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John Bell

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Full ProfessorBiochemistry, Microbiology and ImmunologyUniversity of Ottawa

John Bell

Full Professor

Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology

Faculty of Medicine

University of Ottawa

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Supervision signals

Professors usually supervise graduate students in their department's programs.
5 publications in the last five years, latest in 2026.
Principal investigator on 15 research grants (10 CIHR, 3 NSERC, 2 SSHRC), most recently in 2023.
Supervised 20 trainees who won CIHR awards, most recently in 2023.

These signals come from public records, including CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions. Ask the professor or the graduate program whether they are taking new students.

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Collaborators

Grants

Publications by year

Counts cover the works listed on the university profile; citation counts come from Dimensions.

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Research

Read how they describe their research on their University of Ottawa profile.

Oncolytic Virus Manufacturing Cancer Engineering Extracellular Matrix Immune Activation Immune Evasion Inducible Promoters

Latest papers

GPNMB-directed CAR T cell therapy against MiT/TFE-family fusion-driven solid tumors.
Nature cancer · 2026
A Universal Boosting Strategy for Adoptive T-cell Therapy Using a Paired Vaccine/Chimeric Antigen Receptor.
Cancer immunology research · 2026
Effect of extracellular vesicles in remodeling the tumor microenvironment by DNMT1 downregulation for enhanced cancer immunotherapy.
Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2025

All 14 publications

Latest funding

Overcoming barriers to effective cancer immunotherapy with an engineered virus based therapeutic
CIHR · 2023 · Nominated PI
$100,000
Engineering oncolytic viruses to improve tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy for triple-negative breast cancer
CIHR · 2023 · Supervisor
$105,000
Overcoming barriers to effective cancer immunotherapy with an engineered virus based therapeutic
CIHR · 2023 · Nominated PI
$1,047,500

All 38 grants and awards

14 publications.

GPNMB-directed CAR T cell therapy against MiT/TFE-family fusion-driven solid tumors.

Zemp FJ, Breckenridge Z, Song H, Gill GS, Louie TL, Narta K, Liu H, Suh Y, Guignard L, Mandujano-Tinoco EA, Collao N, Pyczek J, Ellestad KK, Curry J, Langley J, John C, Mah LK, Rajwani J, Evseev D, Turk M, Benaoudia S, Alex J, Naumenko V, Manoharan VT, Mehrabadi MK, Smith HA, Gilbert GNY, Gillmor A, Verhey TB, Todesco HM, Osz K, Ahn BY, Bogossian A, Anderson C, Sikdar S, Rukunuddin S, Bismar TA, Heng DYC, Lawson K, Linehan WM, Pedersen H, Gordon PMK, McIntyre JB, MacGregor J, Garzia L, Brodeur-Robb K, DiFrancesco L, Ogilvie T, Schöffski P, Wozniak A, Holt RA, Bell J, Senger DL, Lewis V, Monument M, Khan O, Baudrier L, Billon P, Gabriel V, Biernaskie J, Potts K, Trpkov K, Hay K, Quizi J, Chan J, Saleh R, Henning JW, Prokopishyn NL, Shafey M, Morrissy AS, Mahoney DJ

Nature cancer2026

DOI: 10.1038/s43018-026-01194-3 PMID: 42387022

A Universal Boosting Strategy for Adoptive T-cell Therapy Using a Paired Vaccine/Chimeric Antigen Receptor.

Burchett R, Morris CG, Ishak M, Serniuck NJ, Cummings DT, Baker CL, Marius R, Kazdhan N, Silvestri CM, Bell J

Cancer immunology research2026

DOI: 10.1158/2326-6066.cir-25-0070

Effect of extracellular vesicles in remodeling the tumor microenvironment by DNMT1 downregulation for enhanced cancer immunotherapy.

Russo S, Giannoula Y, Feola S, Cerioni J, Hamdan F, Chiaro J, Ha Dang AT, Bottega P, Feodoroff M, Fusciello M, Stigzelius V, D'Amico C, Caiazza C, Antignani G, D'Alessio F, Sakalauskaite M, Petryk J, Bell J, Ilkow C, Grönholm M, Cerullo V

Journal for immunotherapy of cancer2025

DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2025-012138 PMID: 41224489

Combination of oncolytic Maraba virus with immune checkpoint blockade overcomes therapy resistance in an immunologically cold model of advanced melanoma with dysfunctional T-cell receptor signalling.

