Grant: Foundation Grant

<html> <body> <p> <strong>Program direction:</strong> <br> My major research focus is on lung cancer (LC), investigating cancer development and progression, and the biology of LC in never smokers, former smokers and COPD patients for the purpose of developing combinatorial strategies for detection, diagnosis and treatment.<br> <br> <strong>Anticipated outcome:</strong> <br> New challenges in LC management emerge as a consequence of advances made in cancer prevention and detection. First, imaging technologies are shifting LC management towards early stage disease, creating a need for a biological understanding to forecast malignant potential. Second, although smoking is the major cause of LC, up to 25% of LC patients are non-smokers. With increasing success in smoking prevention and cessation campaigns, LC will increasingly become a disease of former and never smokers. My program is comprised of projects that will yield the mechanistic understanding necessary for (1) delineating biological changes in lung tissue that underlie LC development in former smokers and COPD patients, by investigating development and progression from smoke damaged bronchial epithelium to cancer, (2) determining aggressiveness of screening CT-detected early stage LC, and (3) developing innovative diagnostic and treatment options for LC in smokers and never smokers.<br> <br> <strong>Core Expertise:</strong> <br> Critical pathways in cancer are disrupted by a variety of molecular mechanisms. My lab is recognized for investigating the genetic and epigenetic basis of cancer, and has a strong track record in developing integrative technologies for tracking genetic, epigenetic and gene expression changes in order to delineate sequences of events critical to cancer progression and to identify biological signatures for predicting prognosis and treatment response. We have demonstrated expertise in genomics, bioinformatics, cell biology, model systems and clinical translation.<br> <br> My lab is well integrated in the lung health research community in BC, and is part of several international lung research networks. Locally, we are part of a multidisciplinary team in Vancouver that has been working together productively for the past decade on multiple projects. Key members include: Stephen Lam (Provincial Lung Tumor Group Chair), John Yee (Surgery), John English (Pathology), Calum MacAulay (Imaging), Don Sin (Respiratory Medicine) and Raymond Ng (Computer Science). Nationally, we are part of the Terry Fox Res. Inst., and have ongoing collaborative research across Canada, e.g. Ming-Sound Tsao (Pathology) of PMCC. Internationally, we are part of several multi-centered LC research networks in North America with on-going projects sponsored by the NCI Early Detection Research Network, Canary Foundation, NCI/NHLBI Lung Cancer and COPD Program, and DOD lung cancer biomarker consortium; and on-going collaborations with groups in Europe, South America and Asia on lung and other cancers.<br> <br> <strong>Training activities:</strong> <br> My lab has a strong track record of training highly qualified personnel. I received the Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring last year. I have supervised 31 grad students and 18 postdoctoral fellows through programs in Pathology and Oncology. Many trainees have gone on to successful independent careers in science and medicine. Past trainees keep close contact, continue collaboration and are highly involved in guiding new trainees remotely, forming an expanding network of knowledge and resources.</p> </body> </html>