April 2014

Inside this issue….

Editorial

01

www.uhntrainees.ca

For information on UHN training courses, scholarships, seminars

happening around the city and so much more, visit

www.uhntrainees.ca.

Office of Research Trainees

ORT Conference Reports

Opportunities

The ORT Times A monthly newsletter featuring UHN Trainees

Editorial

Passive diffusion of science

Written by Shaalee Dworski

During our training we get so focused on our specific niche that it’s easy to lose track of what’s going on in the general world of science. As students, researchers and scientists, we serve as scientific ambassadors, charged with the duty of keeping the public informed. You’ve probably had friends, family, or even strangers ask you random science questions about a science-related story they heard about on the news. With our busy lives it can be hard to stay up-to-date with changes within the field at large, so here are two easy ways to stay informed and passively absorb science. Podcasts In 20 to 60 minutes, podcasts deliver the juiciest part of a topic in an easy to digest manner. Well-made podcasts can be thought provoking and are ideal for helping the time pass while carrying out repetitive tasks, such as aliquoting or setting up PCR reactions. They’re also a welcome alternative to music while in transit or at the gym. Radiolab is by far my favourite. The show pairs Robert Krulwich, an award-winning reporter for ABC, CBS and NPR with Jad Abumrad, a music composer, to create well-researched pieces that present the topic from several, often contradictory angles. NPR has many other science podcasts, but this one really stands out for the quality of its sound and story editing. The BBC has a plethora of science podcasts, ranging from the historical (Elements, In Our Time: Science) to the current (Science In Action). The Infinite Monkey Cage provides a light-hearted take on the field by allowing scientists and comedians to discuss current events in front of a live audience.

03

04

Click here to access past issues from our archive.

Latest and greatest

05

Cont’d, see PAGE 02

Alumnus career profile

07

Cont’d from PAGE 01 Social Media Twitter is great for keeping up with the latest news, whether it be from media giants (WIRED, NASA) or personal accounts (Virginia Hughes). There are even users who will live-tweet conferences, as I found out when my talk was live tweeted by Sean Ekins. For a more visually stimulating approach, take a look at I F*ing Love Science (more politely abbreviated IFLS) on Facebook. Elise Andrew brings the latest and greatest science to the public with eye-catching photos that link to detailed summaries complete with references. Her page has become so successful that it has just been picked up as a TV show! What are your favourite science-related podcasts or social media pages? Email me and we may include it in the next issue of the ORT Times!

We are happy to announce that Priscilla DeLuca is back from maternity leave and will be resuming her position as the coordinator of the ORT. She thoroughly enjoyed her time off but is excited to be back. “I’m eager to connect with the trainees again and bring new ideas to the ORT! A big thank you goes to the Interim Coordinators, Carrie-Lynn Keiski and Nimerta Rajwans for doing a wonderful job operating the ORT this past year! Please visit me in our new office located at MaRS/TMDT, 13th Floor, Rm 701. Or send me a line at ort.admin@uhnresearch.ca!”

Office of Research Trainees 02

Welcome Back Priscilla!

Office of Research Trainees 03

The following are UHN research training opportunities in two new computational biology laboratories at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre:

Postdoctoral fellowships in cancer computational biology

The Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics Laboratory at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) seeks postdoctoral fel-lows to work on research projects in computational genomics and machine learning.

The research performed in the Haibe-Kains Laboratory focuses on the integration of high-throughput data from various sources to simultaneously analyze multiple facets of diseases, with a particular emphasis on cancer. Dr. Haibe-Kains and his team are using publicly available genomic datasets and data generated through his collaboration to better understand the biology underlying diseases and to develop new predictive models in order to significantly improve disease management. Dr. Haibe-Kains' main contributions include several prognostic gene signatures in breast cancer, subtype classification models for ovarian and breast cancers, as well as genomic predictors of drug response in cancer cell lines. For details, click here.

Postdoctoral fellowships in cancer computational genomics and machine learning.

Michael Hoffman's lab at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, seeks postdoctoral fellows to work on research projects in computational genomics and machine learning.

Dr. Hoffman’s research program focuses on machine learning in genomics and epigenomics. He developed Segway, a software package that integrates results from multiple functional genomics experiments, allowing scientists to more easily interpret genome structure and function and generate new hypotheses. For details, click here.

