Asian Heritage Month: Raising awareness on Asian stem cell donors with the Stem Cell Club
May is Asian Heritage Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the contributions and achievements of Asian Canadians. It provides an opportunity for Canadians to learn about and celebrate the diverse cultures and histories of Asian communities in Canada. The event recognizes the contributions that Asian Canadians have made to the country’s social, cultural, and economic fabric. The theme for Asian Heritage Month 2023 is “Stories of Determination.” This month is a reminder for all of us to come together to combat anti-Asian racism and discrimination in all its forms. Read more here.
One way to support this community is by raising awareness about the need for stem cell donors among Asians, who are underrepresented in the global registry. The Stem Cell Club‘s East Asians Save Lives & South Asians Save Lives are campaigns led by undergraduate student Lauren Sano & PhD student Rupal Hatkar, under the supervision of Dr. Warren Fingrut, and are dedicated to increasing the number of Asian stem cell donors.
South Asians Save Lives
Patients with blood cancers or other blood/immune diseases may need a stem cell transplantation as part of their treatment; however, most do not have a fully matched donor in their families and need an unrelated donor. Patients are more likely to find a matched unrelated donor from within their own ancestral group, but South Asian donors are underrepresented on Canadian and global stem cell registries (i.e. South Asians make up one fifth of the world’s population, but less than 2% of registered stem cell donors). This disparity results in less than 40% of South Asian patients finding a matched unrelated donor, compared to greater than 75% of European ancestry patients.
Meet Rupal Hatkar: South Asians Save Lives campaign Lead
“Based on this need, several years ago I set out to raise awareness about the need for more South Asian stem cell donors”, says Rupal Hatkar, a third year PhD student at University of Toronto. “I worked as a leader with the Canadian donor recruitment organization Stem Cell Club to launch the South Asians Save Lives campaign, to educate South Asians about stem cell donation and engage the community to donation. We developed an array of multimedia resources, including infographics, social media posts featuring stories from South Asian stem cell donors and recipients, as well as TikToks developed by South Asian students from across Canada. We also collaborated with Transplant Physicians, including Dr. Arjun Law of Princess Margaret Cancer Center, to make multimedia in support of the campaign. These resources are shared online nationwide during periods of significance to the community, including Asian Heritage month in Canada. We also run in-person donor recruitment events in honour of patients actively searching for a match for transplant. For example, over the past year, we recruited many hundreds of donors at drives dedicated to Misha and Zoey, two South Asian girls who need a stem cell transplantation for a rare immune disease.”
What’s next?
People can support the South Asians Save Lives campaign in several ways. This includes sharing the multimedia resources across their networks, signing up as donors if eligible (and encouraging their eligible friends and family to sign up too), and volunteering with and supporting the campaign. In terms of next steps, since South Asian communities encompass populations which speak many different languages, Rupal and her team are currently developing resources across multiple South Asian languages. This work is being conducted in collaboration with advocates and physicians from these communities. These resources will be especially important to support the education of elders in the communities, who often play a major role in life decisions for younger family members, including the decision to register as a donor.
“Overall, we will keep working to educate South Asian communities about donation and address the disparity in access to donors. We hope our campaign will help South Asian patients in need of transplantation to find their lifesaving match” says Rupal.
About Rupal Hatkar
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 South Asian and 2SLGBTQ+ people.
East Asians Save Lives
Many patients with blood diseases require a stem cell transplant as part of their treatment, and many do not have a fully matched donor in their family. Patients are more likely to find a match from within their own ethnic group, but East Asian donors—including Japanese, Korean and Chinese Peoples—are underrepresented on the Canadian stem cell registry.
