Rupal Hatkar’s bio
Rupal Hatkar is a third year PhD student in cancer genomics at University of Toronto (U of T) in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. In addition to her graduate studies, she also works as a stem cell specialist at Princess Margaret Hospital, where she assesses blood stem cell donors and recipients to ensure informed consent and clearance for transplant, and supports the management of the cellular therapy inventory (including domestic and international stem cells). Since 2019, Rupal has served as co-president of the U of T chapter of Stem Cell Club, a non-profit organization which works to raise awareness about blood stem cell donation and increase representation of diverse ethnic/racial groups on the Canada’s Stem Cell Registry. In addition to her leadership in stem cell donor recruitment at U of T, Rupal supports national donor recruitment efforts through her work developing and evaluating virtual campaigns to recruit specific needed demographics of donors and to build a more inclusive donor registry, including for LGBTQ2S+ people.