Established by the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta, the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation and other generous donors, our laboratory, translational and clinical research chairs oversee international research programs that are developing and testing potential new therapies that will one day save young lives without causing damaging health problems in survivors. Our psychosocial research chair is investigating the social and psychological impact of the disease on families with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of childhood cancer survivors and their families.

Kids Cancer Care Chair in Pediatric Oncology: Dr. Jennifer Chan holds the Kids Cancer Care Chair in Pediatric Oncology. The research chair enables Dr. Chan and her colleagues to build capacity and infrastructure in the Childhood Cancer Research Program at the University of Calgary and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute in order to advance pediatric cancer research. A clinician-scientist in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at U of C, Dr. Chan oversees the strategic vision and growth of a multi-displinary research program of laboratory and clinical researchers who are working collaboratively to better understand children’s cancers in order to develop potential new therapies and test them in pre-clinical trials. Dr. Chan also oversees the Clark Smith Neurologic and Pediatric Tumour Tissue Bank. To learn more about Dr. Chan’s research, click here.      

Kids Cancer Care Chair in Child and Family Cancer Care: The first of its kind in Canada, the Kids Cancer Care Chair in Child and Family Cancer Care is held by Dr. Nancy Moules of the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Nursing. In her role as chair, Dr. Moules is expanding on a strong interdisciplinary research program that explores the psychosocial impact of childhood cancer on children, families, relationships, finances, mental health and on health care professionals. Concentrating on the unspoken experiences of pediatric cancer, which are typically overshadowed by the disease itself, she and her colleagues will seek to better understand these experiences in order to improve programs and services for children and families. To learn more about Dr. Moules’ research, click here.

Kids Cancer Care Chair in Translational and Clinical Research: Dr. Aru Narendran is a clinician-scientist in the departments of pediatrics and oncology and is the Kids Cancer Care Chair in Translational and Clinical Research. His singular mission is to move promising new therapies from the lab to the hospital for clinical trials in children. Dr. Narendran’s research group focuses on the unique biology of refractory pediatric cancers, those that do not respond to therapy, in order to understand why some children relapse and their tumour cells become resistant to conventional treatments. His research team is currently developing a cancer vaccine for leukemia that is only years away from clinical trials in the hospital. His hope is that one day, standard treatment for children with cancer will include cancer vaccines to protect children from relapsing. To learn more about Dr. Narendran’s research, click here.

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