QUALISURE DIAGNOSTICS - Key Persons
Cynthia Stretch, PhD is a cancer biologist with over 14 years of experience using omic technologies in wet and dry laboratory settings. She completed her PhD in the Department of Oncology at the University of Alberta where she developed her expertise in metabolomics, transcriptomics and computational biology. Stretch has been working with Bathe since 2015. Her postdoctoral work at the University of Calgary's Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute is focused on integrating genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data from the tumor to better understand the host response.
Cynthia Stretch, PhD is a cancer biologist and a bioinformatician. She takes very complex molecular data and identifies patterns that have clinical and biological meaning. The numbers she analyzes are from real people. Friends and family have become some of those numbers.
Farshad Farshidfar, MD, PhD is a computational biologist. Like Cynthia, he transforms complex sets of numbers to simple truths and novel insights. Farshad has lost family members to cancer. His experience has informed him of the limits of clinical science and the uncertainty of traditional cancer treatments.
Dave Ehman P.Eng., CISSP is a technology, engineering, operations, and security expert with over 20 years of experience designing, building, and operating critical infrastructure around the world, including Canada, Singapore, and Australia. Dave has served as Chief Technology Officer, Chief Engineer, and Vice President at a variety of publicly traded and privately held companies. He brings an extremely broad technology background, deep technical knowledge, and strong systems engineering approach to the team. He has served in senior technology leadership roles in a wide variety of industries, including Security, Construction, Networks, Electric Utilities, Government Regulation, Privacy, and Defense/Aerospace. Dave is a Professional Engineer (P.Eng.), and a member of APEGA with a Permit to Practice. He holds a B.A.Sc. degree in Electronic Information Systems Engineering from the University of Regina and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional ("CISSP") designation from ISC2.
And, he is a rocket scientist.
David Bocking has a business background. He helps start-ups to realize commercialization. One day, Oliver and Farshad attended one of his courses, sharing their idea of bringing what they learned in a research lab to the clinic. He was immediately intrigued. His connection to their purpose was personal, as he too had lost loved ones to the ravages of cancer after extended periods of toxic treatment that had no benefit.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer / MD, FRCSC
Oliver Bathe, MD is a surgical oncologist with over 25 years of clinical experience. As a result, he has an excellent understanding of the challenges that patients and clinicians face during their Cancer Journey. He is a professor of Surgery and Oncology at the University of Calgary. His research has mostly been translational in nature, applying cutting edge technological solutions to real clinical problems. In 2004, Bathe founded a large tumor bank that currently houses over 23,000 samples from over 4,000 patients. His involvement in The Cancer Genome Atlas Project (TCGA) and his leadership in the Clinical Proteomic Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) have spurred his interest in systems biology and bioinformatics. He also has experience in clinical trials, serving in leadership positions on several national and international clinical trial groups. He has directed a research program, attracting over $2 million to research related to several technologies, the majority of which have been transferred to Qualisure.
Sally Abou-Zeki, MBA is a quality, regulatory, accreditation, and operations professional with project management skills in designing, implementing, and maintaining quality management systems. Sally holds an MBA degree in Project Management from the University of Calgary, and is an experienced medical laboratory technologist holding MLT and MLS (ASCP) practice certifications. Sally has served on Council, Finance, and Legislation committees for the College of Medical Laboratory Science of Alberta as general council, Vice President, and President. She brings a wealth of knowledge on industry standards for clinical test development, and on navigating government regulation to bring medical devices to market.