Meet The Team
Biba Cancer Research Foundation (BibaCRF) is privileged to have a diverse team of experts from a wide range of backgrounds. Already well-established in their careers, they generously volunteer their time and effort towards BibaCRF’s operational and research projects. Their views speaks to their individual motivation to make a difference as well as our shared vision as an organization to revolutionize diagnostics for hard-to-treat cancers.
Nida Bilal
CEO, OncoCentric Therapeutics Inc., Canada
Why did you join Biba Cancer Research Foundation (BibaCRF)?
My sister, Biba (Areeba) passed away two years ago from brain cancer. During her illness, I discovered that survival outcomes of high-grade brain cancer patients are very poor with most patients dying within a year of diagnosis. Often cancer is diagnosed when it is already at an advanced stage and there are few treatment options available. Earlier detection of any malignancy can enable timely medical intervention, and significantly improve survival outcomes. I started this memorial organization in Biba’s name so my team and I could research screening strategies for early detection.
What is your specialty/ experience and how can that contribute to BibaCRF?
I have previous computer science education and experience, primarily in data analytics. Due to my sister’s disease, I developed this knowledge further by studying bioinformatics profiling of cancer genomics datasets. This finally led to a career transition into pharmaceutical sciences in which my research focus was on bioinformatics-driven brain cancer therapeutic discovery. I believe this knowledge along with the expertise of my team and our collaborators will directly contribute towards BibaCRF’s mission of researching biomarkers and other screening methods for early cancer detection.
What is your vision for BibaCRF?
To enable breakthrough cancer diagnostics through our research and support of promising cancer screening methods.
Roland Böttger, PhD
Sr. Scientist Product Design & Formulation, CureVac AG, Germany
Why did you join Biba Cancer Research Foundation (BibaCRF)?
Cancer is a major burden to human health and virtually everyone knows cancer patients in their personal circle and all the tragedy associated with the progression of these diseases. Many of us even lost beloved ones to cancer. Likewise, I lost my own father, way too early, at the age of 69 to malignant melanoma. To really make a difference, the fight for cancer requires special personalities. Through my research job, I got to know Nida, who devoted her entire research efforts to treat brain cancer, a disease that her sister passed away from. Deeply impressed by her passion to research this disease for improved theranostics without the hurdles of monetary consideration, I want to team-up with her on that path. Together, I believe we can improve the lives of many suffering late-stage cancer patients and improve awareness about this important field.
What is your specialty/ experience and how can that contribute to BibaCRF?
I’m a trained chemist with several years of research experience in targeted drug delivery and nanomedicine. My past projects included liver cancer, brain cancer and breast cancer-associated peritoneal metastases. From these experiences, I know that targeted strategies are crucial for treating as well as diagnosing the cancer. We plan to test our discovered cancer detecting biomarkers for therapeutic efficacy as well as explore such delivery techniques towards researching solutions for targeted sampling for cancer detection screens. My expertise, especially, in targeted delivery solutions will help to formulate the research direction of BibaCRF.
What is your vision for BibaCRF?
BibaCRF brings together highly skilled professionals from a variety of scientific and economic fields. This cross-field expertise is exceptional among comparable organizations and I envision that inventive paths will be explored for our cancer screening projects. Outside-of-the-box thinking combined with substantiated experience in pharma and associated fields will open exciting opportunities. BibaCRF will look beyond the classical approaches and help pushing directions that for-profit pharma companies have neglected due to monetary considerations. Eventually our work will change or even rescue the life of many cancer patients.
Natasha Lima
IT Director, Procter & Gamble, Canada
Why did you join Biba Cancer Research Foundation (BibaCRF)?
As an advocate for women in leadership roles, I would like to support Nida in her professional journey. As many others, I have had several family members impacted by cancer and appreciate any advancement that can be made in cancer research and specifically with regards to early detection and improved screening methods.
What is your specialty/ experience and how can that contribute to BibaCRF?
I am an experienced IT professional with a niche for coaching people to perform at their peak. I have over 20 years’ of IT experience, where I have worked on large, multi-functional teams, bringing IT systems to life.
What is your vision for BibaCRF?
My vision for BibaCRF is to be a leader in accurate and timely detection and screening of cancer that significantly improves survival in cancer patients compared to current diagnostic technologies.