Kirk J. Mcmanus

Biography

Dr. Kirk McManus is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics at the University of Manitoba. He is also a Senior Scientist within the Research Institute of Oncology and Hematology (formerly the Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology) housed within CancerCare Manitoba. He received a BSc (1995) and an MSc (1999) from the University of Manitoba and moved to Edmonton, Alberta to conduct his PhD studies (1999) in Oncology under the supervision of Dr. Michael Hendzel. There he studied the regulation and dynamics of post-translational histone modifications and their influence on chromosome segregation. His post-doctoral studies were performed with Dr. Phil Hieter at the Michael Smith Laboratories in Vancouver, BC, where he utilized cross-species approaches to identify genes that regulate chromosome stability and characterize their impact on cancer development. Dr. McManus joined the University of Manitoba in June, 2009, and his research interests focus on identifying and characterizing genes that regulate chromosome stability in a cancer context and exploiting these characteristics to identify novel therapeutic targets. He currently couples genetics, biochemistry and cellular biology along with innovative digital imaging microscopy to identify both genes and targets of interest.

Research Interest

Identifying, characterizing and exploiting the origins of cancer, whether it be colon, breast or ovarian. However, since chromosome instability is found in all tumor types, the results we generate using our colorectal cancer models, will be of general interest to virtually any tumor type.