Welcoming New Associate Members to the CDCR

The Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR) at McMaster University is happy to announce the appointment of two new esteemed Associate members to the Centre. We welcome Professor Richard Austin and Professor Jonathan Stokes, two accomplished researchers with diverse expertise and a shared commitment to advancing cancer research.

Meet our new Associate members:

Richard Austin, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Medicine. He is also a Career Investigator of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and serves as the Director of the Hamilton Centre for Kidney Research. He holds the Amgen Canada Chair in Nephrology, which supports biomedical research focusing on better understanding the underlying cellular mechanisms leading to cardiometabolic disease and cancer. In September 2022, Professor Austin was elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Professor Austin’s research team recently discovered unique circulating autoantibodies, known as anti-GRP78 autoantibodies. These autoantibodies bind to GRP78, a protein found on the surface of cancer cells, which in turn promotes cell proliferation and accelerates the growth of tumors.

Jonathan Stokes, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, carrying a Banting Fellowship from 2018-2020. The Stokes Lab was established in August 2021. One of his lab’s primary interests, quite broadly, is in applying artificial intelligence approaches to develop structurally and functionally novel small molecules with defined properties.

With the newest Associate members joining the CDCR, the Centre’s Director, Dr. Sheila Singh, noted in welcoming our new Associate members, “Professors Austin and Stokes bring in fresh perspectives, diverse expertise, and unwavering commitment. We look forward to embarking on a journey of collaboration with their labs, guided by the shared vision of transforming lives through groundbreaking cancer research.”

About the Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR):

The Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR) at McMaster University features basic and translational cancer researchers from across Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, working together to provide a holistic research program. The CDCR builds expertise around treatment-resistant cancers of high need, significantly impacting those suffering from the disease in Canada and worldwide.