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Understanding cancer causing cells

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Every organ and type of tissue in the body contains a small number of what scientists call “adult” or “tissue” stem cells. Since most cells in the body live for just a short time, the body needs to keep making new cells to replace them. Adult stem cells ensure a continuous supply of new cells to replace old cells that wear out or are destroyed.

Cancer stem cells are the small number of cells within a tumour that drive the tumours growth, much in the same way cell stems create new cells, only in tumours the cells are cancerous.

The Challenge

  • Brain tumours, breast cancer and leukemias are among the most common and lethal cancers that affect Canadians
  • Current treatments are often ineffective because they do not target the rare cancer initiating cells – also known as cancer stem cells – that are responsible for tumour growth and spread
  • Better understanding is essential to the development of new and more effective anti-cancer therapies

The Research Solution

  • Ontario is a hot bed for cancer stem cell research. In fact, the cancer stem cells involved in leukemia, colon and brain tumours, were discovered right here in this province
  • New tools and technologies are being developed that can quickly scan cells and identify the start of diseases, helping with early disease diagnoses. These tools also allow for quick tissue sample analysis, enabling better monitoring of the treatment to assess whether it’s working and allow changes along the way
  • Ontarian researchers also received significant funding in 2009 through joint projects with researchers in California to look at the development of new drugs to treat leukemia and cancer-initiating cells in solid tumour cancers

Successes to date and potential impact

  • Research has led to the development of a new technique to grow cancer stem cells in the lab, facilitating international research in this area
  • Researchers working in this area identified a population of colon cancer stem cells, improving understanding of the disease and helping to better research ways to treat, or even prevent it
  • A new mouse model was developed for leukemia that can be used to identify human leukemia stem cells and study how these cells change as the disease progresses
  • More effective therapies as a result of better understanding and research would improve outcomes for the 174,000 Canadians diagnosed annually with cancer and help reduce the 76,000 deaths that occur annually

Integrated GE3LS Research: Attitudes of Adults and Adolescents to Predictive Genetic Testing for Diabetes

Investigating genome-environment interactions in diabetes

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Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which the pancreas does not produce insulin, resulting in glucose accumulation in the blood instead of being used for energy.

The Challenge

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is a complex disease often arising in childhood in which the immune system destroys the insulin producing cells of the pancreas. Insulin is a crucial hormone in sugar and fat metabolism. Despite insulin therapy, T1D greatly increases the probability of heart attack, stroke, blindness and limb amputation, as well as shortened life expectancy.

  • Canada has the third largest incidence of T1D in the world, affecting some 200,000 Canadians, including 45,000 – 90,000 Ontarians
  • Ontario spends $5 billion a year on diabetes and associated conditions

The Research Solution

T1D is caused by multiple genetic risk factors and currently unknown environmental factors. Now an innovative research project is investigating the interactions of genetic risks and environmental factors underlying T1D.

Dr. Jayne Danska, Senior Scientist at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Andrew Macpherson, Canada Research Chair in mucosal immunology at McMaster University, are involved in a project that aims to understand how genetics can be used to control T1D in humans and rodent models. They will also study how exposure to common intestinal bacteria affects the development of the immune system and how such exposures affect the probability that people at genetic risk of T1D will develop the disease.

This project is expected to discover new genetic markers and identify environmental exposures that increase T1D risk, with the long-term aim of reducing disease risks through therapeutic intervention.

Successes to date

Several genes involved in diabetes have been discovered in tests carried out with mice. These tests have identified potential ways to help improve the immune systems in people with diabetes

The tests with mice has led to the building of a unique germ-free mouse facility in Toronto – one of only two in North America – that enables genomic analysis of animals with specific bacterial exposures under controlled conditions. This facility with its state-of-the-art technology will speed up research into diabetes and help discoveries be made quicker

This research is making great leaps towards reaching the ultimate goal of understanding how T1D is affected by environmental conditions, and armed with this understanding, researchers will be able to predict the body’s immune systems reaction to various treatments and environments, and even manipulate environmental factors to block or stop the development of the condition.

Associated Integrated GE3LS Research Project: Attitudes of Adults and Adolescents to Predictive Genetic Testing for Diabetes