Dr. Barbara Vanderhyden, Ph.D., University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

National Advisory Committee Member and Symposium Chair

Dr. Barbara Vanderhyden is a Professor in the Departments of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Ottawa, a Senior Scientist in Cancer Therapeutics at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and the Inaugural Corinne Boyer Chair in Ovarian Cancer Research at the University of Ottawa. She initiated the first national meeting of Canadian ovarian cancer researchers, which has now evolved into the Canadian Conference on Ovarian Cancer Research, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Ovarian Cancer Canada. She has established at the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Hospital many resources to facilitate research endeavours for other scientists, including a transgenic mouse facility and an ovarian cancer tissue bank. Dr. Vanderhyden has received many honours, including the 2003 Award of Excellence, the 2004 Mentorship Award, and the 2005 President’s Award for Service to the University of Ottawa, and was named as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women in 2007 by the Women’s Executive Network. She has recently been recognized by CIHR with the Synapse Mentorship Award for her efforts in championing science literacy among Canadian youth. Her research interests include mouse xenograft and transgenic models of ovarian cancer, effects of reproductive and genetic factors in ovarian cancer initiation and progression, the role of HOX genes in the development of distinct histological subtypes of ovarian cancer, the role of Kit tyrosine kinase receptor in ovarian cancer and the role of c-kit protooncogene in the ovary. She has developed several transgenic mouse models of ovarian cancer, in which gene expression is controlled by conditional and/or inducible systems. Dr. Vanderhyden will chair Symposium II: Etiology and Prevention – Cells of Origin and Stem Cells – Susceptibility and Risk Factors.