Dr. Aru Narendran

Dr. Narendran received undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biochemistry and Immunology, a PhD in Neuroimmunology and completed postdoctoral fellowship training in cancer biology at the Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI). His medical training were from McMaster University (MD), Tufts University, Massachusetts (Pediatrics Residency) and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto (Pediatric Hematology and Oncology fellowship). He is the recipient of a number of awards including the Odile Schweisguth Prize for pediatric oncology research from the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) and a young investigator award from the Children’s Oncology Group (COG).

Dr. Narendran is currently a full professor of Pediatrics and Oncology and holds an appointment in the division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Transplant at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and a joint appointment with the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary. His current responsibilities also include directing the POETIC laboratory for Preclinical and Drug discovery studies and phase I clinical trials, training students and postdoctoral fellows in pediatric cancer research  and teaching graduate level courses in Ethics, Cancer Biology and novel therapeutics. As an academic translational scientist, he has contributed to integrative practices of the University at various levels.

Locally, Dr. Narendran is a member of the Calgary Health Region Research Ethics Board (CHREB) and at the national and international levels, he serves on the Sanofi-Genzyme Pediatric Acute Leukemia Advisory Board, Western Canada Childhood Cancer Research Network (WC3RN) steering committee, National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) clinical trials group and has also participated in grant review panels of the NCI/NIH, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, CIHR and the Institut National du Cancer/ French National Cancer Institute.