Marra is a UBC Killam Professor in Medical Genetics and the Michael Smith Laboratories and is the Terry Fox Leader in Cancer Genome Science. Co-founder and Director of Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre for more than two decades, Marra is known for his work in genomics and precision cancer medicine.
Marra has driven the expansion of genomics in Canada. Marra led or co-led numerous cancer projects, revealing new mutations, biomarkers, and therapeutic targets in ovarian cancers, B cell lymphomas, brain cancers, breast cancers, medulloblastomas, leukemias, rhabdoid tumours and cervical cancers. In 2003, he led the effort that generated the first sequence of the agent causing SARS, revealing it to be a coronavirus and demonstrating that genome sequencing of a pathogen could be a key part of a rapid response to an emerging infectious disease.
Marra currently co-leads the Personalized OncoGenomics (POG) program, the first to demonstrate the use of whole genome and transcriptome sequencing to personalize cancer medicine. The program team, including 80% of the medical oncologists in British Columbia, recruited thousands of patients with advanced cancer and published numerous manuscripts describing how cancer genome science can influence clinical treatment decision making to benefit cancer patients and their families.
Marra now participates in the Terry Fox Research Institute Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network, aiming to make precision cancer genomic medicine available to cancer patients across Canada.
Marra is a visionary scientist whose pioneering contributions to health sciences have profoundly impacted both Canadian and global society.
