Sabine Mai, BSc, MSc, PhD

Sabine Mai is a professor of physiology and pathophysiology, biochemistry and medical genetics, and human anatomy and cell science at the University of Manitoba. She is also a senior investigator at the CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Genomic Instability and Nuclear Architecture in Cancer. A global leader in cancer research, she has pioneered imaging technologies to study the spatial organization of the genome and its role in cancer progression.

Mai’s research has led to major discoveries in genomic instability, including identifying the oncogene c-MYC as a driver of structural changes in the cancer genome. She has developed advanced imaging techniques to study telomere organization and nuclear architecture, which have become structural biomarkers for multiple cancers, including prostate cancer, multiple myeloma and glioblastoma. As the founder and director of the Genomic Centre for Cancer Research and Diagnosis, she leads a multidisciplinary team using super-resolution microscopy to analyze the nuclear structure of cancer cells.

Her contributions extend beyond academia. In 2014, she founded Telo Genomics Corp, based in the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, to translate her research into personalized cancer treatment. She has secured more than $33 million in research funding and has mentored more than 1,500 trainees worldwide.

Mai completed a bachelor of science in biology and three master's degrees in developmental biology, French, and educational theory at the University of Cologne. She earned a PhD in molecular biology in Karlsruhe, Germany, and completed postdoctoral training in cancer and immunology at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland.

Her work has been recognized with numerous honours, including the Cognition Challenge Award in 2013 and the Women’s Executive Network Top 100: Canada's Most Powerful Women Award in 2015. In 2018, she was awarded a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, reaffirming her position as a leader in cancer research.

Mai continues to push the boundaries of molecular imaging and genomic research while training the next generation of scientists and advancing new technologies for cancer diagnosis and treatment.