Cancer Genes Keep Genome in Check

The breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA2 has an important role in repairing DNA damage in immune cells, say members of a UHN team. Drs.Angela Cheung, Ming-Sound Tsao, Jeremy Squire, Robert Bristow, Razqallah Hakem and Tak Mak have shown that when this gene is mutated in mice, genetic material becomes unstable and prone to errors. When this mutation is coupled with a mutation in another cancer gene, p53, cell growth goes awry and tumours develop. Together, these findings constitute new insight into the mechanisms of cancer development.

Cancer Res 2002 Nov 1; 62(21):6194-204 [PubMed abstract]

Institute: AMDI/OCI/PMH
Division: Cell and Molecular Biology
Priority Platform: Genes, Proteins and People

Immune Cells Beneficial for Transplant Survival

Studies have shown that rejection of transplanted organs can be prevented by infusing immune cells from the organ donor into the organ recipient. A team led by Dr. Li Zhang has shown that the secret of this process may be the activation of specific immune cells in the recipient. The activated cells were shown to migrate to the transplant site and protect the transplanted organ by destroying cells that cause transplant rejection. In the future, scientists may use this knowledge to develop new types of anti-rejection treatments.

Blood 2002 Nov 1; 100(9):3408-14 [PubMed abstract]

Institute: TGRI/TGH
Division: Cell and Molecular Biology
Priority Platform: Regenerative Medicine
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New Faces in Research

John Dick, PhD


Internationally recognized for his research on the developmental biology of normal and leukemic stem cells, and for his development of an in vivo stem cell assay using the NOD/SCID mouse, Dr. John Dick—former Hospital for Sick Children stem cell researcher—is the newest recruit to the Division of Cell and Molecular Biology (Regenerative Medicine platform) at TGRI/TGH.
His research program is aimed at understanding how stem cells can be manipulated, which will be invaluable for devising new therapies for a variety of blood disorders.
Dr. Dick is the 1997 recipient of the Michael Smith award and the 2000 recipient of the Robert L. Noble Prize. In October 2002 he was awarded a CRC Chair in stem cell research.
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Breaking News from UHN Research

Ontario awards $2.4 M to UHN for cancer research

Minister of Health and Long Term Care, Tony Clement, and Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation, Jim Flaherty, came to PMH on December 9th 2000 to announce the winners of the first ever Cancer Research Awards from the Ontario Cancer Research Network (OCRN).
Drs. Hedley, Hill, Keating, McCart, Shepherd, Squire, and Tsao together won $2.4 M to accelerate research on promising new cancer therapies.

TGRI/RSS relocations free space for MaRS

The UHN Research Facilities team is breathing a bit easier these days, having completed the second major relocation project associated with the decanting of Research space in the Charlie Conacher Research Wing and the movement of Research Support Services staff from PMH.
Since the sale of the College Street lands to the MaRS development group in March, 2002, Research Facilities has moved roughly 285 researchers and support staff from labs and offices to temporary or newly renovated space. An additional 70 Research Support Services staff were relocated to offices at 700 University Avenue. Of those 70 people, 26 moved from PMH to create new lab space for OCI scientists.

New Clinical Veterinarian on Board

The Animal Resource Centre (ARC) is pleased to welcome Dr. Alejandro Ceccarelli as their new Clinical Veterinarian. Dr. Ceccarelli has come to UHN from UCLA and will help UHN Research maintain the highest standards when using animal models for research.
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Updates

Microarray Centre acquires new clone set

The UHN’s Microarray Centre recently signed a deal that will increase their human clone collection by 155,000 clones, bringing the total human clone collection to 214,000—one of the largest in Canada. According to Head of Operations, Neil Winegarden, this clone collection will be used to offer new array products including an expanded large human array, and an intermediate array of approximately 5K clones. The Centre has also installed a $1 M robotics system for liquid handling that will more than triple their clone production and purification capacities.
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