Jennifer Quizi

Dr. Jennifer Quizi received her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the University of Ottawa and has been working as part of a translational team in cancer therapy for more than 10 years. This includes working for a small, Ottawa-based startup oncology company, and subsequently working with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute as Operations Manager and Program Manager for Dr. John Bell, and later Director of Scientific Affairs for the Network of Centres of Excellence, BioCanRx.

In November 2020, she was appointed the Director of the Virus Manufacturing Facility within the Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Centre at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, where she provides direction and sets strategic priorities as they apply to the development and GMP production of therapeutic viruses that are used in early phase clinical trials. She is part of national team of scientists and clinicians who have built a Canadian CAR-T cell platform known as the Canadian Led Immunotherapies for Cancer, or CLIC, to provide access to this exciting new treatment to Canadian patients.

Dr. Quizi is an early career researcher, being recently appointed as an Investigator at OHRI. Since her appointment, she has been successful in securing significant grant funding in support of both biomanufacturing projects and specialized training initiatives. One such program is CanPRIME, a first-of-its kind training program that provides students with hands-on, real-world experience working in a GMP biomanufacturing environment.

She continues to support the mission and vision of BioCanRx, a federally funded Network of Centres of Excellence, where she holds the position of Director, Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Operations. In this position, she is responsible for enabling the national roll-out of a type of distributive manufacturing known as point-of-care, as well as working with facilities across Canada to build much needed, additional capacity in therapeutic virus biomanufacturing.