Dr Cheryl Helgason
Position:
- Senior Scientist, Cancer Endocrinology, BC Cancer Agency
- Assistant Professor, Deptartment of Surgery, Univeristy of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine
Websites:
Biography:
Dr Helgason received her BSc (Hons) and MSc in biochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan. She then moved to the University of Alberta to complete her PhD (Biochemistry). In 1993 she joined the Terry Fox Laboratory at the British Columbia Cancer Agency where her research focused on embryonic stem cells and hematopoiesis. She became a senior scientist in Cancer Endocrinology in 2001 where she began to study the immunology of prostate cancer. Her current research focuses on the characterization of prostate cancer stem cells and elucidation of the mechanisms by which they evade immune surveillance. A second area of interest is examining the cellular and molecular changes associated with the stroma during acquisition of the metastatic phenotype.
cancer initiation, cancer progression, cancer stem cells, gene expression, localized therapies, marker discovery, metastases, model systems, oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes, systemic therapies, technology development, tumor immunology, vaccines.
