Welcome to the CBR blog.

I am Anne, and I work as a part-time postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biochemistry in the Centre or Blood Research. My research revolves around helping the immune system target and kill cancer cells. Most cancers have various strategies to hide from the immune system, which gives them the ability to grow and metastasize unnoticed in the body. Helping the immune system recognize and break down these hiding strategies is called immuno-therapy, and combining chemotherapy with immuno-therapy holds great potential in future cancer treatment. I collaborate with some very talented chemists, who extract small compounds from sponges they find on the bottom of the ocean. When I am not working with sponge extracts, I take great joy in communicating research and science – hence this blog.

UBC campus is my home, my workplace and my community, so a lot of my world revolves around this little “peninsula”. I always try to put things into greater perspectives though, and I welcome any comments or discussions about my blog posts.

Thanks for reading.