2023

  • LRCP Catalyst Research Grant Competition (Fall 2023)

    November 20, 2023
    Samuel Asfaha MD PhD, $25,000 for "Role of ALOX5+ immune cells in colitis associated cancer". Richard Kim MD, $25,000 for "Organic Anion Transporter SLC22A7 in a Major Determinant of 5-Flourouracil Disposition". Paula Foster PhD, $24,900 for "Development of MPI Lymphography". Matthew Hebb MD PhD, $25,000 for "Preclinical in vivo evaluation of a novel low energy electrotherapy for glioblastoma". Mansour Haeryfar PhD, $25,000 for "MR1-restricted T cells in ovarian cancer". Linda Dagnino PhD, $25,000 for "Mechanical signalling in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma". John Di Guglielmo PhD, $25,000 for "Assessing TGFβ pathway specificity in PDAC organoid EMT". Fred Dick PhD, $25,000 for "Targeting epithelial to mesenchymal transition in ovarian cancer". Eugene Wong PhD, $25,000 for "The role of Cancer Associated Fibroblasts in Pancreatic Cancer Radiation Resistance". Donna Murrell PhD, $19,655 for "Design, development, and evaluation of a training simulator for gynecological brachytherapy". Saman Maleki PhD, $25,000 for "The effect of mismatch repair deficiency in tumours on dendritic cell activation and function".

  • Welcome New Members

    November 02, 2023
    Welcome John Di Guglielmo PhD and Brant Inman MD to the Centre for Translational Cancer Research.

  • Clinician Research receives Dr. Joseph Gilbert Research Contribution of the Year Award

    November 01, 2023
    David Palma MD PhD received the Dr. Joseph Gilbert Research Contribution of the Year Award for his research on "Stereotactic radiotherapy versus standard of care palliative treatment in patients with oligometastatic cancers (SABR-COMET): a randomised, phase 2, open-label trial".

  • BCC Translational Research Unit Marks a Milestone

    October 30, 2023
    Breast Cancer Canada Translational Research Unit recently marked its 25th anniversary. Congratulations to Alison Allan, PhD and the team as the unit continues to provide world-class research and leads the way in translational research to benefit patients as well as provide training to the next generation of translational researchers.

  • Western Strategic Support for CIHR Success Grant (Fall 2023)

    October 08, 2023
    Accelerator Program Fred Dick PhD, $50,000 for "Targeting survival signals in ovarian cancer cell dormancy". Paula Foster PhD, $49,000 for "Imaging the effects of microgravity on immunity and cancer progression". Eva Turley PhD, $49,886 for "Microenvironment factors supporting cancer heterogeneity and mutant clonal expression". Seed Program Wei-ping Min PhD, $25,000 for "Induction of T cell exhaustion and immune tolerance in heart transplantation by iRsL-associated miRNA".

  • Myeloma Canada

    October 07, 2023
    Lisa Porter PhD, "Establishing a Multiple Myeloma Drug Screening Platform to Predict Patient Response to Therapy".

  • Canada Research Society (2023 Spring Competition)

    October 06, 2023
    Samuel Asfaha MD PhD, $125,000 for 2 years for "Role of the antiviral immune response in colitis-associated cancer." Vanessa Dumeau PhD, $125,000 for 2 years for "High resolution mapping of cancer immunity to predict response to therapy in HER-2 positive breast cancer patients". Jim Petrik PhD, $125,000 for 2 years for "Novel strategy to optimize the success of immunotherapy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma".

  • CIHR Catalyst Grant: SPOR Innovative Clinical Trials (iCT)

    October 05, 2023
    Caroline Hamm MD, $198,825 for "Enhancing The Patient Journey to Clinical Trial Enrolment with Navigation to Optimize Accrual: A Pilot Study for a pragmatic multi-centre, stepped wedge, cluster randomized controlled trial (The CTN Pilot Trial)".

