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,…

We would like to welcome a new research technician to our lab: Dr. Emily Chen, MD, Research Technician II Emily was previously part of our lab from 2009-2016, during which she helped to pioneer our first animal window chamber models to study the tumor microenvironment.  In re-joining our lab, Emily will be responsible for conducting…

We would like to welcome 5 high school and undergraduate summer students who will be joining the lab this year: Ben Daynes (Aurora High School, Grade 12) Project: Developing health monitoring spectrometer with built-in light source for detection of urine biomarkers. Rachel Jacobson (Wilfred Laurier University, 1st year) Project: Investigating immunotherapy in acute myelogenous leukemia.…