Dr. Senger has had a long-standing interest in the area of brain development and tumorigenesis in both pediatric and adult central nervous system (CNS) tumours. During her Ph.D. studies at the University of Alberta she investigated signaling processes in sympathetic neurons focusing on growth factor induced signaling in axon regeneration. She then went on to pursue her post-doctoral training at the Brain Tumour Center at the Montreal Neurological Institute where her research activities progressed to defining important survival pathways in high-grade glioma. Upon arrival at the University of Calgary Dr. Senger established a multi-disciplinary translational research group that focuses on numerous aspects of glioma biology including defining the molecular characteristics of highly invasive glioma, investigating cancer stem cells as potential therapeutic targets, and investigating the brain microenvironment and how it impacts the growth and progression of brain tumours.
More recently, Dr. Senger’s research has focused on identification and implementation of therapeutics for the development of organ specific cancer metastasis with a particular emphasis in the areas of melanoma and osteosarcoma and the role inflammatory pathways play in these processes. In addition Dr. Senger has established a preclinical in vivo drug-screening platform and a “live” pediatric tumour bank that focuses on the establishment of pediatric-patient-derived-xenografts from rare and hard-to-treat cancers.
Dr. Senger is a member of the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute, and a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.