  • Arthritis Society Canada - 2023 Ignite Research Grant

    October 02, 2023
    Pingzhao Hu PhD, $100,000 for "Developing an artificial intelligence-based online tool for automatic joint detection and scoring of radiographic joint damage among patients with Rheumatoid arthritis using continual learning".

  • Radiation Oncologist named CARO President-Elect

    October 01, 2023
    George Rodrigues MD PhD, has been named President-Elect for the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncologist (CARO). Rodrigues will hold the position of President-Elect from 2023-2025 then President 2025-2027 and Past President 2027-2029. This is the first time someone from London has held this executive position.

  • Medical Oncologist named CAMO President-Elect

    October 01, 2023
    Stephen Welch MD, has been named President Elect for the Canadian Association of Medical Oncologist (CAMO). Welch will hold the position of President-Elect from 2023-2025 then President 2025-2027 and Past President 2027-2029. This is the first time someone from London has held this executive position.

  • Clinician Receives Physician Safety Champion Award

    October 01, 2023
    Uday Deotare MD receives 2023 LHSC's Patient Safety Champion Physician Award for his "Choosing Wisely: Reducing Bloodwork" project.

  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

    September 18, 2023
    Shawn Li PhD, $52,000 for 5 years for "Systematic identification and characterization of protein lysine methylation." Joe Mymryk PhD, $45,000 for 5 years for "A novel protein nuclear import-based methodology for the discovery of protein-protein interactions mediated by short linear motifs. Timothy Scholl PhD, $46,000 for 5 years for "Increasing the Sensivitity of Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Reporter Genes." Brian Shilton PhD, $128,886 for "Preparative Ultracentrifige and Rotors for Western BioCore Facility.

  • Fellow of the World Molecular Imaging Society Named

    September 05, 2023
    Paula Foster PhD named a Fellow of the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) at the annual meeting in Prague.

  • WE-Spark Igniting Discovery and Incentive Grants (2023)

    September 02, 2023
    Caroline Hamm MD $10,000 for "Expansion of the clinical trials (CTN) program with staged introduction of the navigator program to demonstrate benefit to availabilty of the CTN program."

  • Schulich's Collaborative Research Seed Grant (CRSG) Program

    September 01, 2023
    Qi Zhang MBBS PhD and Shawn Li PhD, for "Spatial Proteogenomic landscape of breast cancer brain metastasis." Vanessa Dumeaux PhD, Muriel Brackstone MD PhD, and Armen Parsyan MD, PhD, DSc, MPH, for "Tumor and systemic immune markers to measure breast cancer response to therapy."

  • Canada Research Chair Named

    August 29, 2023
    Pingzhao Hu PhD, Departments of Biochemistry, Computer Science, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Oncology named CIHR Tier 2 Research Chair Canada in Computational Approach in Health Research. Hu is developing and applying robust AI and statistical analytical techniques to integrate multimodal health data related to patients’ genes, medical history, environment and lifestyle in a fast and cost-efficient manner

  • CIHR Project Grant Competition

    July 21, 2023
    Pingzhao Hu PhD and Samual Asfaha MD PhD $830,023 for 5 years for "A deep-learning approach to identify inhibitors of adherent invasive Escherichia coli in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease." Aaron Ward PhD, Stephen Paulter MD and Glenn Bauman MD $592,876 for 5 years for "Histopathology image analysis for prostate cancer prognosis after radical prostatectomy." Kun Ping Lu PhD, Xiao Zhen Zhou PhD, and Douglas Fraser MD PhD $100,000 for 1 year for "Identification of Novel Disease Drivers, Therapeutic Targets, and Biomarkers of Sepsis."

  • Lawson Health Research Institute Competition Results

    July 01, 2023
    Daniel Breadner MD $19,800 for 2 years for "Detection of Circulating Tumor DNA after Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy in Patients with Unbiopsied Lung Tumors (SABR-DETECT). Danilo Giffoni MD $18,763 for 2 years for "The Impact of Healthcare Disparities Among Local Health Integraton Networks (LHINs) and Cancer Centres in Ontario, Canada - Real World Data Evidence." Qi Zhang MBBS PhD $20,000 for 2 years for "Mapping the synaptic cues of altered neuronal circuit formation in perinatal hypoxia."

