2021 Robert L. Fine Scholar

Dr. Ferguson is an Associate Scientist of the Lawson Health Research Institute, the research arm of the London Health Sciences Centre, and an Adjunct Professor of Oncology at Western University, London, Canada. He obtained a B.Sc. Honours from Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and subsequently a Ph. D. in Biochemistry at the University of Alberta (Edmonton). During his post-doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina, Ferguson discovered several novel mechanisms of drug resistance, including inducible multidrug resistance to natural product drugs and altered expression of topoisomerases in cells resistant to topo II inhibitors. Ferguson joined the University of Western Ontario (now Western University) as an Assistant Professor in Otolaryngology and Pharmacology & Toxicology. In collaboration with scientists and oncologists at the London Regional Cancer Program, Ferguson has developed mechanisms to induce synthetic lethality using antisense molecules targeting DNA synthesis and repair pathways, for which he is co-holder of several patents issued and applied for. He is currently developing small molecule inhibitors of two pathways important to pancreatic cancer: DNA repair (targeting Rad51) and the signalling axis of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and its receptor, as single agents and in combination with established anticancer agents.  His laboratory is part of the Baker Centre for Pancreatic Cancer Translational Research Group at the London Regional Cancer Program.

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