Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Lung cancer is a deadly disease with a 5 year survival rate of less than 15%. The most common cause of lung cancer are mutations of cancer promoting genes, however the root cause of approximately 50% of lung cancer remains unknown. With recent advances in sequencing technology, we can now investigate previously unexplored areas of the tumour DNA, specifically the many overlooked genes that do not encode proteins called non-coding RNA genes. While several non-coding RNA's (ncRNAs) have been recently implicated in lung cancer development, the function of the vast majority of these ncRNAs remain unexplored. The objective of this study is to identify ncRNAs differentially produced in cancerous lung tissue and to determine how they affect cancer driving biological pathways. ncRNAs with aberrant levels will be identified by comparing tumour and matched normal lung tissue. To investigate the role of ncRNAs in tumour biology several assays will be performed on lung cancer cell models. Finally the presence and the levels of ncRNAs of interest will be assessed in blood samples from lung cancer patients comparing to healthy individuals, in order to evaluate its use as diagnostic and prognostic biomarker. Significance: Large scale analysis of ncRNA has not been done in lung cancer, providing an opportunity to learn much about ncRNAs in lung tumour biology. This analysis will lead to the discovery of new and alternative mechanisms of lung cancer development providing potential targets for designing therapy as well as for developing biomarkers for early detection and diagnostic strategies.