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OICR funds five innovative cancer drug discovery projects

The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) has announced its support for five Ontario research teams working to develop the next generation of medicines that kill tumours more effectively, cause fewer side effects and reduce the risk that cancer will com

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The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) has announced its support for five Ontario research teams working to develop the next generation of medicines that kill tumours more effectively, cause fewer side effects and reduce the risk that cancer will come back.

The projects will be funded as part of OICR's Cancer Therapeutics Innovation Pipeline (CTIP) awards, which provides research teams with up to $300,000 over two years to help advance promising drug discovery research so that new cancer drugs can more quickly and safely reach patients.

Ontario has become a global leader in developing a new generation of cancer drugs, and OICR is proud to help made-in-Ontario innovations reach their full potential. These five projects are on the cutting edge of cancer drug discovery and are well-positioned to make a major difference in the lives of cancer patients." Dr. Lincoln Stein, Acting Scientific Director of OICR

CTIP applications are reviewed by a committee of experts from academia and industry, who also provide scientific and strategic advice to the funded research teams.

The five new CTIP research teams span the province from Thunder Bay to Toronto. They are taking innovative approaches to treating cancer by harnessing new insights about cancer biology to help stop cancer from spreading, reduce unwanted side effects and overcome treatment resistance.

This year's CTIP recipients include:

  • Dr. Jinqiang Hou (Lakehead University, Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute (TBRHRI)) and Dr. Guillem Dayer (TBRHRI) who will explore a potential treatment for cervical cancer, the world's third most common cancer among women aged 20-39. By targeting a protein found only in cervical cancer cells, they will develop a drug to find and kill cancer cells, with limited damage to surrounding healthy tissue. "Our hybrid molecule, acting like a guided missile that targets only cancer cells, could provide a new tool to destroy cancer while minimizing side effects for the patient." – Dr. Jinqiang Hou, Associate Professor (Chemistry), Lakehead University, Scientist, TBRHRI
  • Dr. Iacovos Michael (Sunnybrook Research Institute) and Dr. Masoud Vedadi (OICR) who will investigate ways to overcome cancer metastasis and resistance to treatment, the two main reasons patients ultimately die of cancer. With CTIP funding, they will build on recent discoveries about a protein that plays a key role in metastasis and resistance for multiple types of cancer, further study its role in cancer development, and explore ways to impede its function. "Understanding how this protein works will allow us to develop drugs that hinder its function, with the ultimate goal of improving the survival and quality of life of patients affected by cancer." – Dr. Iacovos Michael, Scientist (Biological Sciences), Sunnybrook Research Institute
  • Dr. Valentina Evdokimova (OICR) and Dr. Laszlo Radvanyi (University of Toronto) who will harness the "dark matter" of the human genome to identify endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) which could be targeted to prevent cancer progression and immunosuppression. Their team's goal is to develop a validated drug screening platform that can help unlock the potential of ERV targeting in cancer drug discovery and to use that platform for testing potential therapeutic candidates. "Though human endogenous retroelements were considered disabled and functionally inept for decades, we are now showing that they are highly expressed in cancerous cells and may hold exciting potential for therapeutics to stop the development of cancer or prevent it altogether." – Dr. Valentina Evdokimova, Research Scientist, OICR
  • Dr. Anthony Rullo (McMaster University), Dr. David Uehling (OICR) and Dr. Methvin Isaac (OICR) who will test a potential breast cancer therapy that activates the body's immune system to kill a tumour. Researchers have developed a chemical synthetic "covalent" antibody mimic that binds to immune cells on one side and tumour cells on the other side, acting as a "bridge" that allows the immune system to attack cancer, while causing fewer side effects than chemotherapy. "The results of our study will help advance a new class of synthetic immunotherapies with the potential to stop cancer, reduce relapse rates, and help Canadian breast cancer patients who lack other treatment options." – Dr. Anthony Rullo, Associate Professor (Medicine), McMaster University.
  • Dr. Rima Al-awar, Dr. Richard Marcellus and Dr. Masoud Vedadi (OICR) who will explore chemical compounds to slow down the uncontrollable growth of cancer cells by inhibiting the function of a protein called KRAS. While the body often develops resistance to other KRAS inhibitors, Al-awar and colleagues will test a different kind of compound less likely to cause resistance, aiming to find the basis for new cancer treatments. "This approach could offer a new tool against multiple cancers to effectively overcome resistance and give patients a better chance of survival." – Dr. Rima Al-awar, Senior Advisor (Drug Discovery), OICR.

These exciting studies join the growing portfolio of projects enabled by OICR's Therapeutic Innovation Research Theme. OICR hosts one of the largest drug discovery programs of its kind in Canada and supports drug discovery projects at other institutions across the province.