  • 2023 Academic and Teaching Award Presented

    June 10, 2023
    The 2023 Academic and Teaching Awards were presented at the 19th Annual Oncology Research & Education Day event. Congratulations to Silvia Penuela, PhD (Experimental Oncology), Lucas Mendez, MD (Radiation Oncology), Jonathan Thiessen, PhD (Medical Biophysics), and Terry Zwiep, MD (Surgical Oncology).

  • Schulich Medicine & Dentistry Awards of Excellence

    May 30, 2023
    Congratulations to Alison Allan, PhD - Preclinical & Translational Research Award; Jeremy Burton, PhD - Mid Career Research and Innovation Award; Richard Kim, MD - Distinguished Leader in Research Award.

  • Canadian Cancer Society Team Breakthrough Grants (Oct. 2022)

    May 16, 2023
    Project lead by Co-Principals Investigators Carolina Ilkow, PhD and Rebecca Auer, MD (OHRI): “Building a national network to drive research discoveries and expand access to immunotherapies for people with biliary tract cancers.“ $7,404,250 over 5 years. Dr. Stephen Welch is one of 25 co-applicants from eighteen institutions working on the project. Team lead by Principal Investigator Steven Gallinger, MD (OICR): “Establishing a comprehensive research strategy to improve pancreatic cancer survival.” $7,500,00 over 5 years. Chris Pin, PhD and John Ronald, PhD are 2 of fourteen co-applicants from twelve different institutions working on the project.

  • Centre Renewed by Western University

    May 15, 2023
    The Centre for Translational Cancer Research underwent an internal review under the Western University Manual of Administrative Policies and Procedures (MAPP) 7.9 and has been successfully renewed for a further 5 years.

  • Faculty Scholar Award

    May 15, 2023
    Len Luyt, PhD. Professor, Department of Chemistry, and Oncology named Western Faculty Scholar. The Faculty Scholars Award recognizes significant recent scholarly achievements in teaching or research. Awardees are considered an overall scholar and will hold the title for two years.

  • Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada

    May 05, 2023
    The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada awarded Rodney DeKoter, PhD an operating grant of $199,534 over 2 years for his project "Function of IKZF3 in precursor B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia."

  • OICR Awards Innovation to Implementation Award

    May 04, 2023
    Anthony Nichols, MD receives $200,000 for 2 years from The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). Dr. Nichols is developing a molecular test to predict how patients with HIV-related head and neck cancers will respond to treatment. The award will be used to confirm the test accuracy and explore how it could be integrated into clinical care.

  • OICR Awards a CTIP Grant

    May 03, 2023
    Fred Dick, PhD was recently awarded a Cancer Therapeutics Innovation Pipeline (CTIP) grant from The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) for investigating 'dormant' cancer cells that elude the usual treatment options. Ovarian cancer cells can survive treatment by entering a period of dormancy and then spreading again once treatment has completed. Dr. Dick has uncovered a process that keeps dormant cells alive and will use OICR support to look for ways to disrupt this survival mechanism.

  • CNETS Grant Awarded

    May 02, 2023
    Sarah Mattonen, PhD receives $40,000 over 2 years from the Canadian Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (CNETS) for her project entitled "Radiomics and Machine Learning for Response Prediction to Lu-DOTATATE in Patients with 68Ga-DOTATATE Somatostatin Receptor Positive Neuroendocrine Tumors."

  • CFI Grant Awarded

    May 01, 2023
    Lisa Porter, PhD and her research team were awarded a Canada Foundation for Innovation Grant (CFI) $75,001 for their project entitled "Virus and Cell Fraction Isolation and Characterization for Biomedical Research."