Meet Lauren Sano: East Asians Save Lives campaign Lead
“In my final year of high school, I received devastating news” says Lauren Sano, an undergratuate at Western University. “I learned that my father had been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, and needed to start aggressive chemotherapy. The doctors explained that the only way to cure my father’s cancer was for him to receive a blood stem cell transplantation, which requires a suitable donor. My father did not have a fully matched donor in our family, and the next step was to search the global stem cell registry to find an unrelated donor — a stranger who was a match and would be willing to help. We were told that patients are most likely to find a donor from within their own ancestral group — in my father’s case, a donor would be more likely to be a match if they were Japanese. But after a worldwide search, we learned there were no potential donors that matched with him. I ended up being selected as his haploidentical (half-matched) donor. When I was told this news, I remember feeling hopeful that my father would one day return to how healthy he used to be.”
Lauren Sano with her father, Mark
In March 2019 at SickKids Hospital, Lauren received injections of a medicine that increased the production of stem cells in her blood. She was then hooked up to a machine where blood was drawn from one arm and her stem cells were collected. “The procedure was painless and I had very few side effects — I even went to school the next day. Several days later, my family and I sat beside my father as I watched my stem cells drip into his arm through an IV. This day was filled with hope” says Lauren.
But unfortunately, her father suffered from complications following the transplant. On October 13th 2020, her father passed away and Lauren was devastated.
After this tragic event, Lauren joined Western’s Stem Cell Club, and learned of the lack of diversity on Canada’s Stem Cell Registry. Indeed, nearly 70% of donors on the registry have European ancestry, with less than 30% being non-European (and less than 1% Japanese). “I understood why my father had such a difficult time finding a suitable donor. And I wanted to do something about this” explains Lauren.
Lauren became more involved, and in the years that followed she gathered TikToks, infographics and testimonials – some she made herself and others made by Asian students from universities across the country – advocating for donation. Transplant hematologist Dr. Wilson Lam from Princess Margaret Cancer Center also made a video in support of their efforts. She packaged these multimedia resources into a campaign that is shared nationwide to engage East Asian peoples to donation.
What’s next?
Everyone can help advocate with the campaign, by sharing the East Asians Save Lives website and multimedia resources, and encouraging all those eligible (i.e. ages 17-35, in good general health) to register as potential donors at blood.ca/stemcells.
“I truly believe there is no better gift than giving someone else another chance to live, and I hope this campaign helps share that message widely” concludes Lauren.
About Lauren Sano
Lauren Sano is an undergraduate student at Western University, and is President of the Western University Stem Cell Club. She also leads Stem Cell Club’s East Asians Save Lives campaign, which works to engage East Asian peoples in Canada as potential stem cell donors. Lauren previously donated stem cells to her father, and she shares her donation story and the impact on her life in this TedX talk.
How are stem cells donated?
There are 2 ways in which stem cells can be donated:
- Blood – 90% of the time stem cells are obtained from a simple procedure that is similar to giving blood. A growth factor is used to increase stem cell count in blood, which is then collected in a procedure taking around 4-6 hours.
- Bone marrow – stem cell donation from bone marrow is necessary less than 10% of the time. The procedure is performed under anesthesia and donors who have undergone bone marrow donation report the feeling post-donation to be similar to falling on ice.
If matched with a patient, a physician will decide which method is best suited under the circumstances at hand. See the images below for details on how each procedure is performed.
ity of Alberta and has received training in patient-oriented research through the University of Calgary’s PACER (Patient and Community Engagement Research) Program. He is the Patient, Family, and Donor Partnerships & Education Manager with the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program. In this role, Manuel builds relationships patient partners with investigators and strengthens capacity among CDTRP patient partners.
Anders Billström 
Gareth Wiltshire
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Sherrie Logan 
born and raised in Edmonton, AB. With a degree in Music Performance (saxophone performance) and Education, Lindsey has taught for over a decade in the Edmonton Public School system. When she is not teaching, she is very involved in the music community, performing in the Edmonton Winds, conducting her own community ensemble (The Beer League Band) and on numerous musical boards across the province. For the past 5 years, Lindsey has had to take a break from teaching after having her amazing son, George. Maternity leave did not goes as expected as George was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy at 5 months old and required 2 heart transplants before the age of 4. During this time, Lindsey has also began to dedicate her time building and expanding her charity: Big Gifts for Little Lives, where they raise money to fund Pediatric Heart Transplant research at the Stollery.
