Timeline

The Genome Sciences Centre is proud to announce that our Co-Director and Head of Bioinformatics, Professor Steven Jones, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS, FRCP(Edin), FLSW, has been elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales—a prestigious recognition of excellence and leadership in academic research.

In a major milestone for international biomedical research and the future of personalized medicine, the Canadian Genome-Phenome Archive (CGA), part of the Pan-Canadian Genome Library (PCGL) has joined the Federated European Genome-Phenome Archive (Federated EGA), marking the federation’s first significant expansion outside of Europe.

UBC has announced the appointment of Dr. Marco Marra as one of three new University Killam Professors. The University Killam Professorship—the highest honour UBC can confer on a faculty member—recognizes exceptional teachers and researchers who are leaders in their fields, and who have received international recognition for their achievements.

Congratulations to Dr. Laura Evgin for being selected as one of the 2025 Canada Gairdner Early Career Investigators for her work in CAR T-cell therapy. 

Since our founding in 1999, the GSC has sequenced over 6,000,000,000,000,000 bases, sequenced the genomes of more than 350 species, and facilitated ground-breaking discoveries in cancer research. On October 22, 2024, we hosted our inaugural Collaborator Forum, bringing together a vibrant mix of researchers, industry experts, and both old and new colleagues to celebrate decades of collaboration and to foster new scientific partnerships.

Four out of five children diagnosed with cancer survive over the long term after treatment, but for 20 per cent of them, standard treatment is not enough. To improve outcomes for these kids, researchers at the Michael Cuccione Childhood Cancer Research Program at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR) have been working for over a decade on the BC Pediatric Personalized OncoGenomics (PedsPOG) study, using genomics to identify treatments specific to an individual child’s cancer. In a paper recently published in Nature Communications, they showed that new therapeutic options can be identified when scientists have access to a child’s sequencing of both RNA and DNA — instead of DNA alone.

The Genome Sciences Centre, a leading institution in genomic research and innovation, is proud to announce its recent affiliation as part of the Earth BioGenome Secretariat. This marks a significant milestone in the Centre's commitment to advancing the frontiers of genomics and biodiversity conservation.

Researchers at the BC Cancer Research Institute have made an advancement in genetic testing that allows for more accurate prediction of which parent’s genes led to an individual’s increased cancer risk. This improves the efficiency of familial testing strategies and could eliminate concern for patients at high risk of cancer caused by genes inherited from a parent.

Formalin fixation of paraffin-embedded tissue samples is widely used to preserve tissue for clinical investigation. However, the integrity of the genomic material extracted from such samples is not always preserved, and it can lead to errors in downstream sequencing analysis, including somatic variant calling. GSC scientists conducted a comprehensive comparison of variant caller performance and established a bioinformatics-based approach to improve somatic variant calling from FFPE tissue samples.

Canadian biodiversity is one of our greatest national treasures. From coast to coast to coast—the Arctic to the Rockies, the prairies to the Great Lakes—the True North is home to a vast assortment of plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. The Canada BioGenome Project seeks to better understand and conserve our natural heritage by sequencing the genomes of four hundred Canadian species.

A new Platform for Oncogenomic Reporting and Interpretation (PORI) integrates multiple knowledge bases into a program for sharing relevant data from genome analysis related to precision oncology.

In a collaboration between the GSC’s Bioinformatics Technology Lab, the Michael Smith Lab at UBC, NC State University in Raleigh and Laurentian Forestry Centre Natural Resources Canada, the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes of Pissodes strobi (an insect also known as the spruce weevil or the white pine weevil) were sequenced. The results could help researchers control the destructive impact of this forest pest.

Four new molecular subgroups of Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Neoplasms identified through research done in Dr. Sharon Gorski's lab. 

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC Diagnostic Accreditation Program (DAP) gave full accreditation to GSC facilities.

Dr. Marco Marra was one of six outstanding individuals inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

GSC reached a new milestone by recording 3 petabases of sequencing data.

Analysis of the genomic characteristics of cervical cancers in Ugandan women, led by Dr. Marco Marra, published in Nature Genetics.

GSC became one of four Canadian institutions to use genome science to better understand COVID-19 infection. 

On November 15, 2019 the GSC celebrated its 20th anniversary with an Open House and a Scientific Symposium. 

Dr. Steven. Jones appointed Canada Research Chair for Computational Genomics, part of an initiative by the Government of Canada and the Canada Foundation for Innovation to fund Canada Research Chairs at 52 institutions across Canada for research excellence.

The GSC achieved ISO27001 certification—one of the highest standards for information security management in the world. 

The Silent Genomes Project, which aims to reduce health care disparities and improve diagnostic success for children with genetic diseases from Indigenous populations, was launched. In this documentary,  Dr. Nadine Caron, First Nations Health Authority Chair in Cancer and Wellness, Senior Scientist at the GSC and member of the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, discussed her role in the project. 

GSC reached a new milestone by recording 2 petabases of sequencing data.

Dr. Caron received $1.25 million from Genome British Columbia for the Northern Biobank Initiative to address a growing risk that rural and remote communities in B.C. could be excluded from significant advances made in genomic research and precision medicine. 

The GSC, as part of the International Human Epigenome Consortium and under leadership of Dr. Martin Hirst, contributed to the analysis of over 111 reference human epigenomes published in Nature. 

Dr. Sharon Gorski published a study in Clinical Cancer Research demonstrating that autophagy inhibition improves treatment efficacy in triple-negative breast cancer. 

GSC scientists, led by Dr. Inanc Birol, published in Bioinformatics the complete sequence and assembly of the White Spruce genome which, at 20 gigabases, was the largest genome ever sequenced at the time. 

Dr. Marianne Sadar, who’s research focuses on the development of therapeutics for prostate cancer, became a Distinguished Scientist at the GSC.   

Dr. Robert Holt published the first evidence of a link between colorectal cancer and Fusobacterium nucleatum in Genome Research, highlighting the link between microbes and cancer. The study was named as one of Time Magazine's top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2011. 

Dr. Ryan Morin published a study in Nature Genetics describing recurrent somatic mutations in EZH2 in follicular and diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. 

GSC Staff Scientist Martin Krzywinski developed a novel way to visualize complex genomics data elegantly and efficiently using a method called Circos, published in Genome Research and now used by scientists worldwide. 

In one of the first applications of next generation sequencing, Dr. Martin Hirst developed a technique to analyze the epigenome, known as ChIP-seq, published in Nature Methods. The method is now commonly used by researchers worldwide. 

The GSC was one of only four genome centres in the world to receive a next generation DNA sequencer (Solexa, which was later bought by Illumina), a technology that revolutionized the modern field of genomics. 

Distinguished Scientist Dr. Sharon Gorski, who's research focuses on cell death and cell survival pathways in breast and pancreatic cancer, joined the GSC as a junior scientist. 

Dr. Isabella Tai, a senior MD/PhD scientist with an interest in understanding the mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance, metastasis and tumour progression in gastrointestinal cancers, joined the GSC.

Dr. Angela Brooks-Wilson launched the Healthy Aging Study, aiming to understand genes that promote long-term good health in ‘super seniors’.

Dr. Angela Brooks-Wilson joined the GSC as a distinguished scientist investigating the genetic basis of cancer susceptibility, specifically lymphoid cancers.

On November 15 1999, Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre opened its doors at BC Cancer.