Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Sarcomas are mostly invasive cancers in both humans and dogs. Despite aggressive treatment, the prognosis for many sarcoma patients remains poor, highlighting the need for better therapies. Sarcomas occur more frequently in dogs and share many biological similarities with human sarcomas. By using a comparative approach, we can gain insights into the driving biology of the cancer and potential therapies in both species. The Eph receptors regulate many cancer cell activities including proliferation, survival, migration, and invasion. Therefore, targeting these receptors can be harmful to cancer cells. This project aims to better understand how the Eph receptors contribute to sarcoma progression in dogs and humans and explore methods to target them. The production of Eph receptors in sarcoma cells and tumor samples from dogs and humans will be assessed. After identifying an Eph receptor that is produced at a higher level than healthy cells, we will suppress the receptor in both canine and human sarcoma cell lines to assess the function of the receptor in the cancer. In mouse models of sarcoma, we will test different approaches of inhibiting the receptor to reduce tumor size. High-throughput technology will be used to screen drugs that most effectively eliminate cancer cells in combination with inhibition of the Eph receptor. Finally, we will investigate the mechanisms by which the receptor functions in cancer cells. The expected outcome of this research is to identify one or more Eph receptors that play a key role in sarcomas and determine effective methods to target and inhibit their functions. By using a comparative approach with dog and human sarcomas, we will obtain relevant information for developing treatments in future clinical trials, ultimately improving the outcomes for human and dog patients.