Dr. Caigan Du is a scientist at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He received a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry in UK and postdoctoral training in Immunology in USA. He is interested in the pathogenesis of kidney ischemia-reperfusion injury and transplant rejection, and molecular control of urinary malignancies. He has been studying the impact of kidney donor-derived factors on renal allograft rejection, and the molecular pathways of kidney injury and regeneration in experimental models. He is also interested in developing medical solution including drugs made from natural compounds for all kinds of health problems, including immune disorders, organ preservation, kidney failure and urinary cancer. He is the PI of many grant supports from the Kidney Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Heather Badenoch is a non-directed living liver donor and communications strategist. As the president of Village PR, she provides strategic communications direction and training to not-for-profit clients in community and health. An active transplant volunteer, Heather helps transplant candidates find living donors by running their public appeals, small and large, pro-bono. She also mentors potential living donors on the path to living donation. Heather is a volunteer with the UHN Centre for Living Organ Donation and the Canadian Donation and Transplant Research Program. She and her spouse adopt rescue dogs and volunteer together with Community Veterinary Outreach, a group providing free veterinary care to the pets of people who are homeless.
Sean Dicks is a clinical psychologist who has 20 years’ experience supporting both families of organ donors and transplant recipients. While it is rare for him to have contact with a donor family and recipient linked to the same organ donation-transplantation event, his contact with families who have lived experience with organ donation on the one hand, and patients who have received transplants on the other hand has provided opportunities to explore how their journeys become linked when they attempt to make sense of and find meaning in their respective crises.
Terri Hansen-Gardiner is a Cree speaking Metis woman from Northern Saskatchewan as well as a 10 year Breast Cancer Survivor. Her tireless spirit and dedication to her community is undeniable. Terri is a cancer survivor who travels around the province to provide assistance, information, and support to Indigenous patients who are trying to access and navigate the cancer care system.
Dr. Golnaz Karoubi is Assistant Scientist at the Toronto General HospitalResearch Institute and principal investigator in the Latner Thoracic Research Labs. She currently holds an Assistant Professor appointment in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and a cross-appointment in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Dr. Karoubi received her PhD in Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto and joined the Lung Regenerative Medicine Program in the Department of Clinical Research in Berne University, Switzerland for a post-doctoral research fellowship. She stayed on as a Group Leader in 2008 to direct the basic and transitional science as related to Cancer Stem Cell and Lung Regenerative Medicine in the Department of Biomedical Research at the University of Berne until 2012. In early 2012, she joined the team of Dr. Tom Waddell at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute as a Senior Scientific Associate and was appointed to Assistant Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (University Health Network) in November 2019 and to Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology in July 2020.
Dr. Haykal graduated from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine in2007 as class valedictorian and silver medalist, and subsequently completed her residency training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Toronto in 2016. During her residency, she completed a four-year Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and immunology with a focus on tracheal reconstruction. She obtained numerous grants and awards including a CIHR Vanier Scholarship. Dr. Haykal then pursued fellowship training in microsurgical reconstruction at the Albany Medical Centre in New York. Dr. Haykal joined the University Health Network and the Toronto General Hospital in 2018. Her clinical focus is on complex oncological reconstruction and microsurgical reconstruction of the breast, head and neck and extremity. She started a lymphedema program in 2019 where she offers microsurgical techniques for the treatment of lymphedema.