UHN Research Training OpportunityUHN Research Training OpportunityUHN Research Training Opportunity

Dr. Benjamin Haibe-Kains

Dr. Michael Hoffman

Conference ReportsConference ReportsConference Reports

Trainee: Andrew Weatherbee, M.Sc. candidate Supervisor: Dr. Alex Vitkin, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Conference: SPIE Photonics, February 1-6th, 2014, San Francisco, CA Abstract Title: Temporal analysis of optical coherence tomography to measure glucose levels in blood Click here to read Andrew’s conference report

Office of Research Trainees 04

Trainee: Dr. Lihi Eder, Post-doctoral fellow Supervisor: Dr. Dafna Gladman, TWRI

Conference: The Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA) Annual Meeting, Feb 26-March 1, 2014, Whistler, BC. Abstract Title: Increased burden of inflammation over time is associated with the extent of atherosclerotic plaques in patients with psoriatic arthritis

Click here to read Lihi’s conference report

Trainee: Mark Tatangelo, M.Sc. candidate Supervisor: Dr. Claire Bombardier, TGRI Conference: The Canadian Rheumatology Association (CRA) Annual Meeting, Feb 26-March 1, 2014, Whistler, BC Abstract Title 1: Mapping the health assessment questionnaire on a prefer-ence based utility measure in a large canadian rheumatoid arthritis cohort Abstract Title 2: Economic evaluation using observational data: a scoping review

Click here to read Mark’s conference report

Latest and Greatest Trainee Publications Latest and Greatest Trainee Publications Latest and Greatest Trainee Publications

Ines Lohse’s recent paper in Cancers suggest stromal hypoxia might play an important

role in regulating the metastatic potential of pancreatic tumors

Reference: Ines Lohse et al. Assessment of hypoxia in the stroma of patient-derived pancreatic tumor xenografts. Cancers (Basel). 2014 Feb 26;6 (1):459-71. doi: 10.3390/cancers6010459. Summary written by Dr. Stuart Faulkner

Office of Research Trainees 05

Cont’d, see PAGE 06

Representative staining for tumor hypoxia as indicated by the hypoxia marker EF5 of the patient-derived pancreatic xenograft model OCIP51.

Representative section of double immunofluorescent staining for tumor cell proliferation as indicated by Ki67 staining (green) and tumor hypoxia as indicated by the hypoxia marker EF5 (red) of patient-derived pancreatic OCIP51. No proliferation in the hypoxic microenvironment.xenograft.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most destructive solid tumours and one of the hardest to treat. A characteristic feature of pancreatic cancer is the growth of dense fibrous tissue (stroma) within the tumour - this unusually dense stroma is believed to play an important role in the high lethality of this type of cancer. The microenvironment within solid tumours is defined by poor vasculature and low oxygen supply (hypoxia) which has long been associated with resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. More recently however, it has been recognised that hypoxia may also contribute to rapid tumour growth and secondary tumour formation (metastasis). Dr. Ines Lohse and colleagues (Cancers Feb 2014) set out to understand the relationship between hypoxia and tumour aggressiveness. The authors utilized immune deficient mice that were implanted with diagnostic tissue (xenografts) taken from human pancreatic tumours. The resulting nine mouse pancreatic tumour xenograft models were assessed for the level of tumour hypoxia using the hypoxia marker EF5, and blood vessel density. The magnitude of hypoxia in the tumour and stroma regions separately showed a range of hypoxia levels similar to human tumours. Importantly, levels of hypoxia in the tumour generally correlated well with rapid growth and high metastatic potential. Tantalizingly this was not the case in models where low levels of stromal hypoxia reduced metastatic potential despite high levels of tumor hypoxia. Additionally, blood vessel density was not found to be predictive for tumour hypoxia. Unmasking the complex interplay between the tumour and stromal microenvironment and metastatic potential is paramount to directing new research directions in oncology. As scientists are able to stratify pancreatic cancer patients more accurately based on subtle tumour morphology and microenvironment, those small differences have the potential to impact the success of future treatments.

Latest and Greatest Trainee Publications Latest and Greatest Trainee Publications Latest and Greatest Trainee Publications

