Professor Christian Steidl research program aims to improve clinical outcomes of patients suffering lymphoid cancers.

Lymphoid cancers are the fifth most frequently occurring cancers in humans and afflict patients of all ages. Despite generally effective treatments being available, a significant number of patients still succumb to disease progression, or recurrence of the diseases, each year.

Past discoveries and functional studies conducted by Professor Steidl’s group and others in the field, have unveiled the critical role of the tumor microenvironment in the pathogenesis of these diseases, in particular with reference to Hodgkin Lymphoma. The interactions between the tumor and the microenvironment are emerging as being vital drug targets for successful treatment of lymphoid cancers. There is also excellent potential for effective clinical translation and treatment success from previous research findings.

As a highly respected and active member of the Lymphoma research community, Professor Steidl has made significant contributions to the discovery of novel somatic gene mutations in B cell lymphomas through the use of next-generation sequencing. He has also established tumor-associated macrophages as novel biomarkers for outcome prediction for Hodgkin lymphoma. Christian has authored multiple high-impact publications as first and/or senior author as a result of these groudbreaking studies and has been published in prominent journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine and Blood.

Professor Steidl is a member of the Centre for Lymphoid Cancer and BCC’s Lymphoma Tumor Group. He also collaborates actively with numerous scientific consortia such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Molecular Profiling Project and the Interlymph Hodgkin lymphoma group, and is involved in various clinical trial groups including the Eastern Clinical Oncology Group and Children’s Oncology Group. These collaborations also enable the use and analysis of primary biopsy material as the starting and ending points for discovery and biomarker studies in this translational lymphoma program.

The Steidl lab is well positioned to perform next-generation sequencing experiments, conduct downstream data analysis, provide biological/clinical interpretation of large genomics datasets and to conduct multiple time-point analyses using sequential biopsy material.

Positions and Employment

Professional Memberships

Honors

External Links:

See Steidl Lab - BC Cancer Research Centre

See Steidl Lab - University of British Columbia