Translational Research on Breast & Head & Neck Cancer
Our lab is focussed on several different aspects of translational molecular oncology, ranging from high-throughput screens to identify novel anti-cancer therapeutics, to developing predictive gene sets for human breast and head/neck cancers, to cancer stem cell investigations. Using robotic high-throughput screens, we have identified novel anti-cancer activities of existing antimicrobials. We are now pursuing the identification of novel radiosensitizers to enhance the anti-cancer properties of ionizing radiation. Using diagnostic human cancer samples, and extracting RNA, we are in the process of conducting global expression analysis of micro-RNA, a novel genetic species, which appears to be a powerful modulator of gene and protein expression in biological systems. Preliminary data are very promising, and in addition to identifying predictive signatures for improving cancer patient management, we are also studying their biological function in preclinical models of human cancers. Finally, we are also interested in understanding how hematopoietic stem cells traffic in response to ionizing radiation, in order to better understand how local radiation therapy contributes to secondary acute myeloid leukemia, a fatal iatrogenic complication in cancer patients.
For further information, please visit our laboratory website at http://www.uhnres.utoronto.ca/liu/
Graduate Students:
- Jeffrey Bruce
- Christine How
- Emma Ito
- Michelle Lenarduzzi
- Keira Pereira (co-supervised)
- Lusia Sepiashvili (co-supervised)
- Ronald Wu
Selected References:
Link to Pubmed Publications-
Yip KW, Mao X, Au PYB, Hedley DW, Chow S, Dalili, Mocanu JD, Bastianutto C, Schimmer A, Liu F-F: Benzethonium chloride: A novel anticancer agent identified utilizing a cell-based small molecule screen. Cl Cancer Res 12:5557-5569, 2006
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Bachtiary B, Boutros PC, Pintilie M, Shi W, Bastianutto C, Li J-H, Schwock J, Zhang W, Penn LZ, Jurisica I, Fyles A, Liu F-F. Gene expression profiling in cervical cancer – An exploration of intratumour heterogeneity. Cl Cancer Res 12:5632-5640, 2006
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Shi W, Bastianutto C, Li A, Perez-Ordonez B, Ng R, Chow K-Y, Zhang W, Jurisica I, Bayley A, Kim J, O’Sullivan B, Siu L, Chen E, Liu F-F. Multiple dysregulated pathways in nasopharyngeal carcinoma revealed by gene expression profiling. Int J Cancer 119:2467-2475, 2006
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Bastianutto C, Mian A, Symes J, Mocanu J, Alajez N, Sleep G, Shi W, Keating A, Crump M, Gospodarowicz M, Medin J Minden M, Liu F-F: Local radiotherapy induces homing of hematopoietic stem cells to the irradiated bone marrow. Cancer Res 67:10112, 2007
