Dr. Kirk McManus is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics at the University of Manitoba. He is also a Senior Scientist within the Research Institute of Oncology and Hematology (formerly the Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology) housed within CancerCare Manitoba. He received a BSc (1995) and an MSc (1999) from the University of Manitoba and moved to Edmonton, Alberta to conduct his PhD studies (1999) in Oncology under the supervision of Dr. Michael Hendzel. There he studied the regulation and dynamics of posttranslational histone modifications and their influence on chromosome segregation. His postdoctoral studies were performed with Dr. Phil Hieter at the Michael Smith Laboratories in Vancouver, BC, where he utilized cross-species approaches to identify genes that regulate chromosome stability and characterize their impact on cancer development. Dr. McManus joined the University of Manitoba in June, 2009, and research team is focused on identifying and characterizing genes that regulate chromosome stability in various cancer contexts including colorectal and ovarian, and exploiting these characteristics to identify novel therapeutic targets. His team currently couples genetics, biochemistry and cellular biology along with innovative digital imaging microscopy to identify the molecular determinants of chromosome instability and exploit this information using synthetic lethal strategies.