Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide and is responsible for 30% of all deaths in Canada. Despite many therapeutic advances, many people continue to die from this deadly disease every year. Apart from the standard chemo- and radiation therapy, targeted therapies are currently the focus of much anticancer drug development. Targeted therapy uses information about a patient's genome to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. It specifically attacks cancer cells and limits damage to healthy cells, so there are fewer side effects than with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Recently, we at Moffat lab in Toronto turned off every gene in a cell using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology and have found that each type of cancer had a unique signature of genes supporting its survival. We have further extended this research to specifically identify metabolic vulnerabilities of cancer cell. Metabolic rewiring has recently been indicated as another general hallmark of cancer. Hence, targeting cancer metabolism has emerged as a promising strategy for the development of selective anticancer agents. Our findings would enable the discovery of novel combination therapies and also delineate some of the drug resistance mechanisms. Once new drug targets are identified, one can develop small molecule drugs or antibodies that can selectively kill cancer cells. Our ultimate goal is to have a functional map of cancer linking drug targets to DNA sequence variation. This illustrates the clinical potential of our research in pointing to more precise treatments for the different cancers - and show the value of personalized medicine.