Dr. Vanderhyden completed her Ph.D. in Reproductive Physiology at the University of Western Ontario in 1988. She then did postdoctoral studies at The Jackson Laboratory in Maine, where she learned to climb mountains, both literally and scientifically. In 1991, she joined the Cancer Research Group at the University of Ottawa, which has evolved into the Cancer Therapeutics Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, where she is a Senior Scientist. Dr. Vanderhyden is also a Distinguished Professor at the University of Ottawa and has held the inaugural Corinne Boyer Chair in Ovarian Cancer Research since 2000. The Vanderhyden laboratory has long-standing interests in normal ovarian function, the molecular and structural changes that occur in the transition to ovarian cancer, and designing and testing novel therapies to inhibit the progression and metastasis of ovarian cancer.

Dr. Vanderhyden currently chairs the OvCAN Governing Council for Ovarian Cancer Canada, a national $14 million initiative to identify and advance new treatments for ovarian cancer. In her spare time, she launched two science outreach programs, Let’s Talk Science / Parlons sciences, which makes science fun for students in local schools, and Science Travels / La science voyage, which sends teams of grad students to deliver science workshops in remote First Nations and Inuit communities in the far north.