Dr. Marco Marra — From Mapping the Human Genome to the Future of Cancer Medicine

In this conversation, I speak with Dr. Marco Marra, University Killam Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics and Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia, Distinguished Scientist at BC Cancer, and Terry Fox Leader in Cancer Genome Science. An Officer of the Order of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and inductee into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, he is also a recipient of the National Killam Prize in Health Sciences and the Canadian Cancer Society's Lifetime Contribution Prize. Marra's scientific career spans more than three decades, from his early contributions to the Human Genome Project at Washington University in St. Louis to pioneering advances in cancer genomics and personalized medicine. Recruited to Vancouver by Nobel laureate Michael Smith, he co-founded Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, which he directed for more than two decades. In 2003, he led the Vancouver effort that sequenced the SARS coronavirus genome.…