Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6
Other Affiliations
Scientist, Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Research Institute (BCCRI)
Faculty Member, Graduate Program in Bioinformatics, UBC
Our research is focused on developing and applying computational methods for high-throughput genomics. New measurement technologies are enabling large-scale genetic, transcriptomic and epigenetic profiling of tissues at the single cell level. Working alongside experimental collaborators, we use probabilistic machine learning approaches to derive biological insights from these high-dimensional datasets in the presence of noise and measurement bias. Past research contributions focused on inferring copy number alterations and clonal evolution in breast cancer, and characterizing changes in normal mammary tissue in the context of ageing and inherited cancer susceptibility.
Selected Publications
Eirew P*, Steif A*, Khattra J*, Ha G, Yap D, Farahani H, Gelmon K, Chia S, Mar C, Wan A, Laks E, Biele J, Shumansky K, Rosner J, McPherson A, Nielsen C, Roth A, Lefebvre C, Bashashati A, de Souza C, Siu C, Aniba R, Brimhall J, Oloumi A, Osako T, Bruna A, Sandoval J, Algara T, Greenwood W, Cheng H, Xue H, Wang Y, Lin D, Mungall A, Moore R, Zhao Y, Lorette J, Nguyen L, Huntsman D, Eaves CJ, Hansen C, Marra MA, Caldas C, Shah SP, & Aparicio A.
Dynamics of genomic clones in breast cancer patient xenografts at single-cell resolution.
Nature(2015), 518(7539), 422-426.
Zahn H*, Steif A*, Laks E, Eirew P, VanInsberghe M, Shah SP, Aparicio S, & Hansen CL.
Scalable whole-genome single-cell library preparation without preamplification.
Nature Methods(2017), 14(2), 167-173.
Salehi S, Steif A, Roth A, Aparicio S, Bouchard-Côté A, & Shah SP.
Genome Biology(2017), 18(44), 1-18.
Campbell KR, Steif A, Laks E, Zahn H, Lai D, McPherson A, Farahani H, Kabeer F, O’Flanagan C, Biele J, Brimhall J, Wang B, Walters P, Bouchard-Côté A, Aparicio A, & Shah SP.
clonealign: statistical integration of independent single-cell RNA and DNA-seq from human cancers.
Genome Biology(2019), 20(1), 54.
Laks E*, McPherson A*, Zahn H*, Lai D*, Steif A*, Brimhall J, Biele J, Wang B, Masud T, Ting J, Grewal D, Nielsen C, Leung S, Bojilova V, Smith M, Golovko O, Poon S, Eirew P, Kabeer F, Ruiz de Algara T, Lee SR, Taghiyar MJ, Huebner C, Ngo J, Chan T, Vatrt-Watts S, Pascale Walters P, Abrar N, Chan S, Wiens M, Martin L, Scott RW, Underhill MT, Chavez E, Steidl C, Da Costa D, Ma Y, Coope RJN, Corbett R, Pleasance S, Moore R, Mungall AJ, Mar C, Cafferty F, Gelmon K, Chia S, IMAXT Consortium, Marra MA, Hansen C, Shah SP, & Aparicio S.
Clonal decomposition and DNA replication states defined by scaled single-cell genome sequencing.
Cell(2019), 179(5): 1207-1221.
* denotes equal contribution
A full list of publications can be found here.
Brief Biography
Dr. Steif was previously a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, University of Cambridge and a member of the inaugural class of Schmidt Science Fellows. She completed her postdoctoral research at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and European Bioinformatics Institute with Dr. John Marioni. Prior to this, she obtained her PhD at UBC and BC Cancer under the supervision of Dr. Sohrab Shah and Dr. Sam Aparicio.