  • Fairwell

    April 28, 2023
    Peter Ferguson, PhD - CRLP Research Associate and member of the CTCR, retired after 23 years of service. Pete enjoyed an outstanding research career, taught undergraduate and graduate students, served as the Safety Officer, participated on several safety committees, and was involved in several LRCP social and academic activities.

  • Spriet Family Donation

    April 03, 2023
    London Health Sciences Foundation (LHSF) announced a $1M gift from Andy and Helen Spriet to help support Saman Maleki's immuno-oncology research program at the London Regional Cancer Program (LRCP).

  • BSL Progress Report

    March 01, 2023
    LRCP's Biospecimen Lab (BSL) year-two report is now available. The lab, located on the 4th floor of the London Regional Cancer Program is a collaboration between health care providers, scientists, and patients. The lab's services are open to any local oncology investigator.

  • Surgical Oncology Grant Competition (2022)

    February 10, 2023
    Muriel Brackstone, MD $25,000 for "AI counting of TILs in breast cancer." Armen Parsyan, MD $50,000 for Spatial proteomics signature in TN breast cancer."

  • Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation and Ride for Dad

    February 09, 2023
    Lucas Mendez, MD - $40,000 for "Cancer outcomes in patients progressing with biochemical failure post-radical prostatectomy staged with PSMA-PET scan in the Province of Ontario."

  • NSERC Discovery Grants (Fall 2022)

    February 09, 2023
    Shawn Li, PhD $52,000 for 5 year for "Systematic identification and characterization of protein lysine methylation." Joe Mymryk, PhD $45,000 for 5 years for "A novel protein nuclear import-based methodology for the discovery of protein-protein interactions mediated by short linear motifs." Timothy Scholl, PhD $46,000 for 5 years for "Increasing the Sensitivity of Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Reporter Genes."

  • New Frontiers in Research Fund (2022 Transformation)

    February 08, 2023
    François Bénard, MD (UBC) and co-applicant Len Luyt, PhD $23,796,774 for "Rare Isotopes to Transform Cancer Therapy." This application is a true team effort with multiple institutions involved in the project.

  • OICR Cancer Therapeutics Innovation Pipeline

    February 08, 2023
    Fred Dick, PhD $300,00 for 2 year to investigate new therapies to treat ovarian cancer more effectively by targeting ‘dormant’ cancer cells.

  • Innovation Fund Award - 2022 IFPOC

    February 06, 2023
    Naveen Poonai, MD and Michael Rieder, MD for AMO-16-002: Intranasal Ketamine for Procedural Sedation in Children: A Multicentre, Randomized, Controlled, Non-Inferiority Trial.

  • CIHR Team Grant: Translational Research Projects on Rare Diseases

    February 05, 2023
    Bekim Sadikovic, PhD $304,509 over 3 years for "GENOMIT: A multi-omics approach for diagnostics and monitoring of mitochondrial disorders."

  • CIHR Project Grants (Sept 2022 Intake)

