Dr. Joseph Lau is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and a Scientist in the Department of Integrative Oncology at the BC Cancer Research Institute (BCCRI). Dr. Lau received his PhD from UBC under the supervision of Dr. François Bénard, where he developed radiopharmaceutical agents for imaging tumour hypoxia. While he was a trainee at BCCRI, Dr. Lau was a recipient of the Lloyd Skarsgard Research Excellence Prize. Dr. Lau undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Dr. Xiaoyuan Chen’s Lab, where he developed radiopharmaceuticals targeting different immuno-oncology targets for therapy. In 2020, Dr. Lau was recognized by the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging as an early career professional “Ones to Watch.” Before rejoining UBC, Dr. Lau was the Associate Director, Discovery at Alpha-9 Theranostics, a radiopharmaceutical company based in Vancouver BC. His research interests include the identification of cancer biomarkers for theranostic application, evaluation of novel pharmacophores and radioisotopes for radiopharmaceutical development, and strategies to enhance therapeutic indexes for targeted radiotherapy.
University of British Columbia
Current Appointment
Assistant Professor, Radiology, University of British Columbia
Training
BSc (Genetics and Cell Biology, Co-op), University of British Columbia, 2011
PhD (Interdisciplinary Oncology), University of British Columbia, 2016
Post-Doctoral Fellow (Nuclear Medicine), National Institutes of Health, 2020
Selected Awards
- Canadian Graduate Scholarship (Doctoral). Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 2014-2016
- Lloyd Skarsgard Research Excellence Prize. BC Cancer. 2015
- Postdoctoral Fellowship. Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 2019-2022
- Early Career Professionals “Ones to Watch”, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. 2020