Armstrong E, Chiu MKL, Foo S, Appleton L, Nenclares P, Patrikeev A, Mohan N, Mclaughlin M, Bozhanova G, Hoebart J, Roulstone V, Patin E, Pedersen M, Kyula J, Ono M, Errington-Mais F, Bell J, Harrington KJ, Melcher A, Jennings V

Journal for immunotherapy of cancer2024

DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2024-009443 PMID: 39060020

Neoadjuvant Intravenous Oncolytic Vaccinia Virus Therapy Promotes Anticancer Immunity in Patients.

Samson A, West EJ, Carmichael J, Scott KJ, Turnbull S, Kuszlewicz B, Dave RV, Peckham-Cooper A, Tidswell E, Kingston J, Johnpulle M, da Silva B, Jennings VA, Bendjama K, Stojkowitz N, Lusky M, Prasad KR, Toogood GJ, Auer R, Bell J, Twelves CJ, Harrington KJ, Vile RG, Pandha H, Errington-Mais F, Ralph C, Newton DJ, Anthoney A, Melcher AA, Collinson F

Cancer immunology research2022

DOI: 10.1158/2326-6066.cir-21-0171 PMID: 35439304

SnapShot: Cancer Immunotherapy with Oncolytic Viruses.

Gujar S, Bell J, Diallo JS

Cell2019

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.051 PMID: 30794777

Lighting a Fire in the Tumor Microenvironment Using Oncolytic Immunotherapy.

Achard C, Surendran A, Wedge ME, Ungerechts G, Bell J, Ilkow CS

EBioMedicine2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.04.020 PMID: 29724655

The importance of imaging strategies for pre-clinical and clinical in vivo distribution of oncolytic viruses.

Pelin A, Wang J, Bell J, Le Boeuf F

Oncolytic virotherapy2017

DOI: 10.2147/ov.s137159 PMID: 29637059

Moving oncolytic viruses into the clinic: clinical-grade production, purification, and characterization of diverse oncolytic viruses.

Ungerechts G, Bossow S, Leuchs B, Holm PS, Rommelaere J, Coffey M, Coffin R, Bell J, Nettelbeck DM

Molecular therapy. Methods & clinical development2016

DOI: 10.1038/mtm.2016.18 PMID: 27088104

Viruses for tumor therapy.

Bell J, McFadden G

Cell host & microbe2014First author

DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2014.01.002 PMID: 24629333

Profile data last refreshed on September 25, 2026 from the university directory, publication records and CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding.

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John Bell

Research

Latest papers

Latest funding

GPNMB-directed CAR T cell therapy against MiT/TFE-family fusion-driven solid tumors.

A Universal Boosting Strategy for Adoptive T-cell Therapy Using a Paired Vaccine/Chimeric Antigen Receptor.

Effect of extracellular vesicles in remodeling the tumor microenvironment by DNMT1 downregulation for enhanced cancer immunotherapy.

Combination of oncolytic Maraba virus with immune checkpoint blockade overcomes therapy resistance in an immunologically cold model of advanced melanoma with dysfunctional T-cell receptor signalling.

Neoadjuvant Intravenous Oncolytic Vaccinia Virus Therapy Promotes Anticancer Immunity in Patients.

SnapShot: Cancer Immunotherapy with Oncolytic Viruses.

Lighting a Fire in the Tumor Microenvironment Using Oncolytic Immunotherapy.

The importance of imaging strategies for pre-clinical and clinical in vivo distribution of oncolytic viruses.

Moving oncolytic viruses into the clinic: clinical-grade production, purification, and characterization of diverse oncolytic viruses.

Viruses for tumor therapy.

Frequent collaborators

Jean-Simon Diallo

Guy Ungerechts

Jennifer Chan

Michael Monument

Livia Garzia

Shashi Gujar

Joel Werier

Hesham Abdelbary

Ramy Saleh

Jennifer Quizi

Victor Lewis

Mona Shafey

Kevin Hay

Pierre Billon

Rebecca Auer

Jonathan Bramson

Yonghong Wan

Brian Lichty