Results of the Challenge Grants Competition – Pillar 1 Research
Funding results of the Challenge Grants Competition – Pillar 1
Blocking treatment resistance in glioblastoma brain tumours
Stephane Angers | University of Toronto
Glioblastoma brain tumours contain many different cell types. The cells in these tumours can even switch between different states during treatment to avoid being destroyed. Dr Stephane Angers aims to find out which genes control this cell switching and how current glioblastoma treatments affect cell state. The goal: to find ways of blocking this cell switching process, making glioblastoma tumours more vulnerable to treatment.
Safer, more effective treatment for children with brain tumours
Shawn Beug | Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute
For children with high-grade gliomas, there are few effective treatment options and those that exist often have serious long-term effects. Dr Shawn Beug is studying drugs that could make immunotherapy more effective by strengthening anti-cancer immunity and making the tumours vulnerable to immune attack. Combining these drugs with immunotherapy could save lives and improve long-term health for children with these brain tumours.
Paving the way to better treatment for lobular breast cancer
Sean Egan | The Hospital for Sick Children
With time, many lobular breast cancers show recurrence. Better therapies are needed to help prevent and treat recurrent disease. Because there are no good lab models for lobular breast cancer, potential treatments are tested in models of other breast cancers – which means they may not work well in people with lobular tumours. Dr Sean Egan is developing lab models of lobular breast cancer to help identify and test potential treatments, improving outcomes for people with this type of cancer.
Working with people who have lived experience of childhood cancer has changed how we think about the research. Tamy Bell and Dawn Pickering help keep our team focused on the real-life needs of families, including less toxic treatments, clearer communication, fewer access barriers and the practical burden of traveling for care. Their input reminds us that successful research is not only measured in the lab. It is measured by whether it can truly help families.
— Shawn Beug, Safer, more effective treatment for children with brain tumours
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute – Ottawa, ON
Using AI to improve precision treatment for aggressive breast cancer
Saima Hassan | Centre de recherche du CHUM
Dr Saima Hassan’s team is using AI to study how tumour characteristics and the surrounding microenvironment influence breast cancer treatment response. By combining clinical and molecular data, they aim to identify who will benefit the most from targeted therapies. This will help personalize treatment, reduce side effects and improve outcomes for people with breast cancer.
Understanding how childhood leukemia cells resist treatment
Kristin Hope | Princess Margaret Cancer Centre - UHN
Brian Wilhelm | Institut de recherche en immunologie et cancérologie
Many children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) respond well to treatment, but the cancer later returns. When this happens, it often resists further treatment and survival rates are poor. Dr Kristin Hope and Dr Brian Wilhelm are studying how cancer cells control the proteins that drive drug resistance. Eventually, this research could lead to new treatments that target those proteins, helping overcome drug resistance and saving the lives of children with AML.
Understanding how dense breast tissue increases cancer risk
Hartland Jackson | Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute
Dense breast tissue is a risk factor for cancer, but researchers don’t currently know exactly what features of dense tissue contribute to this risk. Dr Hartland Jackson is analyzing the characteristics of dense breast tissue to identify the ones that are most closely linked to the development of cancer. With this knowledge, people at the highest risk can be offered additional screening or interventions to help lower that risk.
Working hand in hand with people who have lived experience with cancer has been transformative in how we approach our research. These relationships have directed our focus to address a key challenge patients and their families and caregivers face – the fear of cancer returning after treatment. By tailoring our work to uncover non-genetic strategies leukemia cells use to resist therapy, we aim to identify novel relapse-preventing therapies.
— Kristin Hope, Understanding how childhood leukemia cells resist treatment
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre - UHN – Toronto, ON
A test to identify who will – and won’t – benefit from immunotherapy
Kian Jafari Dinani | Université de Sherbrooke
Immunotherapy can be life-saving for many people with cancer – but others don’t benefit. Right now, there’s no good way to predict who will benefit, which can lead to long delays and unnecessary treatment for some people. Dr Kian Jafari Dinani and his research team are developing a faster, more sensitive test to predict who is likely to benefit from immunotherapy – helping those people receive treatment sooner and helping others avoid unnecessary delays and side effects.