Dr. Ahmed is a Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. The recipient of the 2022 Hypertension Canada Senior Investigator Award, she is a nephrologist and clinician-scientist with a focus on sex and gender differences in human cardiovascular/kidney physiology and clinical outcomes. Dr. Ahmed is the Vice Chair (Research) for the Department of Medicine, Lead of the Libin Institute Women’s Cardiovascular Health Research Initiative at the University of Calgary and Lead of the Alberta Strategy for Patient Oriented Research Capacity Development Platform. Dr. Ahmed is an Advisory Board member for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Gender and Health, a member of the Canadian Medical Association Journal Governing Council and the President-Elect for the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences.
r. Christopher Nguan is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Urological Sciences, Surgical Head of Kidney Transplantation at Vancouver General Hospital and the Director of the Surgical Technologies Experimental Laboratory & Advanced Robotics (STELLAR) facility at Vancouver General Hospital.
r Caroline Lamarche is a clinician scientist and transplant nephrologist at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. She is an assistant clinical professor at the Université de Montréal. After her nephrology training at the Université de Montréal (2015), she completed a Master degree on the use of adoptive immunotherapy to treat/prevent BK nephropathy in kidney transplant recipients. She then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Megan Levings at the University of British Columbia on the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) regulatory T cells (Tregs) to induce transplant tolerance. Her lab is working on the development of adoptive immunotherapy in nephrology and understanding Treg dysfunction.
Dr. Tandon is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Co-Director of the Cirrhosis Care Clinic, Transplant Hepatologist and lead of the Cirrhosis Care Alberta quality improvement program. She obtained her training at the University of Alberta, the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and Yale University. Her clinical practice and research are focused on cirrhosis with research interests including cirrhosis related complications, malnutrition, frailty, exercise therapy, palliative care, integrative health approaches such as meditation and knowledge translation. It is her career goal to provide wholistic, interdisciplinary, evidence based, patient-centered care through education, empowerment, engagement and team-work.
Emily is a PhD student at the University of Alberta, where she completed her Master of Science (MSc) degree in medicine. With a passion for patient-oriented research and a commitment to improving health outcomes, Emily’s doctoral project focuses on EMPOWER, a 12-week online mind-body wellness program designed for adults living with chronic health conditions.
Dr Basil S. Nasir, M.B.B.Ch
Dr. Victor Ferreira is an Assistant Scientist in the Ajmera Transplant Centre at the University Health Network (UHN) and the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI). He is also an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (LMP). He completed his PhD in Medical Sciences – Infection and Immunity Specialization at McMaster University in 2014 and post-doctoral training at UHN. His research program is focused on three pillars: I) using systems vaccinology to reveal insights into vaccine responses in immunocompromised individuals like transplant recipients; II) characterizing the impact of chronic viral infection on host immune responses; and III) developing novel methods for eliminating latent viruses in human organs. His work has been cited >2,500 times and is published in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Immunology, the Lancet Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Diseases, the American Journal of Transplantation and Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Chemical Engineering as an Assistant Professor in August 2014. She is a biochemical engineer with expertise in bioprocess development, high‑throughput screening and stem cell culture optimization. Her research aims to develop bioprocesses to produce and transplant therapeutic cells to treat diabetes and cardiovascular disease. She notably developed new methods to encapsulate pancreatic islets, as well as vascular biomaterials surface modification strategies which are now applied by other researchers around the world. Her emerging leadership in bioengineering was recognized through the 2014 Martin Sinacore Outstanding Young Investigator Award from Engineering Conferences International & Biogen Idec, as well as the “Étoiles effervescence” award from Montreal InVivo.
Chantal Bémeur is a nutrition specialist in relation to liver disease and its many complications. Professor Bémeur trained as a dietitian/nutritionist and completed her graduate studies and two post-doctoral fellowships in nutrition, focusing on conditions affecting the hepatic and nervous systems, such as hepatic encephalopathy and Leigh Syndrome French Canadian. Professor Bémeur’s research activities are generally of a fundamental and clinical nature, including a collaboration with CHUM’s Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology. As an expert member of the International Society on Hepatic Encephalopathy and Nitrogen Metabolism, Dr. Bémeur has participated in the development of guidelines on nutrition and liver disease. She is also part of a team of Canadian experts who developed an evidence-based nutritional education guide collaborating with people with chronic liver disease and their caregivers. She received an award from the Ordre professionnel des diététistes du Québec in 2018 for her work on this guide. Dr. Bémeur has published several book chapters, 30 scientific articles and over 100 scientific abstracts. Dr. Bémeur’s co-directs the HepatoNeuro Laboratory in the Cardiometabolic Axis of the Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM). Several organizations, including the Donation and Transplantation Research Program of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research fund Dr. Bémeur’s research.
