Dr. Taymaa May, MD MSc FRCSC
Clinical Director
Dr. May is a Gynecologic Oncologist at the University Health Network and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. She received her medical degree from McGill University in Montreal and went on to complete post-graduate training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toronto. During her residency, Dr. May completed the Clinician Investigator Program and received an MSc from the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto. Following residency, she completed a 3-year fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/ Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
Dr. May has clinical training in the medical management of women with gynecological malignancies and surgical training in complex oncologic surgeries including pelvic, abdominal, laparoscopic and robotic surgery. Her research interests are in translational science and clinical trials in the field of ovarian cancer.
Tara Almassi, BA (Honours)
GYN Biobank Manager
Clinical Program Coordinator
Ms. Almassi joined the Division of Gynecology Oncology at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in February 2020 as the lead of the Comprehensive Ovarian Tumours Program, developing a streamlined approach to care for patients affected by late-stage ovarian cancer. Tara coordinates all business initiatives related to the program, maintains program finances, ensures accurate ongoing data collection of important metrics of care, and manages the main platform and other novel data collection strategies. She has an interest in better understanding patient needs and finding ways to enhance the patient experience. This has led her to successfully develop a new educational resource called Knowing Your Way – a podcast series that aims to support patients with ovarian cancer and their loved ones throughout their journey.
Tara joins the GYN Biobank team as the new incoming manager, providing oversight to the program, assistance with GYN sample requests, and overall support to research partners.
Sharin Collins, BSc (Honours)
Clinical Research Study Assistant
Ms. Collins is a Clinical Research Study Assistant at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She has an interest in gynecological cancers and annotated biospecimens that translate scientific discoveries into better patient diagnostics and therapies. Sharin has 5 years of experience in biobanking initiatives including patient recruitment, specimen procurement and data management.
Operating Partner:
GU BioBank, University Health Network
The GU BioBank was founded in 2008 to facilitate the discovery and validation of novel biomarkers, aimed at delivering personalized medicine in Urology. The promise of liquid biopsies and longitudinal biospecimen collections in urologic cancer cohorts and healthy controls has further enhanced the relevance of this initiative. Establishment of a systematic and clinically-integrated approach to biospecimen procurement has facilitated research collaborations both nationally and internationally.