Research Location: BC Cancer Agency - Vancouver

I am examining angiogenesis – the process of how blood vessels grow – to learn how to make more blood vessels grow and discover ways to stop their growth. New blood vessels sprout from existing blood vessels. In addition, stem cells from bone marrow go to areas that require new blood vessels and differentiate into blood vessel-lining cells called endothelial cells. Endothelial cells line the inside of every blood vessel. My research lab has confirmed that when we turn on a protein receptor on the surface of the endothelial cells, we can block blood vessels from growing. We are also studying whether blocking this receptor will have the opposite effect of increasing blood vessel growth. All tissue needs blood to deliver nutrients to survive and grow. In heart disease, blood vessels are blocked by hardening of the arteries. When not enough blood gets to the heart, tissue dies, causing a heart attack. If we can make new blood vessels grow and bypass the blockage, heart tissue could potentially survive without surgery. Cancer tumours also require blood vessels to grow, and will only grow to 1-2 millimetres without a blood supply. If we can stop the growth of blood vessels to this tissue, tumour growth could be blocked. Stopping blood vessel growth could also stop tumours from spreading. Blood vessel growth also promotes chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, so blocking growth may ultimately help treat these conditions as well.

Our genes play a major role in our health and in our susceptibility to disease. In fact, the course of every disease is thought to be influenced to some extent by genetic factors. Confounding researchers’ attempts to understand the genetic basis of health and disease are the very large number of human genes (estimated at between 30,000 and 40,000) and the limitations in technology that, up until recently, allowed researchers to study only one or a few genes at a time. At the BC Cancer Agency Genome Sciences Centre, a new laboratory unique in Canada, we are developing and using state-of-the-art technology to examine thousands of genes simultaneously, searching for those that play a role in cancer. These genes will ultimately provide new tools for early diagnosis, improved treatment strategies and discovering cures to a disease that has touched the lives of almost all of us.

My research focuses on genes that play a role in the development of cancer, with a particular interest in genes that help malignant cells survive by limiting the effects of anti-cancer drugs. Our research team was the first to discover a protein (P-glycoprotein) on the surface of cancer cells that resists multiple cancer drugs. The protein protects cancer cells by pumping out drugs before they inflict lethal damage. With recent advances in genome science, the team has learned that proteins similar in structure to this one are present in more than 50 genes in the human genome. What these genes do in normal cells or in malignant ones is not yet fully understood. This is one of the questions that our team of more than 40 clinicians and scientists in the Cancer Genomics Program are working to answer. By analyzing how these genes act in normal tissue, and in cancers that are or are not responsive to drug therapy, we hope to identify markers (changes in the molecular structure or function of cells) that will be useful in diagnosing specific cancers earlier. Our goal is more effective treatment and, better still, more effective preventive measures.