Understanding how treatment-resistant breast cancer spreads
Govind Kaigala | University of British Columbia
New tools are needed to study how breast cancer cells reproduce and spread. Dr Govind Kaigala’s team is developing miniaturized probes and tools to capture and control these cells in real time. This work will uncover what drives metastasis and identify potential new targets for treating resistant breast cancers.
Expanded genetic testing to prevent ovarian cancer
Janice Kwon | BC Cancer, part of the Provincial Health Services Authority
High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), the most common type of ovarian cancer, is often diagnosed after it has spread, making it very hard to treat. Dr Janice Kwon’s team has identified 15 new gene mutations that may increase HGSOC risk and will study how they contribute to cancer. This research could expand genetic testing, helping identify more people at risk of cancer and enabling preventive care that will ultimately save lives.
Working with people who have lived experience of cancer has given our research a much deeper purpose. Listening to their stories has changed how we think about the impact of our work. Their experiences remind us that behind every scientific question is a person waiting for answers and hearing firsthand about the uncertainty of treatment decisions and the lasting side effects some patients experience has strengthened our commitment to developing tools that help the right patient receive the right treatment at the right time.
— Kian Jafari, A test to identify who will – and won’t – benefit from immunotherapy
Université de Sherbrooke – Sherbrooke, QC
How breast cancer cells survive and regrow in the brain
Sabine Hombach-Klonisch | University of Manitoba
Thomas Klonisch | University of Manitoba
Eric Hall | University of Manitoba
HER2+ breast cancer cells that have created brain metastases resist treatment and often return. Dr Sabine Hombach-Klonisch, Dr Eric Hall and Dr Thomas Klonisch have discovered that these breast cancer cells transform to mimic brain cells and use the brain’s own cell communication networks to survive. The researchers are studying which cells survive and how – and whether blocking connections between cancer cells and the brain can make these cancer cells more vulnerable to treatment. This may lead to new life-saving therapies for HER2+ breast cancers that have spread to the brain.
Creating new made-in-Canada prostate cancer treatments
Scott McComb | National Research Council Canada
Michael Ong | The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Current immunotherapies do not work well against advanced prostate cancer. Dr Scott McComb and Dr Michael Ong are developing new treatments using “nanobodies” – small antibodies found in llamas, alpacas and camels – that can better target prostate cancer cells. By finding promising targets on prostate tumour cells and creating nanobodies that help the immune system attack them, the team hopes to develop innovative, made-in-Canada treatments that save lives of people with prostate cancer.
People with advanced prostate cancer want more than hormone therapies that control their cancer. They want treatments that can eliminate it. We’re developing innovative, made-in-Canada immunotherapies with the potential to do just that. People with lived experience of prostate cancer are essential members of our project team. Their insights guide our work and keep us focused on what matters most to patients. This support is critical for building better immunotherapies and moving new ideas from the lab into clinical trials.
— Michael Ong, Creating new made-in-Canada prostate cancer treatments
The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute – Ottawa, ON
A new treatment for aggressive nerve tumours
Sylvain Meloche | Université de Montréal
Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour (MPNST) is an aggressive cancer with few effective treatment options. Dr Sylvain Meloche has found that blocking two proteins in MPNST cells, YES and SRC, can stop the cells from growing and surviving. He and his team have developed a drug that blocks these proteins and now plan to test it in lab models. If effective, it could eventually become a new, life-saving treatment option for people with this cancer.
This grant is funded in partnership with the University Health Network (UHN) and UHN Foundation through the ERASEnf fund.
Treating aggressive leukemia without harsh side effects
Aaron Schimmer | Princess Margaret Cancer Centre – UHN
Siavash Vahidi | University of Guelph
Mohammad Mazhab Jafari | University Health Network
People with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive blood cancer, often experience harsh side effects and toxicity from their treatment. Dr Aaron Schimmer, Dr Mohammad Mazhab Jafari and Dr Siavash Vahidi have discovered that blocking LONP1, a protein many cancer cells need to function, can kill AML without harming healthy cells. They are now studying LONP1 to find new drugs and combinations that could effectively treat AML and other cancers with fewer risks and side effects.
Making treatment-resistant cancers respond to immunotherapy
Claude Perreault | Université de Montréal
Pierre Thibault | Institut de recherche en immunologie et cancérologie
Breast cancers that express estrogen receptors (ER+) don’t respond to immunotherapy because it’s hard for the immune system to identify and attack them. Dr Claude Perreault and Dr Pierre Thibault found that treating ER+ breast cancers with certain drugs made them express protein fragments to help the immune system target them. Now, they are studying ways to use this technique to make cancer cells respond to immunotherapy and even develop cancer vaccines that work against ER+ and other treatment-resistant cancers.
Gold nanoparticle-based radiation treatment for deadly brain cancers
Raymond Reilly | University of Toronto
Glioblastoma is the most common and deadly brain cancer in adults. Right now, there are very few treatment options for glioblastoma and fewer than 1 in 10 people live longer than 5 years after diagnosis. Dr Raymond Reilly is developing a new therapy that uses gold nanoparticles to deliver strong radiation directly to glioblastoma tumours without affecting the healthy tissue around them. This could save, extend and improve the lives of people with glioblastoma.
This grant is funded through a partnership with the World Gold Council & Lundin Cancer Fund.
Stopping childhood brain tumours from returning after treatment
Tanveer Sharif | University of Manitoba
Children with high-risk medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumour, often face tumour recurrence and spread after treatment. Dr Tanveer Sharif is studying how medulloblastoma cells turn their genes on and off after treatment to find out which genes are responsible for the cancer’s survival and spread. With this knowledge, he will explore new drug combinations to block the genes responsible for recurrence, improving outcomes for children with these brain tumours.
Meeting people living with cancer has changed the way I think about research. It has reinforced the importance of asking questions that have the potential to make a meaningful difference not only by improving treatment, but by finding ways to stop cancer before it starts.
— Anastasia Tikhonova, How early bone marrow changes contribute to cancer risk
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre – UHN – Toronto, ON
How early bone marrow changes contribute to cancer risk
Anastasia Tikhonova | Princess Margaret Cancer Centre – UHN
As people age, some of their blood stem cells acquire genetic changes that allow them to grow more than normal. This process can increase the risk of developing blood cancer. Dr Anastasia Tikhonova is studying how changes in the bone marrow, the home of blood stem cells, contribute to this process. Her research could help identify people at increased risk of cancer and pave the way for preventive strategies that preserve a healthy bone marrow, helping to stop cancer before it starts.
A preventive treatment to reduce ovarian cancer risk
Barbara Vanderhyden | Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Dr Barbara Vanderhyden’s team discovered that people at higher risk of ovarian cancer have more tissue fibrosis (stiffening) than those at average risk. They also found that taking the drug metformin can reduce fibrosis. Now, they are studying how and why fibrosis forms and how metformin prevents it. They hope drugs that prevent fibrosis will offer new options for people at risk of ovarian cancer who need preventive measures.
Bringing immunotherapy to aggressive NF1-related cancers
Ian Watson | McGill University
Daniela D’Agostino | McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)
People with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) are at increased risk of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour (MPNST), an aggressive cancer with limited treatment options. Dr Ian Watson identified a distinct subgroup of skin cancers with mutations in the gene that causes NF1 that have a strong response to immunotherapy. He also revealed how loss of that gene helps tumours escape detection by the immune system. Now, he and Dr Daniela D’Agostino are investigating whether similar immune-related changes occur in NF1-related MPNST to identify people who may benefit from immunotherapy, expanding their treatment options.
This grant is funded in partnership with the University Health Network (UHN) and UHN Foundation through the ERASEnf fund.