    February 04, 2023
    Frank Beier, and Silvia Penuela, PhD $100,000 for "The role of Pannexin 3 in aging-associated osteoarthristis." Dimitros J. Dikeakos, PhD and co-applicants Gregory A. Dekaban, PhD, and Bradley L. Urquhart, PhD $944,775 over 5 years for "Mechanisms of cell surface protein regulation by the HIV-1 accessory proteins Nef and Vpu." David W. Holdsworth, PhD along with co-applicants Aaron Fenster, PhD, and Muriel Brackstone, MD $807,075 over 5 years for "Combined gamma probe and ultrasound imaging system for cancer surgery." Pingzhao Hu, PhD $100,000 for "Artificial Intelligence-empowered approaches towards the development of combination therapies for HER2+/ER+ breast cancer." Anthony C. Nichols, MD $990,675 for 5 years for "Targeted and immuno-therapy to overcome innate and acquired resistance in aggressive MAPK-addicted cancers." Silvia Penuela, PhD and co-applicant, John Ronald, PhD $971,550 over 5 years for "Targeting Pannexin-1- Channels in Glioblastoma Multiforme." Christopher L. Pin, PhD and Parisa Shooshtari, PhD along with co-applicants Kenneth Leslie, MD, and Stephen A. Welch, MD $100,000 for "Tumour cell reprogramming in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma as a means for therapeutic resistance." Lisa Porter, PhD $745,875 over 5 years for "Role of Cyclin-Like Proteins in Regulating the Regenerative Balance in the Liver; Implications in Fatty Liver Disease and Hepatocellular Carcinoma." Eileen Rakovitch, MD (Sunnybrook) and Michael Hallett, PhD $1,981,352 over 4 years for "Validation of a novel biomarker classifier that predicts radiation response following breast-conserving surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)." Caroline Schild-Poulter, PhD and Nathalie G. Bérubé, PhD $100,000 for "Investigating the molecular pathology of WDR26 deficiency."

  • CIHR Internal Research Grants

    February 03, 2023
    Parisa Shooshtari, PhD $30,000 over 2 years for "Deep Learning-Based Supervised Classification of Cell Type Labels from Single Cell RNA-Sequencing Datasets Associated with Childhood Cancer."

  • CTCR Welcomes New Members

    February 02, 2023
    The Centre for Translational Cancer Research (CTCR) welcomed Leandro Carderelli Leitre, MD; Rohann Correa, MD; Danilo Giffoni, MD, and Alexander Timoshenko, PhD to its membership.

  • CERI Welcomes New Affiliate

    February 01, 2023
    The Centre for Education Research & Innovation (CERI) welcomes CTCR member Michael Sanatani, MD as an affiliate. Sanatani recently completed his Master's in Medical Education, and a virtual medical education certificate at Harvard University.

  • CTCR Welcomes New Members

    February 01, 2023
    The Centre for Translational Cancer Research has added Drs. Chris Goodman and Joelle Helou to its ranks. Both are recent hires by the Division of Radiation Oncology.

  • Ting-Yim Lee Chairs Announced

    January 15, 2023
    Drs. Jefferson Frisbee and Narinder Paul have been named the Ting-Yim Lee Chairs. Dr. Frisbee is the Chair, Department of Medical Biophysics, and Dr. Paul is the Chair/Chief of the Department of Medical Imaging. This opportunity was made possible thorough an ongoing philanthoric partnership between Western University, St. Joseph’s Health Care Foundation and Dr. Lee himself. Dr. Lee is a member of the CTCR.

  • Weston Foundation Funding

    January 09, 2023
    Dr. Jeremy Burton $300,000, Western Foundation in collaboration with partners at University of Calgary and University of Alberta, to prepare a White paper on the current state of fermented food in Canada and research priorities going forward for human health in this area.

  • Robert L. Fine Foundation of Canada

    January 08, 2023
    Peter Ferguson, PhD, Jim Koropatnick, PhD, Dr. Mark Vincent $65,000US to continue their project, entitled “Validating the DNA Repair Protein RAD51 as a Feasible Drug Target in the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer."

  • Medical Oncology Research Fund (MORF)

    January 08, 2023
    Dr. Dan Breadner $30,000 for "Detection of Circulating tumor DNA after SABR in Patients with Unbiopsied Lung Tumors (SABR-DETECT)." Dr. Scott Ernst $15,590 for "Prospective exploratory longitudinal analysis of tumor proteomics in patients with metastatic melanoma on immune therapy (PROMISE)." Dr. Maria MacDonald $12,750 for "Neurofibromatosis Clinical and Research Academic Database." Dr. Mark Vincent $29,834 for "Analysis of variables predicting complete pathological response in patients with resectable NSCLC receiving neoadjuvant immunotherapy with chemotherapy - a prospective cohort study."

