John Bell is a world-renowned thought leader in cancer-fighting (oncolytic) virus research and development. He is a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Ottawa. For more than twenty years, John and his team have been developing oncolytic viruses. He is a Co-founder of Turnstone Biologics, a San Diego company developing novel biotherapeutics to treat and cure patients with solid tumors. John is the Scientific Director of BioCanRx - Canada’s Immunotherapy Network - a not-for-profit organization working to accelerate the development of innovative immunotherapeutics, designed to save lives and enable a better quality of life for Canadian cancer patients. John was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2013 and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2022. He serves on the Boards of Directors the Terry Fox Research Institute and the Biologics Manufacturing Centre. John holds Bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees from McMaster University.