The Cutting Edge Webinar Series

Starts February 25th, 2025

Season 2 Episode 3

Innovating Together – Establishing a National Agency for Canadian Biomarker Services

Date: Thursday, May 1st, 2025 – 12:00pm – 1:30pm (EDT)

Speaker

Ming Tsao

Ming Tsao FRCPC, MD
Toronto, Ontario
Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Professor, Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology, University of Toronto

Dr. Tsao is a Thoracic Pathologist and Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and Professor of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. He has published extensively in molecular pathology of lung cancer, and prognostic and predictive biomarkers for non-small cell lung cancer. He is a member of the Board of Directors and past Chair of the Pathology Committee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).

He is internationally known as a leader in molecular testing for lung cancer and has led several multi-center projects to standardize lung cancer biomarker assays in Canada. Dr. Tsao has received many awards including the Canadian Cancer Society O. Harold Warwick Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Emina Torlakovic

Emina Torlakovic MD, PhD, FCAP
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Founder and Director, Canadian Biomarker Quality Assurance
Head, Division of Hematopathology, Saskatchewan Health Authority
Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Saskatchewan

Dr. Emina Emilia Torlakovic obtained her M.D. at the University of Zagreb Medical School and her Ph.D. at the University of Oslo Medical School. She is board certified by The American Board of Pathology in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology with subspecialty boards in Hematopathology. She is a professor at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan. She is a Division Head of Hematopathology, Saskatchewan Health Authority. She was a founding member of the NordiQC, has co-founded CIQC, and most recently founded Canadian Biomarker Quality Assurance (CBQA) as well as CBQAReadout.ca (inter)national academic quality assurance programs, which she is currently directing. Dr. Torlakovic is the Chair of the National Standards Committee for High Complexity Testing of the Canadian Association of Pathologists. She is the President of the International Society for Immunohistochemistry and Molecular Morphology (ISIMM) and a Board Member of the International Quality Network for Pathology (IQN Path). She is also currently leading several projects related to national and global standardization of clinical IHC applications.

Learning Objectives:

After this episode, the participant will be able to:

  1. Evaluate the role of centralized oncology biomarker services in the development, quality assurance, and equitable access to predictive oncology biomarkers.