  • MITACS Business Strategy Internship

    January 07, 2023
    Dr. Caroline Hamm $80,000 in funding to study "CURating Clinical Trials: Helping patients find hope by exploring clinical trials opportunities."

  • Lung Cancer Canada Funding

    January 06, 2023
    Dr. Daniel Breadner was awarded $25,000 from a Geoff Ogram Memorial Research Grant for "Detection of Circulating Tumor DNA after SABR in Patients with Unbiopsied Lung Tumors (SABR-DETECT)."

  • LRCP 2022 Catalyst Grants

    January 05, 2023
    Dr. Anthony Nichols $25,000 for "Definitive biomarker validation using patient samples from large randomized controlled trials." Rodney DeKoter, PhD $25,000 for "Probing the Function of IKZF3 in Multiple Myeloma using Lenalidomide." Dr. Melissa Huynh $22,500 for "Exploring the role of Akkermansia muciniphila in combating the metabolic effects of androgen deprivation therapy in men with metastatic prostate cancer." John Ronald, PhD $25,000 for "Prime-and-kill cell-based cancer immunotherapy." Dr. Matthew Cecchini and Dr. Muriel Brackstone $25,000 for "Next generation digital biomarker assessment in breast cancer." Dr. Jeremy Burton $24,675 for "Analysing the gut microbiome from immunotherapy responder animals with immunomodulatory properties." Dr. Chia W. Phua, Dr. Martha Louzada, and Dr. Matthew Nichols $25,000 for "The impact of the addition of daratumumab to the upfront treatment of transplant-ineligible multiple myeloma patients evaluated through mass spectrometry for both routine monitoring and minimal residual disease detection." Dr. Joy Mangel $25,000 for "Assessment of Sarcopenia as a Measure of Frailty in Older Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma."

  • Lawson Fall 2022 Internal Research Fund Competition

    January 04, 2023
    Eva Turley, PhD awarded $15,000 by Lawson to study "Use of a RHAMM peptide mimetic, NP-110, to reduce fibrosis in a novel rat model of radiation-induced capsular contracture."

  • Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada Awardee

    January 03, 2023
    Silvia Penuela, PhD was awarded $100,000 as the 2022 Feature Grant Recipient, to study "Inhibition of Panx1 as a novel target for glioblastoma multiforme." Lisa Porter, PhD was awarded $25,000 also as the 2022 Feature Grant Recipient, for "Exploring the Role of the Cancer Activated Microenvironment in the Progression of Glioblastoma: Potential Novel Avenues for Therapeutic Interventions."

  • Alliance Grant Funding

    January 02, 2023
    Frank Prato, PhD was awarded $1,139,651 over 3 year from NSERC/Alliance/MITACS competition to study "Hybrid PET/MRI Biomedical Imaging of Bacteria."

  • CRLP Oncology Researcher Retires

    January 02, 2023
    After 25 years of dedicated service, Joe Torchia PhD retired on December 31, 2022. Dr. Torchia, a highly accomplished and respected researcher focused his research on transcriptional control, epigenetics and cancer development. He joined the Cancer Research Laboratory Program in 1997, published in many top-tier journals and trained numerous scientists over his tenure.

  • Renowned Surgeon and Leader Retires

    January 01, 2023
    Dr. Joseph Chin, a renowned surgeon and leader in urologic-oncology retired December 2022. Dr. Chin has championed education, public awareness and fundraising efforts, all in support of vital prostate cancer research. Dr. Chin will be missed.

  • Over $7.55 Million for Genome Research

    May 04, 2025
    Using machine learning, Dr. Bekim Sadikovic has developed EpiSign™, the first technology that uses a patient’s epigenome to diagnose genetic disorders. At its most basic level this means that artificial intelligence is used to detect the pattern of chemical signals, called epigenetics, that turn genes within a person’s DNA on or off. This $7.44 million grant funding from the Government of Canada through Genome Canada will enable the next phase of the project in which EpiSign™ technology will be implemented in labs at academic institutions in 15 countries around the world.