Dr Thozama Siyotula is a distinguished paediatric surgeon at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. With a profound interest in hepatobiliary, transplant, thoracic and neonatal surgical outcomes. She completed her undergraduate training in 2011 at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Furthering her studies she went on to specialise in paediatric surgery through the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa, completing her FCPaedSurg (SA) in 2021 and a master’s in medicine (Paediatric Surgery) in 2021 at the University of Cape Town. She currently works as a paediatric surgeon and transplant surgeon. A senior lecture at the University of Cape Town and course convenor for the 5th year undergraduate paediatric surgery program at the University of Cape Town.
David Thomson is a critical care subspecialist and abdominal transplant surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town. His interests are deceased donation, ECMO, medical education and system improvement. He created the massive open online course Organ Donation: From Death to Life hosted on Coursera.org to improve education around organ donation and transplantation. He is the immediate past President of the Southern African Transplantation Society and led development on a report on Organ and Tissue Donation in South Africa: Creating a National Strategic Roadmap in collaboration with the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement. He worked on the World Brain Death Project and is the lead author on the South African Guidelines for Determination of Death published in 2021.
About Dr. Julie Ho
Dr. Tom Blydt-Hansen completed his MD at McGill University, and his Pediatric and Nephrology specialization at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, followed by further specialization in transplantation at the University of California, Los Angeles. He began his Nephrology career at the University of Manitoba in 2001, where he was Division Head of Nephrology from 2005-2014.
Monica Bronowski completed an undergraduate degree in neuroscience at Dalhousie University, with a focus on innovative neurotechnology. Before starting her PhD, she worked in hematology, oncology, and bone marrow transplant (BMT), conducting clinical trials across various study phases for multiple myeloma, bone marrow transplant, and CAR-T therapies. This experience exposed her to both early and late-phase clinical trials, deepening her interest in translational research.
Angela Hamie has just graduated from the University of Alberta and holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Immunology and Infection. Her presentation will summarize her research conducted throughout her fourth year undergraduate thesis project, which focuses on the Age, Thymus Excision, Organ Type, and Immunosuppression on Lymphocyte Subpopulations in pediatric transplantation.
Mitchell Wagner is currently a first year medical student at the University of Alberta. He graduated from the U of A in 2022 with an Honors degree in Immunology and Infection with a certificate in biomedical research. He recently defended a Master of Science in Experimental Surgery, focusing on the optimization of out-of-body heart perfusion. Mitchell’s main research interest is on strategies that improve donated organs through ex-situ heart perfusion apparati, however has also been involved in clinical research within the areas of radiology, respiratory medicine, and cardiology. Mitchell is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards such as the Canada Graduate Scholarship – Masters and the Cote Biomedical Research Studentship. As an aspiring surgeon-scientist, he intends on completing an MD/PhD program focusing to further improve out of body heart perfusion protocols.
Sarjana Alam is an undergraduate science student at the University of Alberta, where she is a research trainee under the supervision of Dr. Esme Dijke in the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology. She is involved in a project investigating the cryopreservation of T regulatory cells for tolerogenic cell therapy.
Marie-Pier joined Dre. Marie-Josée Hébert’s lab in the nephrology, transplantation and renal regeneration research unit at the CRCHUM in 2024. She obtained her BSc degree in biology at McGill university and is now pursuing a Masters degree in the Molecular Biology program at l’Université de Montréal. She is currently working on evaluating the pro-angiogenic potential of RNAs enriched in apoptotic exosomes and whether these RNAs cooperate to modulate endothelial function. Marie-Pier is also a trainee in the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research program (CDTRP).Outside of the lab, Marie-Pier loves to read, go to spin classes and play word games like Scattegories and Bananagrams.