Dr. Cynthia Hawkins obtained her MD/PhD from Western University. She completed her residency training in neuropathology at the University of Toronto, including a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Zurich. Dr. Hawkins is a Neuropathologist and the Medical Director of Translational Molecular Pathology at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). She is also a Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute, a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at The University of Toronto and holds a Garron Family Chair in Childhood Cancer Research. As a paediatric neuropathologist, Dr. Hawkins has been instrumental in translating high impact genomic research into the clinic using emerging technologies.
She is best known for her expertise in paediatric brain tumours and has a research lab devoted to paediatric glioma. Dr. Hawkins’ research defined the clinical relevance of histone mutations and the genetic and epigenetic landscape of paediatric midline glioma/ diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas as well as infant glioma. The Hawkins lab has published multiple landmark studies concerning the prevalence, oncogenic function and clinical relevance of histone mutations as well as the discovery of a novel cancer gene, ACVR1. Her research interests include molecular pathogenesis and therapeutics for paediatric glioma and clinical implementation of novel diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic markers for paediatric brain tumours.