"Ontario is proud to be globally recognized as a leader in cancer treatment, a disease where early intervention is critical," said Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security. "Our government's support of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and its Cancer Therapeutics Innovation Pipeline will ensure Ontario researchers continue to make ground-breaking discoveries so residents afflicted by cancer can receive the cutting-edge treatment they need to live longer, healthier lives."

CTIP is currently inviting applications for Early Validation, Early Accelerator and Late Accelerator projects.

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The tools we are building and applying at ApconiX are currently internal-facing, supporting our scientists and collaborators in delivering thoroughly researched, evidence-based, and authoritative toxicology information in a timely manner. Even though I did not directly interact with ApconiX while I was at Redx, my experience in biopharma strongly shapes how I think about usability. At ApconiX, we constantly consider how others will interpret and use the data and insights we generate. For example, our early SAR work around seizure liability has identified preliminary relationships between chemical substructural patterns and seizure risk. Although this work is in its infancy, these are the kinds of insights that discovery chemists could interpret directly and apply from day one to help mitigate risk. For target safety assessments, the ApconiX data science team have collated a large data sets including our Acuity expression atlas for expression data, enabling our data scientists and bioinformaticians to generate highly informative, data-driven insights and visualizations. By leveraging AI tools, such as LLM workflows and agents, we can efficiently support consistent and thorough analyses, making safety information more accessible and actionable.

Source: www.news-medical.net ↗
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I want us to disrupt the drug discovery and development process and to look at each place on the drug discovery and development pipeline, so that we can be much better at getting the right target, much quicker at getting the right compound and much more confident that those compounds have the right characteristics which mean they will be safe and well tolerated. Then we can go to the right patient population with the right dose, so we would have a much leaner, more successful process and be able to demonstrate the value of our AI technology.

Source: www.news-medical.net ↗
03What are carbs?

Your weight loss plan should keep you healthy and strong as you lose the extra weight. Many plans include a diet low in carbohydrates. Carb cycling is a method of optimizing your carbohydrate intake to meet your needs while dieting, fasting, and working out. When you're carb cycling, you consume carbs to meet your needs on some days and avoid them on other days. The aim of carb cycling is to consume carbohydrates when your body needs them and exclude them at other times. Such strategies in your diet plan can help your weight loss efforts. Carbohydrates, or carbs, are a significant part of the average human diet. Along with proteins and fats, they make up the bulk of your daily meals. Most carbohydrates are broken down by your body into glucose to provide energy for your cells and tissues. Carbohydrates in your diet are of three types — sugars, starches, and fiber. Sugars are simple carbs. Glucose, sugar (sucrose), lactose found in milk, and fructose found in fruits, are naturally occurring sugars. Your body metabolizes these molecules rapidly to yield energy. Starches are complex carbs. They're large molecules that consist of hundreds of molecules of simple sugars joined together. Your body needs to break them down to release energy. Starches are found in bread, potatoes, peas, corn, cereals, and pasta. Fiber is also a complex carbohydrate. Human bodies can't break down these large molecules, so they provide no energy. They're usually excreted as they are in the feces. They add bulk to your meal, so you feel full. Fiber in the diet helps avoid constipation and lowers blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Carbohydrates are an essential part of your diet. A typical diet provides 45% to 65% of its calories from carbohydrates. If you have 2,000 calories a day, you should have about 275 grams of carbohydrates. Always try to choose healthy foods for your carb intake:

Source: www.medicinenet.com ↗
04How will this discovery change cancer science?

This is a win for the field. Until now, we have been focused on immune therapies that might make tumors more vulnerable to the body's immune system, and on finding new chemotherapy combinations that kill cancer cells. This new treatment has given us a new focus, and I think it will spur a lot of scientific discovery over the next few years. There have only been a handful of KRAS researchers and their relevance to therapy was always questioned. That is about to change. The most important next step for the field is to better understand the biology of cancer. We know that many pancreatic tumors will eventually become resistant to daraxonrasib, and we need to understand how this happens. We also need to identify additional genetic pathways and treatments that can target them. That's how we will turn pancreas cancer from a deadly, deadly cancer into something we can manage-and one day, even cure.

Source: www.news-medical.net ↗
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Biologically, vitamins are absorbed within hours and have instant metabolic effects, such as antioxidants that protect cells or compounds that are building blocks for making hormones. But, many factors impact their efficiency and could keep your body from fully absorbing them. Absorption and effects depend on each individual and what combination of vitamins they take. Gender, age, digestive health, medical conditions, and diet all play a role. One helpful practice to detect deficiencies is to look for the symptoms deficiencies create. Then, look for improvement in your symptoms with supplement intake. You are unlikely to see or feel changes if you do not lack nutrients. If you are chronically tired or see signs of unhealthy nails, hair, or skin, supplements may help as these are indicators that you are lacking nutrients in your diet. If you are unsure, your doctor can order tests to check for deficiencies in your blood.

Source: www.medicinenet.com ↗
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