2017 Funded Researchers

University Health Network   
Toronto, Ontario Discovering epigenetic vulnerabilities in poor prognosis Some leukemia groups are very difficult to treat and the patients have poor survival. We propose to investigate how to inhibit the driving factor in these leukemias by targeting the epigenetic processes that the driver is dependent on. The inhibition will be achieved by drug-like molecule...

University Health Network   
Toronto, Ontario Real-Time Monitoring of Leukemic Stem Cells in the Bone Marrow  Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) arises in the bone marrow, but we know little about how cells enter, live and exit the bone marrow. A better understanding of AML behavior will help optimize the delivery of emerging immunotherapies and improve outcomes. We will use imaging methods...

Hospital for Sick Children     
Toronto, Ontario The RANK-RANKL axis in B-ALL Nearly 90% of children with B cell leukemia (B-ALL) are cured. However, many survivors have late effects of the disease including secondary cancers and bone fractures. Cure rates for children who relapse are much poorer due to chemotherapy resistance. How can we protect childhood survivors from late eff...

Clinical Research Institute of Montreal
Montréal, Québec AID expression sensitizes B cell lymphoma to UNG inhibition    A large proportion of non-Hodgkin lymphomas become resistant to the available therapies, so new alternatives are needed. We propose to exploit a vulnerability created by the enzyme AID, which is present in many lymphomas, to specifically target these cancer cells. ...

University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario         Preclinical development of an anti-AML small molecule, JP-4-94 Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia in adults. Worldwide, AML affects forty individuals per million annually. The majority of AML patients respond to toxic chemotherapy initially, but due to therapy resistant relapses, the 5-year ...

Hopital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, centre de recherché
Montréal, Québec Development of new prognostic markers in acute myeloid leukemia  Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a deadly cancer treated with intensive chemotherapy to achieve remission followed by consolidation treatment to prevent relapse. Consolidation with chemotherapy or stem cell transplantation is chosen according to the risk of relapse wh...

BC Cancer Agency
Vancouver, British Columbia An innovative approach to selectively target dormant leukemic stem cells Despite encouraging advances in the treatment of leukemia, many blood cancers resist therapy or come back after initially responding. This is because the inability of current therapies to eradicate slow-growing blood cancer stem cells and their supporting cells in the bone marrow. This pr...

BC Cancer Agency    
Vancouver, British Columbia Bypassing resistance to lenalidomide in del(5q) MDS Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a type of blood cancer that have poor outcomes and for which few therapeutic options exist. About 1/3 of MDS patients progress to an incurable acute leukemia, with the rest dying of bone marrow failure. One type of MDS (del(5q) MDS) is normally treat...

University Health Network   
Toronto, Ontario Enhancing epigenetic therapies in B-cell lymphoma This proposal will focus on aggressive B-cell lymphoma, which represents the most common form of lymphoma in Canada, with over 4,000 new diagnoses per year. Identifying novel treatment strategies for these patients is a critical, unmet need, given that relapse occurs in 40% of patients and is of...

University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario Impact of a CMV-induced NK cell subset in cancer therapy Host and virus interactions have been established over millions of years of evolution, exhibiting multifaceted consequences. Notably, some interactions are uniquely advantageous to hosts. A recently identified subset of long-lasting Natural Killer (NK) cells that develop post-cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection appe...

University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba Role of follicular helper T cell subsets in chronic lymphocytic leukemia Leukemia cells disrupt the immune system by invading immunological tissues such as lymph nodes and bone marrow, where they interact with other cells that help the leukemia proliferate and become resistant to chemotherapy. Dr. Marshall’s group has discovered specific abnormalities of T lymp...

Mount Sinai Hospital 
Toronto, Ontario         Critical Care Outcomes in Hematologic Malignancy and Stem Cell Transplant Patients with leukemia (blood cancer) may become critically ill because of their disease or complications of treatment; and may require intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Approximately 1/3 of patients die in ICU, and survivors may be left with ...

University of Montréal
Montréal, Québec Podoplanin is a key new player in acute promyelocytic leukemia   Acute promyelocytic leukemias (APL) are uniquely characterized by frequent severe bleeding episodes which are the leading cause of early deaths in these patients. Our proposal capitalizes on a new observation that involves the protein podoplanin as a novel player involved in these complic...

Sunnybrook Research Institute
Toronto, Ontario Recipient of the 2017 UFCW Canada Award for Leukemia Research Improving Ibrutinib therapy in chronic leukemia by targeting janus kinases      Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the commonest leukemia in Canada and is often fatal. A new drug called Ibrutinib has been of great help to CLL patients but does not cure them. Dr....

University Of Montréal
Montréal, Québec Characterization of leukemia-causing oncogenes using Drosophila Acute myeloid leukemia or AML is a cancer of blood cells. Despite significant progress in recent years, a considerable proportion of afflicted children (40%) and adults (60%) still succumbs to the disease. Based on the conservation of cell division mechanisms among multicellular organisms, we exploi...