Trevor J Pugh

Trevor J. Pugh is a Canadian cancer genomics researcher, molecular geneticist, and bioinformatician. He is a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PMCC), University Health Network, Director of the Genomics Program and Senior Investigator at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), and a professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Translational Genomics.

Early life and education Pugh is originally from Vancouver, British Columbia. He received his PhD in Medical Genetics from the University of British Columbia, where he was mentored by Marco Marra at the BC Cancer Agency. Following his PhD, he undertook postdoctoral research at the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT under the mentorship of Matthew Meyerson. During this time, he also completed a clinical laboratory fellowship in the Harvard Medical School Genetics Training Program with Heidi Rehm, becoming a board-certified molecular geneticist and Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (FACMG). In these roles, he directs the Princess Margaret Genomics Centre and the OICR Genomics Program, which includes the Translational Genomics Laboratory. These programs provide genomic analysis capabilities, including single-cell sequencing, cfDNA analysis, and clinically accredited whole-genome sequencing, for research and clinical applications.

He has contributed significantly to large-scale international genomics initiatives, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Project GENIE (Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange), the National Cancer Institute's Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) initiative, and the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network. His work has demonstrated that changes in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) levels can predict patient responses to immunotherapy. through initiatives like the CHARM (cfDNA in Hereditary and High-Risk Malignancies) Consortium.

During his postdoctoral work, Pugh led significant studies characterizing the genomic landscapes of pediatric cancers like medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma, and pleuropulmonary blastoma. His research group has also contributed to the genomic characterization of multiple myeloma and urothelial carcinoma.

Awards and recognition

2024: Elected Member, College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, Royal Society of Canada Canada Research Chair in Translational Genomics 2020: Canada's Top 40 Under 40 2019, 2020: Highly Cited Researchers (Clarivate Analytics) 2017: Terry Fox New Investigator Award StandUp2Cancer Phillip A. Sharp Innovation in Collaboration Award Till and McCulloch Paper of the Year Award Canadian Cancer Society Bernard and Francine Dorval Prize