Skip to main content

Our Faculty

Conference Chair

Diana N. Ionescu, MD, FRCP(C), FCAP

Consultant Pathologist BC Cancer Agency
Medical Lead Anatomical Pathology
Medical Director Cervical Cancer Screening Laboratory
Medical Director Clinical Trials, BCCA Laboratories
Clinical Professor of Pathology, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Ionescu is a graduate of University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Iuliu Hatieganu” in Cluj Napoca, Romania. She completed her postgraduate training in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a Fellowship in Gynecological Pathology at Vancouver General Hospital. She has practiced as a Consultant Pathologist at BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver since 2006. She is currently a Clinical Professor of Pathology at UBC and served as the residency program director for the Anatomic Pathology Residency Program between 2009 – 2017.

Her specific areas of diagnostic expertise are lung, gynecologic and breast pathology. She is an author of over 60 scientific publications and book chapters. She is the author and invited speaker at numerous regional, national and international lectures. Her investigation interests include oncologic pathology and molecular biomarkers, lung cancer and adult health education. She is the Canadian Anatomic and Molecular Pathology (CAMP) and CAMP pathology Oncology Digital Series (CAMP-PODS) course director.

Dr. Ionescu is an enthusiastic advocate of pathologists participating in numerous patient education forums, TV shows, advocacy and fundraising campaigns, being Medical Advisor for Lung Cancer Canada, moderator, presenter and community excellence awardee at ROMPOST TV on Omni TV, and in 2015 supporting biomarker testing before the House of Commons Committee on Health.

Planning Committee

Barbara Melosky, MD, FRCP(C)

Professor of Medicine, UBC
Medical Oncologist, BC Cancer
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Melosky is a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a Medical Oncologist in Vancouver at BC Cancer. She graduated from medical school at the University of Manitoba and did a residency in internal medicine and an oncology fellowship at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Melosky specializes in the field of thoracic malignancy. She sits on the Executive Lung Site Committee for CCTG Canadian Clinical Trials Group.

Her main focus of clinical trials is on EGFR inhibitors; she is published in this area and is considered a national and international expert. Dr. Melosky has chaired the Canadian Lung Cancer Conference for the last 12 years, which is attended by over 350 participants. She chairs and organized the multi-disciplinary Lung Cancer Journal Club three times yearly. She is chair and created the British Columbia Lung Cancer Biobank.

She is also the chairperson of the Colorectal Screening Program of British Columbia and has a special interest in EGFR receptors and management of side effects.

Stephen Yip, MD, PhD, FRCPC

Neuropathologist, Vancouver General Hospital
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Stephen Yip completed his combined M.D-Ph.D. training followed by 4 years of neurosurgical training at UBC. He switched to neuropathology and obtained his Royal College certification in 2007. He completed fellowship training in molecular neuro-oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital under the mentorship of Dr David Louis as a RC Clinician Investigator Program fellow and molecular genetic pathology at MGH/Harvard Medical School under the supervision of Dr John Iafrate. He is on staff at Vancouver General Hospital and BC Cancer (VCC). Specialty: neuropathology, molecular pathology. Hobby: neuropathology, molecular pathology.

Speakers

Abbas Agaimy, M.D.

Professor & Deputy Director, Institute of Pathology,
Friedrich‐Alexander‐University Erlangen‐Nuremberg,
University Hospital,
Erlangen, Germany

Dr. Abbas Agaimy, M.D., holds the position of Professor & Deputy Director at the Institute of Pathology, Friedrich‐Alexander‐University Erlangen‐Nuremberg, University Hospital, Erlangen, Germany. He pursued his medical education at the University of Khartoum, Sudan, and re-graduated from the University of Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany. Dr. Agaimy completed his residencies in Histopathology at various large German clinics and earned board certification in anatomic pathology from the Bavarian Medical Council 2004.

Throughout his career, Dr. Agaimy has garnered recognition through prestigious national and international awards. Notably, he has been acknowledged as one of the top 2% most-cited scientists globally in the field of pathology for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024. He actively contributes to the academic pathology community by serving on the editorial boards of esteemed leading journals in the field (The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, Modern Pathology, Advances in Anatomic Pathology, Histopathology, Head & Neck Pathology, Annals of Diagnostic Pathology) and “Virchows Archiv,” where he currently holds the position of Editor‐in‐Chief.

A dedicated member of various pathology societies such as the International Academy of Pathology/USCAP and the European Society of Pathology, Dr. Agaimy’s research interests encompass a wide array of areas including head & neck cancer, mesenchymal GI tumors, pancreatobiliary cancer, soft tissue tumors/sarcoma, melanoma, undifferentiated malignancies, hereditary tumor syndromes, and SWI/SNF‐deficient neoplasia.

With over 700 PubMed‐listed publications to his credit and a cumulative impact of over 5000 points, Dr. Agaimy’s contributions to the field are substantial. His expertise extends to over 40 book chapters, including contributions to over 30 chapters in the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of tumors in various organ systems.

