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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA
Triggering the Body’s Immune System to Beat Cancer
GUNNING GROUP LAB DECEMBER 2016 E-NEWS
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Dear friend,
As I write, winter has arrived in Mississauga and the holidays are nearing, but we have an even bigger cause for celebration in the Gunning laboratory.
Earlier this fall, we completed two pre-clinical trials targeting two different types of breast cancer: HER2 and Triple-Negative. About 20 to 30 per cent of breast cancers have too many HER2 receptors, which cause the breast cancer cells to grow and divide faster than normal. Triple-negative breast cancers are even more rare — appearing in less than 20 per cent of cases — and difficult to treat because they tend to be more aggressive and unlikely to respond to hormonal therapies or any of the medications that target HER2.
Our tests on both these cancers in mice were very successful. Remarkably, the tumours didn’t just respond to the drug; they shrank significantly in size!
But it’s the reason why that has us over the moon. Our biology collaborators have confirmed that not only did the drug molecule kill the cancer cells directly, but also it led the immune system to help in the job of ridding the body of cancer.
This is a landmark finding that shows real promise for the treatment of these types of cancer. We are now moving quickly to validate our findings with larger trials and different tumour models.
We’ve also had encouraging results in a second study involving the treatment of psoriasis, a skin condition that is driven almost exclusively through the same STAT protein pathways involved in cancer development. We tested five compounds and all reduced inflammation in mouse models. We’re now applying these same drugs to difficult types of psoriasis and to more mice in the hope of replicating the results.
All of these are promising news on which to wind down 2016. Over the course of this year, we have welcomed many incredible people to our family of donors and friends. We expanded our community outreach both locally and globally, and we launched this e-newsletter for friends like you to stay current on all our advancements. And of course, we announced the creation of the new Centre for Medicinal Chemistry at UTM, made possible by a $7 million gift from Orlando Corporation (read more below). On behalf of the entire Gunning Group, best wishes to you and yours for the holiday season. Thanks to your generous support and encouragement, we have much to look forward to in 2017!
Warmly,
Patrick Gunning, Ph.D.
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Medicinal Chemistry
University of Toronto Mississauga
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FROM THE LAB: INTRODUCING JI SUNG PARK
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Ji Sung Park was in a second-year organic chemistry class at UTM when Professor Patrick Gunning displayed the slide that changed his life.
“It was two images showing a reduction in tumour size resulting from his research,” remembers Ji. “It was mind-blowing. Until that moment, I hadn’t connected chemistry to the ability to improve human lives. It made me think, I really want to do that.”
Ji made medicinal chemistry his goal and, immediately after graduating with his undergraduate biological chemistry degree in 2014, he began a master’s degree in the Gunning Group laboratory. Now a doctoral candidate supported by an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, he recently stumbled upon a drug that has a positive effect on some cancer cells without impacting the body’s healthy systems. His next step is to map the drug’s target and understand why it’s acting this way. Ultimately, Ji hopes to develop a therapeutic agent that changes lives.
“As medicinal chemists, we hit a lot of brick walls, but we’re always pushing ourselves to do more,” he explains. “We work hard with the hope that this just might be the discovery that changes everything.”
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Photo: Noor Hafeez, CSR Director, Business Consulting Association; Arika Macaalay, Co-President, ICCIT Council; Professor Patrick Gunning; and members of the Gunning Group.
Photo: Arika Macaalay, Co-President, ICCIT Council; Professor Patrick Gunning; and Noor Hafeez, CSR Director, Business Consulting Association
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Students for Research
UTM’s student-led Business Consulting Association and the Institute of Culture, Communication & Information Technology Council raised $600 in support of the UTM Gunning Group Fund through a student-organized charity movie night and bake sale in honour of October’s Breast Cancer Awareness month.
“While planning corporate social responsibility events for October, we were researching organizations that work to fight cancer and have made huge breakthroughs in recent years,” explains UTM student Noor Hafeez, corporate social responsibility director of the of the Business Consulting Association. “We were pleased to choose the Gunning Group at UTM!”
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