Maya Saleh, PhD profile page

Dr. Saleh holds a PhD in Biochemistry from McGill University. After post-doctoral training at Merck and at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, she became Full Professor of Medicine and William Dawson Scholar at McGill University from 2005-2019. In 2019, she relocated to France to direct oncoimmunology research at the University of Bordeaux, where she held a French Initiative of Excellence (IDEX) Senior Chair and an International-Leader-in-Oncology Chair from la Fondation ARC. In 2023, she returned to Canada as a Full Professor at INRS-Centre Armand Frappier Santé Biotechnologie. Dr. Saleh is invested in inflammation and cancer research, in which she applies proteomics, genomics and spatial biology approaches to investigate molecular mechanisms of the disease and to identify potential therapeutic targets. She has created several local and international multi-disciplinary teams to study cancer immunology. She collaborates with oncologists, surgeons, pathologists, chemists and computational scientists to identify factors contributing to cancer progression and to better stratify patients for optimal treatments. Her current research program is focused on the immunological mechanisms underlying therapeutic resistance to standard of care treatments in hepatocellular carcinoma and glioblastoma. Her team is investigating the diversity of myeloid cells in the tumor microenvironment towards their rational targeting as an adjuvant immunotherapeutic approach. The Saleh team has also launched new collaborations with colleagues from STEM disciplines at INRS to develop new methods for early cancer detection towards improved clinical management.