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

Oncolytic vaccinia virus therapy is a novel cancer therapy that is currently being tested in a multinational phase 2b clinical trial in patients with advanced liver cancer and could be available in the clinic in the next few years. In oncolytic vaccinia virus therapy, cancer patients are administered oncolytic vaccinia virus, which has been shown to selectively destroy tumour cells, yet cause no harm to patients. Previous phase 1 and 2 clinical trials have yielded promising results for a spectrum of cancers, yet we believe that the potential exists to further enhance this therapy so that an even greater number of patients can benefit and/or benefit to an even greater extent. We hypothesize that we can increase the therapeutic efficacy of oncolytic vaccinia virus by determining host and virus genes that modulate its ability to spread in tumours and then manipulate these genes to increase its spread in tumours, as studies suggest that heightened spread and replication at the tumour site is correlated with enhanced efficacy. We are using robot assisted genetic screens to identify tumour and virus genes across the entire human and vaccinia genomes that impact on its ability to spread. We plan to use the knowledge gleaned from these screens to engineer a more potent oncolytic vaccinia virus, or to custom design drugs to work synergistically with the virus. The outcome of this project has the potential of significantly improving cancer treatment outcomes and the lives of those fighting this devastating disease.