Cont’d from PAGE 05

Questions for the author: 1. What is the importance of the relationship of stromal hypoxia and metastatic potential? What other aspects still need to be investigated? While the impact of hypoxia on tumor cells has been established by a number of different studies, surprisingly little work has been done to describe the potential effects of hypoxia on the tumor stroma. Our observations suggest that stromal hypoxia might play an important role in regulating the metastatic potential of pancreatic tumors. However, further investigations are necessary to elucidate the molecular pathways underlying the tumor-stroma interactions within the hypoxic microenvironment that are essential for the increased metastatic potential of hypoxic tumors. 2. How could your work guide new clinical treatments for pancreatic cancer? Understanding the impact of hypoxic stroma on tumor aggressiveness will benefit patients in multiple ways. Understanding the importance of hypoxic stroma on the tumor phenotype might allow us to develop a stromal signature that can be used to stratify pancreatic cancer patients for already existing treatments and predict patient outcome. Further investigation of hypoxia-dependent interactions between tumor cells and the surrounding stroma may elucidate a number of therapeutic targets that can be used for the development of novel therapies. Our lab has an ongoing clinical trial, in which pancreatic cancer patients undergoing surgery are given the hypoxia tracer pimonidazole, which enables us to assess hypoxia in the stroma of the actual patient sample. On completion, this study is powered to assess the effects of hypoxia on patient outcome. 3. What is the most challenging part of your work? The patient-derived xenograft models provide a unique opportunity for the investigation of the tumor microenvironment and its impact on the tumor phenotype in a clinically relevant model and also represent the biggest challenge. Similar to the patient tumors, these models are significantly different from each other and make it difficult to find and analyze common features. This uniqueness, however, allows us to identify specific differences that impact the tumor phenotype. These observations guide new hypotheses and the development of novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of pancreatic cancers. 4. What motivates you to continue your research in oncology? The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre fosters a scientific environment that allows a close interaction between preclinical and clinical research. This close interaction between different disciplines and the prospect of participating in translational studies that will benefit cancer patients not in the long run but in the near future has always motivated me to continue and improve my research. I strongly believe that understanding the influence of the hypoxic tumor microenvironment on tumor aggressiveness will help to elucidate novel molecular or microenvironment targets for future cancer therapies. This is especially important in pancreatic cancer where novel therapeutic approaches are desperately needed to improve the survival of patients suffering from this fatal disease.

Office of Research Trainees 06

Alumnus Career ProfileAlumnus Career ProfileAlumnus Career Profile

Karlee Sivler ,PhD

Vice President of Targeted Challenges Grand Challenges Canada

Working at Mitacs helps to transform Canadian innova-tion one person at a time says Dr. David Kideckel.

What is your official title? Director, Business Development What did you study in university and where did you study? I was born and raised in Winnipeg and completed my BA and BSc degrees at The University of Winnipeg. I subsequently received an MSc from McMaster University with the Albert Einstein/Irving Zucker Chair in neuroscience, Dr. Sandra Witelson. This was followed by a PhD at the University of Toronto’s (U of T) Institute of Medical Science. My PhD was in neuroimaging and fMRI, all completed through U of T and University Health Network (Toronto Western Hospital). I am now pursuing my MBA at the Rotman School of Management, majoring in innovation and entrepreneurship under the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Science to Business program. What does the Director of Business Development do? As Mitacs Business Development Director, I play a key leadership role in linking business, government and industry with Canada’s leading universities to develop cutting-edge tools to support the growth of Canada’s knowledge-based economy. Mitacs programs enable interns to work on the commercialization of new products, technologies and services, while enhancing new business processes and competitiveness. Click here to read more about David Kideckel

Office of Research Trainees 07

David Kideckel, PhD Director, Business Development

Mitacs

U P C O M I N G E V E N T S & F U N D I N G C A L E N DA R :

05/01 James Lepock Symposium 2014

Abstract Deadline. Click here for details.

05/06 The Arthritis Society PhD Salary

Award Application Deadline: May 6, 2014

Click here for details.

05/06 The Arthritis Society Postdoctoral

Fellowship Award Application Deadline: May 6, 2014

Click here for details.

05/14 TWRI Research Day 2014

Join us to learn about the exciting research trainees are conducting at TWRI. Dr. Olaf

Sporns will be delivering the keynote lecture. For more information, click here

05/5-15 Educational Development

Creating Connections for Teaching and Learning across UHN

Click here for more details 06/04 CPDB Annual Scientific Meeting

2013 The Collaborative Program in Developmental Biology will be holding their annual research

retreat at Old Mill Inn. All those interested in developmental biology are welcome. For more

information, click here

06/06 TWRI Postdoctoral Fellowship

Award Click here for application package

Office of Research Trainees 08

Seven Lives Tacos Y Mariscos 69 Kensington Ave (416) 666-6666

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Seven Lives Tacos Y Mariscos is a hidden gem in the heart of Kensington Market. After hearing rave reviews about this taco joint, a summer visit to Kensington was very eagerly planned! With ba-by in tow, I was soon charging my way through the crowded streets to get a taste of these Mexican flavor favorites! I was warned about the long lineups, but the wait was worth it. The menu is outstanding and my order of Baja Fish and Carnitas tacos didn’t disappoint! They are the perfect tacos! My trips to Mexico this year didn’t even compare to the exceptional taste of these tacos. The price point is very affordable. Price point: $4-5 Enjoy! Review by Priscilla DeLuca

“Piled Higher and Deeper” by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com

QUESTIONS? Please contact: ORT Coordinator

University Health Network ort.admin@uhnres.utoronto.ca

t. 416-634-8775