Prof. John Stagg

Prof. John Stagg, PhD, is a member of Kainova Therapeutics’ Scientific Advisory Board. He is a recognized expert in immunology, with scientific work focused on mechanisms that shape immune responses in cancer.

Prof. Stagg is Director of the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute and Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University. He is also a Principal Investigator at the CHUM Research Centre and the Montreal Cancer Institute. His research has explored immune-related pathways in cancer, including mechanisms associated with tumor progression, metastatic behavior, and responses to immunotherapy. His work included major discovery on PAR2 GPCR as well as CD73, an enzyme playing a key role in Adenosine-mediated immunoresistance via A2a/A2b GPCRs.

His expertise also extends to the characterization of signaling pathways and cellular responses that influence therapeutic sensitivity. These scientific areas relate to GPCR-mediated mechanisms explored at Kainova Therapeutics.

He has received distinctions such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), New Investigator award and the Jean-Guy Sabourin Research Chair in Pharmacology from Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal. As a co-leader of the Montreal Cancer Consortium, he contributed to the establishment of the Cancer Center Network and the Marathon of Hope of the Terry Fox Research Institute.

He was co-founder and Scientific Advisor at Surface Oncology. Prof. Stagg also lends his expertise to Coherus BioSciences as a board member and previously to Tarus Therapeutics. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of BioCanRx, Canada’s immunotherapy network. Prof. Stagg holds a Ph.D. from McGill University.