Christine Allen


Christine Allen is a Canadian Professor and the first-ever Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, Strategic Initiatives at the University of Toronto. She served formerly as Interim Dean of the university's Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. She is co-founder of Nanovista, a company focused on imaging of tumors. Currently, she serves as Associate Editor of Molecular Pharmaceutics. She received her PhD in Chemistry at McGill University and completed a post doc in the Department of Advanced Therapeutics at the BC Cancer Agency. Prior to joining the University of Toronto in 2002 she worked as a scientist and assistant directors of materials research at Celator Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Allen's research is focused on the field of drug delivery, in particular, micelles and gold nanoparticles for cancer therapy. She has developed several block-co-polymers, particularly those with PEG, for delivery of cancer chemotherapeutics. For cancer imaging as well as theranostic applications, the Allen lab has developed several gold nanoparticle carriers. Her platforms apply concepts in drug delivery, targeted drug delivery, as well as controlled release. She has numerous patents, and over 90 publications. Also, she has received many awards including: