With International Women’s Day approaching on March 8, Dr. Michelle Brazas, Associate Director, Adaptive Oncology, shares her perspective on the contributions of women to science, challenges faced by women working in research and ways to break down these barriers. The post International Women’s Day: How can we build momentum for women in STEM? appeared first on Ontario Institute for Cancer Research ..read more

Rising star cancer researcher is leading a cutting-edge study and supporting other up-and-coming scientists Kimberly Skead says it’s a very exciting time to be cancer research trainee. And she’s certainly making the most of it. Skead is a University of Toronto PhD candidate based in Dr. Philip Awadalla’s OICR lab, where she is leading cutting-edge research to understand how changes in our DNA affect our risk of cancer. She also serves as National Scientific Coordinator of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath), where she plays a key role in the country’s largest population co ..read more

Dr. Mélanie Courtot and Dr. Lincoln Stein will investigate ways to overcome barriers to sharing and integrating global genomics data. An international effort to harness genomics data and spread precision cancer care around the world launched this week and two OICR researchers will play key roles. Dr. Mélanie Courtot and Dr. Lincoln Stein join a team of experts on the Lancet Oncology Commission focused on cancer genomics and precision oncology, which will investigate barriers to accessing genomics-driven cancer diagnostics and therapies — particularly in low- and middle-income countries — and ..read more

OICR-supported researchers are helping understand inequities in cancer care and finding solutions to address them. Research has brought about major advancements in detecting, diagnosing and treating cancer that are helping patients live longer and better than ever. But the benefits of these innovations are not felt equally. Unacceptable gaps exist between different regions and socioeconomic groups that perpetuate disparities in cancer outcomes, even in wealthy countries like Canada and the U.S. For example, Black men in the U.S. are twice as likely to die of prostate cancer than white men, whi ..read more

Dr. Eva Grunfeld was honoured for her work to translate evidence into practice to improve family medicine services for people with cancer. Years of dedicated practice and groundbreaking research made OICR Clinician Scientist Dr. Eva Grunfeld a leader in family medicine. The author of several high-impact studies, Grunfeld is widely recognized for helping improve primary care services for cancer patients, earning a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine and most recently being named an officer of the Order of Canada. But what first made Grunfeld an advocate ..read more

MD/PhD candidate studying the diversity of blood cancer cells to find a personalized recipe for treating leukemia Andy Zeng was always fascinated by cancer research, right back to the early days of his undergraduate studies in biology and biochemistry. But his interest took a personal turn after he flew from Toronto to Beijing to say goodbye to his grandmother, who died of colon cancer a few years ago. “That was when it changed from becoming an academic exercise into something that was much more personal and human for me,” Zeng recalls. Now earning his MD/PhD from the University of Toronto, Ze ..read more

Dr. Rola Saleeb and colleagues harnessed next-generation sequencing to create a test that can identify brain cancer biomarkers for a fraction of the cost of other platforms. Knowing the subtle differences between cancers, observable only at a molecular level, is increasingly important to treating them. That’s especially true for gliomas, the most common type of brain cancer. Glioma tumours that have certain genetic mutations respond very differently to one treatment versus another. In fact, glioma’s genetic makeup is so relevant to how it’s treated that guidance from the World Health Organizat ..read more

Dr. Masoud Vedadi joined OICR in 2022, bringing a wealth of experience in characterizing targets for new cancer drugs. OICR bolstered its capacity to develop new cancer therapeutics in 2022 with the addition of Dr. Masoud Vedadi, a world-renowned expert in early-stage drug discovery. Vedadi is an Associate Professor in the University of Toronto’s Pharmacology and Toxicology Department who spent the last two decades as Principal Investigator for the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC). With expertise in enzymology, biochemistry and protein science, Vedadi regularly collaborated with OICR in hi ..read more

OICR PhD candidate developed a computational tool to classify cells in the tumour microenvironment. Ido Nofech-Mozes hopes the tool he created can help answer some important questions about cancer. Nofech-Mozes is a University of Toronto PhD candidate based in Dr. Sagi Abelson and Dr. Philip Awadalla’s labs at OICR. He recently created scATOMIC, a computational method that uses data from single-cell RNA sequencing to classify the different cells in a tumour microenvironment. For a given tumour, scATOMIC can identify the types of cancer cells, immune cells and other cells that are present. Nofe ..read more

The Reactome database was among 37 data resources to be recognized by the Global Biomedical Coalition. A cutting-edge database of human cellular processes developed OICR’s Dr. Lincoln Stein was named one of the world’s most indispensable biodata resources by an international coalition of research funders. The Reactome database was one of just 37 data resources to make the Global Biomedical Coalition’s (GBC) inaugural Global Core Biodata Resources list, which recognizes databases that are “critical to life science and biomedical research worldwide.” Founded in 2003 to drive innovations in biome ..read more