Tim Samuel, a Ph.D. student in the DaCosta Lab, is the recipient of the 2022 Walker/Marshall Award at the University of Toronto. The Walker/Marshall Award recognizes student in the Department of Medical Biophysics (MBP) whose work and achievements are judged to be both outstanding in their own right and representative of the ideals and culture…

The Office of Research Trainees Research Day provided an opportunity for University Health Network summer students to share their research with the UHN Research Community. Similar to a Three Minute Thesis presentation, each student was given three minutes to present one slide and discuss what they had learnt at University Health Network. Maryam’s presentation highlighted…

We are excited to welcome Maryam Naimi to our lab as a summer student! Maryam will be a first-year student in the Life Sciences Program at the University of Toronto in September. She joins us a member of the University Health Network Summer Student Clinician Scientist Program.  She will be working as part of our…

We are excited to welcome back Rachel Jacobson to our lab as a summer student! Rachel Jacobson is a 3rd year student at Wilfred Laurier University returning to the DaCosta lab for her second consecutive summer as a summer student. She is majoring in Health Sciences and minoring in biology and chemistry. Rachel recently returned…

We are extremely happy to announce that Arcturus has been accepted into the Materials Science & Engineering, Masters of Engineering Program at the University of Toronto! Congratulations, Arc!! Arcturus joined the lab as Research Technician in February 2020.  It became immediately apparent that Arcturus’ diverse background and experience in materials science played a vital role…

The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation (https://thepmcf.ca/) is featuring “The Art of Conquering Cancer,” which discusses how art and creativity are essential components of science. The feature includes a video where Dr. DaCosta and other renowned researchers express the need to ‘think outside the box’ and explore the unknown in order for cancer research to grow…

We are excited to welcome Zuha Qureshi back to the DaCosta Lab as a summer student. Zuha is a second-year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, earning a degree in Human Biology and she has been a research student in our lab since 2019. Zuha has been an integral part of our clinical trial…

Dr. DaCosta presents invited talk entitled, “A Prospective Multi-center Phase III RCT Evaluating Intraoperative Fluorescence Imaging for Real-time Margin Assessment During Breast Conserving Surgery,” at the first Institut Curie – Princess Margaret Jamboree in May 2022, focused on breast cancer research.  This research “jamboree” was intended to foster collaborations that advance translational research across the two institutions, the…

Our recent publication in Radiation Research, “Assessing the Accuracy of Bioluminescence Image-Guided Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy of Orthotopic Pancreatic Tumors Using a Small Animal Irradiator” is a collaboration between the DaCosta Lab and Dr. Robert Weersink. In this preclincal study, Dr. Sara Rapic (former Post-doctoral fellow) and Timothy Samuel (Ph.D. candidate) demonstrated the improved accuracy of using 3-dimensional bioluminescence…

Dr. DaCosta and other scientists discuss the opportunities for scientific breakthrough at PMCC as a result of the historic donation of $50 million in honour of the late Canadian philanthropist, Allan Slaight. Allan Slaight The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation announced a historic $50 million gift for cancer research in honour of the late Allan Slaight,…