Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

"Cancer is Canada's leading cause of death, accounting for ~30% of deaths; where most are caused by aggressive cancer spread. Current treatments (chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery) cause significant side-effects and still fail many patients. More effective and safer treatments are desperately needed to treat aggressive cancers. Oncolytic Viruses (OVs) are a promising new cancer therapy consisting of viruses that selectively target and kill cancer cells and other cancer-promoting cells, leaving healthy cells unaffected. Additionally, OVs also stimulate the host immune system to produce an anti-cancer immune response, furthering the destruction of a tumour and preventing its spread. Unfortunately, cancers develop ways of evading the immune system, like preventing its activation or turning it off once activated. To overcome this, I will develop OVs armed with additional tools designed to block these ways of evading the immune system, thus bolstering the effectiveness of the anti-cancer immune response. Previous work has shown that these additional OV tools can be transferred to surrounding cancer/cancer-promoting cells through naturally occurring cell-to-cell communication machinery. Our lab has identified the cellular components Fes and Ezrin as two key drivers of cancer spread. Excitingly, these two components have also been implicated in cancer's immune evasiveness; Fes prevents the activation, and Ezrin contributes to shutting off the immune system. Therefore, by using a cancer killing OV armed with tools to block Fes and Ezrin, we create a more effective cancer therapy. This research will result in better understanding of cancer immune evasiveness and a more effective, safer cancer treatment having significant implications for cancer patients in Canada. "