Tarek Bismar

About Tarek Bismar

Dr. Bismar earned an MD degree from the University of Damascus and then performed two fellowships in surgical and genitourinary pathology at Wayne State University and Harvard Medical School-Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is currently an Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of Calgary.

A specific fusion of pieces of two chromosomes is present in 50 percent of prostate cancers and is thought to drive the disease. In addition, a normal protein named PTEN suppresses tumor development unless genetically altered as is the case in many advanced prostate cancer cases. Dr. Bismar proposes to study both of these changes in model systems in an attempt to discover how together they deregulate the control of growth and survival that result in prostate cancer.

Peter Forsyth, MD, an accomplished physician-scientist in molecular biology, will provide mentorship for Dr. Bismar.

Read the Progress Report for this award