CANCER RESEARCH
ONTARIO By Frank Stonebanks
ACCELERATING CANCER DISCOVERIES from bench to bedside through partnerships Dr. John Dick, a world-renowned stem cell and cancer stem cell researcher, continues to move the field forward by working towards therapies that enhance the usefulness of stem cell transplantation and therapies that target cancer stem cells. As leader of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) Cancer Stem Cells Program, Dr. Dick is building on Ontario’s tradition of excellence in stem cell research established by Drs. James Till and Ernest McCulloch’s discovery of stem cells in 1960.
Dr. John Dick (photo courtesy of OICR)
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Biotechnology Focus / June 2012
Bone marrow transplants to treat leukemia represent one of the first uses of the stem cell’s ability to differentiate into different cell types. Recently Dr. Dick’s team isolated single hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in their purest form for the first time. Isolating HSCs is a major advancement since they are capable of regenerating the entire blood system. If this were harnessed in the clinic, HSCs could be used to improve the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Dr. Dick’s efforts to identify the next generation of potential therapies that target the cancer stem cells in leukemia have been bolstered by one of OICR’s many partnerships. Together, in 2009, the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium (CSCC), of which OICR is a member, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) established a partnership to support a Disease Team proposal developed by Dr. Dick’s group and researchers at the University of California, San Diego, led by Dr. Dennis Carson, that is focused on identifying novel drugs to treat leukemia. The CSCC supported the Disease Team using funds from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and Genome Canada. Dr. Dick’s recently published research showing that leukemia stem cells are relevant in a clinical setting and influence response to therapy and reoccurrence of acute myeloid leukemia provides a strong underpin-
ning for their approach. He believes that targeting and killing these leukemic stem cells would potentially have an impact on patient survival. Another project funded by the CSCCCIRM partnership is seeking solutions for solid tumour cancers. Dr. Tak Mak,