Aleodor (Doru) Andea, MD, MBA

Chief of Dermatopathology
Professor of Oncology
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Buffalo, NY

Aleodor (Doru) Andea, MD, MBA, is Chief of Dermatopathology and Professor of Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY. Dr. Andea’s areas of expertise are Dermatopathology and Molecular Pathology. He received his MD from “Victor Babes” University of Medicine, Timisoara, Romania and completed an Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. This was followed by fellowships in Dermatopathology at Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC and Oncologic Pathology and Molecular Pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. Dr. Andea also earned a Master of Business Administration degree from UAB School of Business. At Roswell Cancer Center Dr. Andea has established and is leading the Dermatopathology Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory providing clinical testing for melanocytic tumors. Dr Andea has a particular interest in developing and improving ancillary molecular tests to help classify and predict prognosis in histologically ambiguous melanocytic tumors. He was invited to deliver numerous national and international presentations on a variety of dermatopathology topics, with a focus on molecular diagnostic tools for melanocytic tumors. Dr. Andea is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications, one book, 3 book chapters and over 100 abstracts mainly in the field of dermatopathology. Dr. Andea serves currently as president of the International Society of Dermatopathology and Western New York Society of Pathology.

Pierre-Olivier Fiset MDCM, PhD, FRCPC

Anatomical Pathologist
McGill University Health Centre Glen Site
Montreal, QC

Pierre-Olivier Fiset MDCM, PhD, FRCPC is an Anatomical Pathologist practicing at the McGill University Health Centre Glen site since 2016. He completed his PhD under the supervision of Dr Qutayba Hamid at the Meakins-Christie Institute. He is a medical graduate from McGill University (2010) and completed his residency in Anatomical Pathology (2015) also at McGill University. He completed his fellowship in Thoracic Pathology (2016) in the University of Toronto Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology program under the supervision of Dr David Hwang and Dr Ming-Sound Tsao. His practice consists of Thoracic Pathology, Gastrointestinal Pathology, Medical Renal Pathology and Biomarker and Molecular Pathology. He participates in numerous research endeavours and has acted as an expert consultant in each of these respective fields. His current interests include practical implementation of computer vision and artificial intelligence into clinical workflows.

Cheryl Mather, MD, FCAP

Anatomic and Molecular Pathologist,
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB

Dr. Mather is an anatomic and molecular pathologist at the University of Alberta. She trained in AP/CP pathology and GI/liver pathology at the University of Washington in Seattle and in molecular pathology at the University of California San Francisco. She has been in Edmonton since 2016, during which time the Alberta Molecular Pathology program has expanded from PCR-based, single gene testing to a comprehensive NGS laboratory processing over 5000 NGS tests per year.

Jinesa Moodley, MB BCh BAO, FRCPC

Consultant Pathologist, BC Cancer Vancouver
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Jinesa Moodley is a consultant pathologist at BC Cancer Vancouver, with a primary focus in Sarcoma/Musculoskeletal Pathology and secondary focus in Head and Neck/Endocrine Pathology. Dr. Jinesa Moodley received her medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Dublin) in 2017, and subsequently completed General Pathology residency in 2022 at McMaster University. She finished her Subspeciality Surgical Pathology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2023, with a primary focus in Bone and Soft tissue Pathology and a secondary focus in Head and Neck/Endocrine Pathology. She is a certified fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC) and an American Board of Pathology (ABP) certified Anatomical Pathologist.

Christine Simmons, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Medical Oncologist, BC Cancer
Program Director, Medical Oncology Training Program
Clinical Associate Professor, UBC Faculty of Medicine
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Christine Simmons is a Medical Oncologist at the BCCA Vancouver. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Medicine. She is past Chair of the Locally Advanced Breast Cancer Canadian National Consensus group and has a strong research interest in the area of neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer. In July 2014, she took on the role of Clinical Skills Course Director in the undergraduate medical program at UBC.

Alex Wyatt, DPhil

Associate Professor, University of British Columbia
Senior Research Scientist, Vancouver Prostate Centre
Senior Scientist, Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Wyatt is an associate professor in Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is a senior research scientist at the Vancouver Prostate Centre and a senior scientist at BC Cancer. Dr. Wyatt has a DPhil in genetics from the University of Oxford.

His research goals are to identify associations between genomic alterations and patient outcomes in metastatic prostate and bladder cancer, and to translate these findings into clinical biomarkers.

Dr. Wyatt has developed novel laboratory and computational techniques to study plasma circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). Through application of these methods to clinical trial cohorts, his team has demonstrated that ctDNA is highly representative of metastatic lesions, and that somatic alterations detected in ctDNA can help predict prostate cancer therapy resistance or response.

Dr. Wyatt is the chair of correlative sciences and tumour biobanking for the Canadian Cancer Trial Group (CCTG) and through this role is involved in design and execution of phase I-III clinical trial protocols across Canada. Dr. Wyatt directs the ctDNA screening strategy and the molecular tumor board for the first multi-center phase 2 umbrella trial in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (NCT03385655, NCT02905318).