Challenge: Lung cancer is the most lethal cancer in industrialized countries, with different studies showing that its high mortality can be reduced through an early diagnosis. Implementation of a lung cancer screening program for patients at high risk of developing the disease has been recently recommended by the Quebec National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS). This program … Read More
RATMIR DERDA
Macrocyclic peptides as the next-generation immuno-oncology therapeutics
Challenge: When considering drug discovery, the pharmaceutical industry faces many challenges. Indeed, each drug class, namely small molecules, antibodies or peptides-based therapeutics, possesses its own characteristics and comes with its own challenges. While presenting similar features than peptides in terms of activity, selectivity and potency, macrocycle peptides also present enhanced permeability and stability towards proteases. Macrocycles are also ideally positioned … Read More
YVES FRADET
Phase II clinical and translational study of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab for personalization of prostate cancer treatment
Challenge: Cancer therapy has been transformed in recent years by the impressive success of immunotherapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, the success of immunotherapy in some types of cancers, including prostate cancer (PCa), has been rather limited. A major challenge facing the development of PCa immunotherapy is the identification of tumors that would best respond to this type of treatment. … Read More
YVES ST-PIERRE
Novel Drug Development Tools to Interrogate the Role of Galectins in Breast Cancer
Challenge: Because of their immunosuppressive properties, galectins play a critical role in many diseases, most notably in cancer. Some galectins can suppress the immune response by inducing the death of cells that are protecting against cancer cells development. Galectins can also promote tumor cell growth by preventing tumor infiltration by immune cells. For these reasons, there was an increased interest … Read More
*XIAOLONG YANG
Mapping Genetic Interactions: A Path to Discover Efficacious Drug Targets
Challenge: One of the major challenges for disease treatment is the identification of efficacious drug targets. To overcome the problem, one proposed solution is the use of combined drug therapy that either targets two genes simultaneously or interfere with a single gene with loss-of-function of another one. In both cases this will induce cell synthetic lethality. A synthetic lethal screen … Read More
YVES FRADET
Development of immunotherapy for bladder cancer using IMV’s drug delivery platform
Challenge: Bladder cancer is 5 th in frequency in Canada. Each year, approximately 80,000 people will be diagnosed with bladder cancer and more than 20 % of them will die from the disease. The treatment of advanced bladder cancer has been revolutionized in the recent years by the impressive clinical success of immune checkpoint (IC)-based immunotherapy. Advanced bladder cancer has been shown to … Read More
BORHANE ANNABI
Pre-clinical design of a novel targeted and personalized treatment against Sortilin-positive triple negative breast cancers
Challenge : Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 15 to 20% of diagnosed breast tumors. This type of breast cancer is particularly aggressive and associated with a high risk of recurrence, especially in the first five years after diagnosis. TNBC treatment is limited to chemotherapy that can be combined with surgery and/or radiotherapy. Targeted therapy in not currently a … Read More
*DANIEL CHELSKY
Blood-based biomarkers to diagnose neuroendocrine tumors, follow disease progression and identify new therapeutic targets
Challenge: Cancer remains a leading cause of death in the developed world. Endocrine tumors derived from hormone-producing cells are particularly problematic. This type of tumor can over-produce hormones, which can induce serious complications. Early and accurate diagnosis is currently very difficult, and treatments of late-stage tumors are ineffective. There is, therefore, an urgent need to improve diagnosis and develop more … Read More
RICHARD MARTEL
A Novel Raman-Based Multiplex Imaging Platform to simultaneously detect up to 15 Breast Cancer Biomarkers
Challenge: Extensive characterization of tumors is central to the development of personalized therapies such as immunotherapy, now considered one of the most promising approaches to cancer treatment. The capability to detect a multitude of biomarkers simultaneously on the same tissue section would provide unprecedented headways in the field of cancer research and particularly on tumor profiling. While allowing a greater … Read More
*RICHARD KREMER
Platform for the enrichment of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for characterization and sensitivity to anti-cancer drugs
Challenge: A major challenge in cancer therapy is to stop cancer cells before they metastasize to other tissues, at which point the disease may become resistant to therapeutic intervention. During cancer progression, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are shed from the primary tumor or its metastatic sites and their number follow closely the progression of the disease. However, CTCs are heterogenous … Read More
