GET TO KNOW THE QUEEN'S OVARIAN CANCER CLUB EXECUTIVE TEAM
Farzaneh Afzali
Co-founder and Co-President
Farzaneh is a PhD student in Dr. Postovit's lab, studying cellular stress and survival in Ovarian Cancer. Her scientific wish is to be able to decode cells interactome and find a smart counter panel that can control cancer cells in their originating niche. Fun Fact about her is that although she's an introvert nerd, she always find herself as socials' planners or in leadership roles. It seems she enjoys being challenged and stressed, as she doesn't experience lots of adrenalin rush during her PhD.
Jake Kment
Co-founder and Co-President
Jake is a PhD student studying immunotherapy targeting Ovarian Cancer in the Craig lab. Fun fact, Jake played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League as a net-minder for the North Bay Battalion. His scientific wish is to improve treatment options and make a difference in the lives of Ovarian Cancer patients.
Juliette Wilson
Social Director
Juliette is a Masters student in the Koti Lab studying the association between thyroid disease and increased mortality in ovarian cancer patients. A fun fact about her is that she enjoys watching particularly bad reality TV in her spare time. Her scientific wish is a robust early detection screening method for ovarian cancer.
Rachel Bishop
Secretary
Rachel is a first-year master’s student in the DBSM program studying in the Craig lab. Her project is Testing TGFbeta Inhibitors in Chemoresistant Ovarian Cancer. She hopes that her drug of interest, Galunisertib, can sensitize ovarian cancer models to chemotherapy treatment and prevent the onset of treatment resistance.
When she’s not in the lab she can be found indulging her various hobbies and somewhat ambitious creative pursuits. She loves drawing and painting and has made it her goal to paint extended art pokemon cards of all 898 (and counting) pokemon. She’s also writing a fantasy novel.
Her scientific goal would be to find a way to permanently prevent cancer treatment resistance and metastasis from occurring so more people could be cured and become cancer free. Besides that, her ultimate scientific fantasy would be to find a way to genetically engineer real life pokemon and dragons.
Christopher Wells
Head Writer and Webmaster
Chris is a first year Masters student in the Abraham Lab and is investigating the functional changes associated with aging within hematopoietic stem cells and its possible development into Leukemia. A fun fact about him is that he was a member of the beekeeping club throughout highschool. His scientific wish to help increase overall survival for patients fighting cancer by developing earlier diagnostic tests. Specifically he hopes to identify age and Leukemia specific biomarkers for more efficient early detection in patients.
Amelia Potts
Social Media Coordinator
Amelia is going into her fourth year as a biochemistry specialization student. She will be working on developing an immunotherapy for ovarian cancer with the team at the Craig lab.
Fun fact: She loves baking and experimenting with new recipes to share with friends and family.
Her scientific wish is to improve treatment options and outcomes for patients with ovarian cancer. She strives to use her creativity to find unique solutions to scientific problems.
Innocent Ojobile
Writer
Innocent is an MSc student in Dr. Postovit's lab whose interests lie in Breast Cancer. He is currently studying a sub type of BC known as the inflammatory breast cancer (IBC); particularly receptor interacting kinase 2 protein in the IBC. Fun Fact: One fun fact about Innocent is that he likes working under pressure and often times panics a lot in the rush hour. Scientific wishes: Innocent is fascinated by the need to improve therapies for Breast and Ovarian Cancer patients. He therefore wishes to contribute towards developing a therapeutic drug for Breast cancer patients thus be the brain behind a given chemotherapeutic method.
Bianca Hill
Writer
I am a fourth year bachelor of health sciences student with a specialization in infection, immunity and inflammation. I am currently working at the Postovit Lab, and my research is focused on DNA repair responses in chemotherapeutic resistant high grade serous ovarian carcinoma. A fun fact about me is that I am a huge Harry Potter fan. My scientific wish is to elucidate novel mechanisms related to chemo sensitivity in ovarian cancer
Anna Nicolela
Treasurer
Anna is a forth year undergraduate student majoring in Life Sciences. She is currently completing an Independent Study in the Craig lab studying immunotherapy for ovarian cancer. Fun fact: she loves painting and plays tennis for Queen’s. Her scientific wish is to improve survival outcomes for ovarian cancer patients. She hopes to continue working on immunotherapy research after her undergrad degree.
Morgan Garland
Writer
Morgan is a 3rd year Life science specialization student and is also completing a certificate in Law. A fun fact about Morgan is that she enjoys creating wheel thrown pottery in her free time. Morgan’s scientific wish is to develop new innovations to improve cancer treatment through personalized medicine geared towards using the patients own DNA to improve metastatic cancer outcomes.
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Beatrice Lu
Writer
Beatrice is a second-year Life Science student. A fun fact about Beatrice is she is bilingual. She can speak Mandarin and English. Currently, she is also learning Cantonese. Her scientific wish is to explore possible cancer treatments utilizing the cell signalling strategies.
Previous Team Members
Ananya Chakraborty - Head Writer
Georgia Dean-Savage - Writer
Efrain Flores Giles - Writer
Sofia Chavez - Writer