The Garnis Lab

The Garnis Lab welcomes Rajan Saini as a post-doctoral fellow! Rajan completed his PhD at the National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, where he investigated the association of human papillomavirus with oral cancer. Additionally, he was a Lecturer in the field of Oral Pathology and Medicine at the Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Now at the BCCRC, Rajan’s research interests include oncogenesis of oral cancers (especially the role of microRNAs in this process), biomarker development for early detection of oral cancers, and development of naturopathic therapies for chronic oral diseases (including oral cancer/precancer).

Welcome to the team Rajan!

Posted in Lab details
Tags: BC Cancer Research Centre, biomarker, Cathie Garnis, fellow, microRNA, miRNA, oral cancer, post-doc, post-doctoral, Rajan, Rajan Saini, Saini

The Garnis Lab is extremely grateful to the Terry Fox Foundation/Terry Fox Research Institute for its decision to provide funding for a project entitled ‘Circulating microRNAs as a lung tumour proxy: determining whether a small RNA species in plasma can be used as an early cancer detection tool’. This 3 year New Investigator award is doubly exciting because it offers the opportunity to participate in a wider cross country lung cancer screening project that could significantly impact the way we approach this disease. (Additional information on this project can be found at this link – Early Detection of Lung Cancer: A Pan-Canadian Study.)

We are very excited about being a part of this important work!

Details on the Terry Fox Foundation can be found here. Details on the Terry Fox Research Institute can be found here.

UPDATE: The TFRI website now has details of all the individuals across Canada who received this award. You can find this information here.

Posted in Funding+Awards+Recognition, Media coverage
Tags: biomarker, blood, cancer, Cathie Garnis, circulating, early detection, lung, lung cancer, marker, microRNA, miRNA, precancerous, risk, screen, screening, serum, Terry Fox, Terry Fox Foundation, Terry Fox Research Institute, TFF, TFRI

Congratulations to Dr. Raj Chari – a Garnis Lab collaborator – on receiving the Lloyd Skarsgard Research Excellence Award for his graduate work at the BC Cancer Research Centre (done in the lab of Dr. Wan Lam in the Department of Integrative Oncology). You can learn more about Dr. Chari’s impressive research here and here.

We wish him the best of luck in Boston in 2011!

Posted in Funding+Awards+Recognition
Tags: BC Cancer Research Centre, Raj Chari

In this month’s issue of the UBC Medicine Magazine, there’s an article profiling Dr. Garnis and detailing the role of the Pacific Otolaryngology Foundation in the establishment of the Garnis Lab.

(Go to this link to see the article. A pdf of the UBC Medicine Magazine issue can be downloaded by clicking this link [Dr. Garnis' article is on page 23].)

Everyone in the Garnis Lab would like to again extend their profound thanks to the Pacific Otolaryngology Foundation for its support – without which, we wouldn’t exist!

Posted in Media coverage
Tags: Cathie Garnis, Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology, Head & neck, Head and Neck, Medicine, Pacific Otolaryngology Foundation, precancerous, UBC, UBC Medicine Magazine, University of British Columbia

This weekend, the 30th Annual Terry Fox Run will take place. For those unfamiliar with Terry’s story – and the Foundation that resulted from his efforts – please go here (The CBC also has moving stories about the Marathon of Hope in its archives).

Today, a Terry Fox Foundation fundraiser took place at the BC Cancer Research Centre. Tickets for various games were sold off and a silent auction was also held. A dunk tank featuring various senior scientists in the building and Terry’s brother Darrell proved very popular.

Cathie played at the roulette table.

Shevaun tried to dunk Darrell Fox…

…so did Angie…

…and so did Mike.

Shevaun manned the dart board…

…and Becki threw the darts (she also tried to dunk Darrell, but the picture didn’t turn out).

From L to R: Mike Gorenchtein, Angie Chu, Becki Towle, Darrell Fox, Shevaun Hughes, Cathie Garnis.

Terry’s story is an incredible inspiration to all Canadians, including those who are actively involved in cancer research. We all feel that it’s a privledge to work in this field and Terry’s efforts spur each of us to do much more in our own work.

Posted in Lab events
Tags: Angie, BC Cancer Research Centre, Becki, Cathie Garnis, Chu, Darrell Fox, Foundation, fundraiser, Gorenchtein, Hughes, Mike, Shevaun, Terry Fox, Towle, UBC, Vancouver