Grant: CIHR Fellowship

The cells of our bodies are constantly exposed to agents, such as sunlight and chemicals, which cause damage to their DNA. The ability of cells to repair this ongoing damage is crucial to preventing mutations as well as cancers and several syndromes exist that are associated with elevated risk of cancer resulting from defects in the ability of cells to repair DNA damage. Paradoxically, cancer treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy depend on the induction of DNA damage in order to kill cancer cells, based on the principle that these cells are more vulnerable to treatments than the body's healthy cells. However, these treatments still have very important toxic side effects. For these reasons, understanding the molecular mechanisms of the response to DNA damage is critical to enhancing the efficiency and specificity of chemotherapy and radiotherapy based cancer treatments. The focus of this research project is a gene called Gfi1, a factor expressed in white blood cells. This gene is known to play an important role in the progression of leukemia and has been suggested to play a role in the response of cells to DNA damage. The hypothesis behind this project is that by understanding the role that Gfi1 plays in the response of cells to DNA damage in general as well as in leukemic cells specifically, we may be able to identify potential therapeutic strategies to further sensitize cancer cells to radiotherapy and chemotherapy relative to healthy cells. This would both improve the efficacy of treatments and allow a reduction in the considerable side effects that cancers patients have to suffer during treatment.