By: Dr. Brad popovich, CSO, Genome British Columbia
TRANSLATIONAL RESEARch
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES: Enabling better diagnosis and treatments for cancer patients
“THE BIG C” Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada: just over two in five Canadians will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime, and one in four Canadians will die from it. Last year alone some 187,600 Canadians were diagnosed with cancer, and there were 75,500 cancer deaths. Canada ranks 12th in the world for cancer frequency. More than half of new cancer cases diagnosed this year will be lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancer. Lung cancer is by far the leading cause of cancer death, leading to more cancer deaths among Canadians than the other three cancers combined. Overall cancer rates are slowly dropping, but the numbers are still frightening. There’s a reason why it’s known as “The Big C”. However there is hope on the horizon. Genomics, already showing promise in other fields of medicine, is now being applied in cancer diagnosis, treatment and care.
Personalized cancer treatment In the not so distant future, the genomes of cancer tumours will routinely be sequenced as part of the clinical evaluation of cancer patients, helping usher in the much-anticipated era of ‘personalized’ treatment. In certain instances of cancer such as hereditary breast cancer, cancer cell sequencing already occurs. Oncologists use this information to tailor treatments that will respond to the unique makeup of the patient’s tumour genes. The technologies driving the genomic breakthroughs of the last 15 years are making genomics a powerful, integral and necessary part of cancer screening and treatment. Canada is helping to lead the way in developing these technologies, with home-grown innovators who are poised to take the world by storm. 12 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS April/May 2014
Necessity is the mother of entrepreneurship In 2002, a technology development platform funded by Genome BC and Genome Canada was created in BC to provide engineering support to the local life sciences research community along with world-class prototyping facilities and resources for advancing innovative biomedical devices towards commercialization. In 2007, with support from Western Economic Diversification Canada, Genome BC secured funding for advanced prototyping facilities and training centres in BC. The funding established new facilities at the UVicGenome BC Proteomics Centre and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. It also launched the Joint Engineering Centre, a stateof-the-art prototyping centre at the BC Cancer Agency. The close proximity of the teams’ engineers and trainees to researchers and clinicians in the local research community is one of the keys of the platform’s success. Through close interaction and networking, researchers have been able to identify ways to solve problems, improve efficiencies and invent new devices. Platform members have created dozens of technologies including devices for high-throughput genome analysis with the BC Cancer Agency’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, the design of devices for radiotherapy and clinical genetics at the BC Cancer Agency, anesthesiology devices for Vancouver General Hospital and work flow improvements for the BC Centre for Disease Control, among many other innovative projects.
Enabling non-invasive cancer monitoring One of the major successes of Genome BC’s Technology Development platform is Boreal Genomics, a spin-off company started in 2007 by co-director and UBC researcher Dr. Andre Marziali and colleagues. In 2004 Dr. Marziali co-invented a patented technol-
