David Huntsman

Dr. David Huntsman is the co-founder and director of OVCARE, the Chew Wei Professor in Gynecologic Oncology and the Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Molecular and Genomic Pathology. He is a professor in the Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is a distinguished scientist at BC Cancer and a consultant pathologist at the Vancouver General Hospital. He co-directed the Genetic Pathology Evaluation Centre at the Jack Bell Research Centre at Vancouver General Hospital and has led its recent development into the Molecular and Advanced Pathology core (MAPcore). 
 
Dr. Huntsman attended medical school at Memorial University of Newfoundland and after completing a rotating internship, practiced family medicine in Labrador for two years. Following his experience in family medicine, he entered and completed a pathology residency and trained in clinical molecular genetics at UBC and subsequently studied cancer genetics at Cambridge University.
 
Dr. Huntsman’s research has led to development of predictive and prognostic tissue-based cancer biomarkers for ovarian cancer and a wide variety of other tumour types. His team created a blueprint for histotype specific ovarian cancer control and have been leaders in the application of novel genomics technologies to ovarian cancer. As collaboration is critical in this field, he happily leads and engages in a wide number of multidisciplinary research groups. Dr. Huntsman has been awarded the inaugural Virginia Greene leadership award for ovarian cancer research and advocacy in 2011, the Killam Research Prize from the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 2012 and the Karen Campbell National Award for Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research in 2012. He was recently elected to fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.