had cancer is for everyone involved to work together to figure out what is important and what our focus should be.
Central to our scheme will be a short live presentation hosted by a person involved in survivorship research, healthcare or advocacy, followed by a tweet-chat facilitated by our presenter.
Our first #CSSMchat will be on Wednesday 24th April. Please do head over to our Twitter page for more details.
First feature article for Cancer Therapy Advisor
I’ve been writing for Cancer Therapy Advisor for a couple of months now, but this was my first feature length article! It has been wonderful to work with an excellent editor and learn more about varied topics that might not always be my focus with my academic work.
You can read my feature article on TVEC for advanced melanoma therapy, here.
New article for Forbes Health
Lecturing at Ryerson University
It was a pleasure to be invited to guest lecture to 3rd year Biomedical Science undergraduates at Ryerson University in downtown Toronto last Friday. I did one session on stem cell and organoid models for cancer research and another on responsible and impactful health journalism.
Photo credit: Lakshmi Menon
Introducing Childhood Cancer Survivor Canada
I’m really happy to be involved in ‘Childhood Cancer Survivor Canada,’ a new non-profit dedicated to facilitating education, awareness, community and access to care, for survivors of childhood cancer in Canada. I’m on the board as the VP for social media outreach.
The website will be launched soon, but for now you can follow us on Twitter @childcancersurv
Article for Forbes on the 'Israeli Cancer Cure'
At the end of January, many news outlets uncritically reported news of an Israeli biotech company which claimed it would have the ‘cure for cancer’ within a year. You can read my piece countering this here.
Very pleased that the piece was one of only seven out of 74 popular pieces which was highly-rated by HealthFeedback.
Judging 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 List - Europe. Science & Healthcare
Wonderful to be given the opportunity to be on the judging panel for the new Forbes30Under30 list for Science & Healthcare in Europe. A really impressive list of young scientists and innovators. You can read more about them here.
First piece for Cancer Therapy Advisor
Happy to have been given an opportunity to write for U.S.-based oncology website Cancer Therapy Advisor. My first piece was on the possible use of CRISPR as therapy for lung cancer. You can read it here.
Happy New Year - bring on 2019!
Happy New Year and a big thanks to everyone who contributed to an amazing 2018 by reading my articles and giving excellent feedback and advice.
2018 was my first full year writing as a contributor for Forbes Health, so here is a round-up!
In 2018:
I wrote 49 articles.
My articles had 488,176 views.
My most popular article had 131,478 views.
19,787 people read more than one of my articles.
My articles were shared 19,075 times (Facebook), 3,950 times (Twitter) and 2,241 times (LinkedIn).
I know 2019 is going to be a very busy year for cancer research, so I did a round-up of which topics I think will be making the news in the upcoming year. Definitely not an exhaustive list, but I’m looking forward to a busy and exciting year of science writing.
Authorship on new publication in Cancer Cell
Delighted to see this piece of work finally come out. Done with colleagues at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research over several years, my role was to do initial identification of possible therapeutic agents on AML cell lines. Still remember when I showed my PI the promising results with palbociclib for the first time! Many congratulations to my colleagues who took that initial piece of information and built this incredible, comprehensive piece of research that will hopefully lead to new and less toxic treatment approaches for hard-to-treat AML.
The paper is open-access here:
TEDWomen 2018, Palm Springs, California.
Amazing to attend TEDWomen in Palm Springs and meet new and old friends, especially those in the TED Fellow community. Inspiring talks, great chats with fellow attendees and a little bit of winter sunshine.
Article for Lady Science
Delighted to co-write this article for online magazine Lady Science, discussing the life, work and legacy of the formidable Dr Jane C. Wright, a black woman physician scientist who was one of the early pioneers of chemotherapy. A different writing style to that which I’m used to and certainly a challenge, but a very enjoyable and educational process! I hope you enjoy it.
World Society of Pediatric Oncology Annual Conference, Kyoto, Japan.
I chaired a meeting of the international Replication Repair Deficiency workshop as well as presenting my research at the meeting from her work in Professor Uri Tabori’s lab at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).
In addition, I presented a poster of my research into the neurotoxic side effects of childhood leukemia chemotherapy agent, methotrexate.
New article for Forbes. Innovative cell-based delivery methods for immunotherapy.
One of my favourite articles that I’ve written for Forbes. Very innovative, new science and a pleasure to write about.
Platelet Immunotherapy Grenades Home In On Leukemia By Riding On Blood Stem Cell Delivery Trucks