Dr. Mona Shafey New CTTC Research Awards Chair	Dr. Joerg Krueger New Section Editor-in-Chief, Current Oncology Cell Therapy Section

Please join us in congratulating Mona and Joerg in their new positions!

We would like to sincerely thank the outgoing holders of these positions, who have elevated CTTC
through their hard work and dedication:

- Dr. Anargyros Xenocostas, outgoing CTTC Research Awards Chair

- Dr. David Allan, outgoing Section Editor-in-Chief, Current Oncology Cell Therapy Section

Thank-you very much, Anargyros and David!

CTTC is proud to announce this year's lectureship winners:

Hans Messner Lectureship

The Hans Messner Lectureship Award is presented to a lecturer whose research and/or practice has advanced clinical practice in the field of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and/or other cell therapies (CT). The 2026 Hans Messner Lectureship has been awarded to Dr. Christopher Bredeson!

Dr. Christopher Bredeson is the head of Malignant Hematology and TCT Program Medical Director at The Ottawa Hospital. Dr. Bredeson received his medical degree from the University of Ottawa. His post-doctorate training included an internship and residency in internal medicine, as well as a residency in clinical hematology and a fellowship in the Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplant Program at the University of British Columbia. He holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology. He is a past president of CTTC, and a past president of the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. Dr. Bredeson will be presenting his keynote presentation at the 2026 Annual Conference during Symposium 2 on May 1 at 8:45am.

Till and McCulloch Lectureship

The Till & McCulloch Lectureship Award is presented to a lecturer whose research and/or practice has advanced basic science in HCT/CT. The 2026 Till & McCulloch Lectureship has been awarded to Dr. Kirk Schultz!

Dr. Kirk Schultz is a Professor or Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia and BC Children’s Hospital. Dr. Schultz is a Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist focused on new therapies and chronic GvHD in Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) and immune therapy of blood cancers with 267 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Schultz is a past recipient of the CIHR/Wyeth Clinical Research Chair in Transplantation, past chair of the Pediatric BMT Consortium, and past President of CTTC. He is the founder of the Applied Biomarker in Late Effects (ABLE) pediatric and adult cGvHD biomarker network, and the Westhafen Intercontinental Group, the international pediatric BMT leadership group. Dr. Schultz will be presenting "Using Biomarkers to Improve HSCT By Regenerating Immune Tolerance and Preventing Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease" during the 2026 Annaul Conference during Symposium 7 on Saturday, May 2 at 8:45am.

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The CTTC Innovation Awards aim to support research to advance Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
and/or Cellular Therapy (HCT/CT) in Canada. For 2025, an award of $22,600 CAD was granted for a
research proposal led by allied health professionals.

Nikki Blosser, BSc. Pharm, ACPR, with co-investigators Leilani De Leon, BSc. Pharm,
Sheri Koshman, Pharm D, ACPR, FCSHP and Dr. Kareem Jamani, MD, MPH, FRCPC,
have been awarded a CTTC Allied Health Innovation Award for the project entitled:

Pharmacist-Led Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Clinic for

Post-Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant Patients

Nikki Blosser is a pharmacy Clinical Practice Leader at the Arthur Child Cancer Centre, and is responsible for supporting clinical pharmacists in hematology, stem cell transplant and cellular therapy. She is also a member of AHS Pharmacy Services Quality Research Advisory Committee and has experience precepting multiple pharmacy research projects and participating in research within the LTFU clinic where she maintains a clinical practice.

Please join us in congratulating Nikki and her team on this award. We look forward to hearing the
outcome upon the completion of the study.

CTTC is pleased to present the 2024-2025 Annual Report, highlighting our activities from the past year! Please CLICK HERE to view the report.

The CTTC Infectious Diseases Working Committee has put together some guidelines around measles outbreaks and the management of HCT/CT patients in Canada. These guidelines were recently published in Current Oncology, in the format of fourteen frequently asked questions and answers. The Measles Guidelines are also featured on a new CTTC webpage dedicated to CTTC Practice Guidelines.

Please feel free to share this CTTC publication widely with your colleagues!

 

CTTC is pleased to present the 2023-2024 Annual Report, highlighting our activities from the past year! Please CLICK HERE to view the report.

Dr. Eaves was a pioneer who was internationally recognized for her contributions in moving the field of HCT forward.  Dr. Eaves was recognized for her contributions both nationally and internationally as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Order of Canada. She was a founding member of the Terry Fox Laboratory at the BC Cancer Agency and was a founding member of the International Society of Cellular Therapy.  Dr. Eaves was recognized by the CTTC for her significant contributions as a Till and McCulloch Lectureship Award in 2016.  She was a mentor and close colleague for many Canadian transplant researchers and physicians.

We will miss her for her generosity and enthusiasm for research in HCT.

Renew your membership by December 31st and be entered to win
a $100CAD Amazon Gift Card!

CTTC is pleased to launch the on-demand BMT 101 Webinar Series! This series will cover a number of introductory topics, and each topic will be broken down into two videos: one aimed at patients, family, and caregivers, one for trainees & allied health professionals. CTTC is making this series freely accessible to the CTTC community as an educational resource.

LEARN MORE HERE

• Share and build expertise for Quality Management within the Canadian community
• Share methodologies on how to address the challenges and standards that impact Canadian centres
• Provide Canadian context to accreditation and certifications, and how to manage the increasing requirements relative to less resources
• Gather efforts on common quality and risk issues
• Work with other Quality groups in the US, Europe, etc. on global quality issues.

The new Quality & Regulatory Committee will be co-chaired by Harminder Kaur-Singh and Nicole Prokopishyn. If you are interested in joining this committee, please indicate this by sending a note to: info@cttcanada.org.

• 15% discount on article processing charges (discount code to be shared with members only. Please click here to receive your member promo code)
• co-development of special issues to highlight topics important to CTTC members 
• CTTC conference abstracts to be published in the new Cell Therapy section on an annual basis
• CTTC conferences to be promoted and the ability to advertise job postings from CTTC members on the Current Oncology website
• and more!

More about Current Oncology:

Current Oncology is an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open access journal published bi-monthly online by MDPI. Established in 1994, the journal represents a multidisciplinary medium for clinical oncologists to report and review progress in the management of this disease. Articles published in the journal typically contain information that is relevant directly to clinical oncology practice, and have clear potential for application to the current or future practice of cancer medicine. Current Oncology is indexed by important databases, including SCIE (IF 2.257), PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, etc. More information about the journal can be accessed at: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/curroncol

Dr. Stephanie Maier is a molecular biologist by training, with 25 years of research and program management experience. She started her scientific career as a McMaster University undergraduate, then moved to Alberta to pursue a PhD degree in molecular biology and genetics with Dr. McDermid to characterize a gene involved in the disorder 'cat eye syndrome'. She then worked with Dr. West at the University of Alberta to help investigate immunologic tolerance in ABO-incompatible heart transplantation in children. In 2012, Stephanie helped to secure funding to initiate the collaborative CNTRP/CDTRP network of critical care, solid organ, and hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplant scientists. As its Program Manager for eight years, Stephanie supported this network by managing all accounting tasks, funding agreements, event planning, and grant submissions. She continues to play a small role in basic research and is currently working with Dr. Schultz and West on a GlycoNet-funded project to compare ABO antibody production in pediatric heart recipients to that of HSC recipients.