Research News Spencer Gibson, Ph.D.

Research News
Spencer Gibson, Ph.D.
Interim Associate Director—Research Institute in Oncology and Hematology
September 2015
Inside this issue:
Funding
Announcements
1
Trainee Success
2
Meet a trainee—
Hilary Bews
3
Special Visitor—
Eric Keilback
3
In the news
4
Save the Date
5
Publications
6
Funding
7
Opportunities
COMING EVENTS

October 1 & 2—
Canadian CLL Mee ng 
Oct 13—CCMF Inside Ride for Pediatric Clinical Trials 
Nov 8‐10 2015—
Canadian Cancer Re‐
search Alliance Confer‐
ence 
May 9, 2016— CCMB Research Day for Resi‐
dents and Trainees INTRODUCTION
FUNDINGSUCCESS
The leaves are falling from the trees
and the mornings are chilly. This
season is about preparing for the
winter months that lay ahead. In this
spirit, MICB had its last retreat in
Steinbach this past month with the
theme being Discovery. Dr Amina
Zoubeidi from the Vancouver Prostate Centre gave an inspiring lecture
that touched on many research
themes within RIOH. Students presented their 3 Minute Thesis (Asha
Sinha from Katyal lab won for best
thesis) and the Senior Scientists
presented their views on discovery
research. Steinbach was worth the
trip!
Congratulation to Dr Spencer Gibson who will be receiving $65,000 from Research Manitoba / CancerCare Manitoba Partnership
Program Grant for his
grant entitled “Targeting
the regulation of subtype of
Autophagy in cell survival
and death in hypoxia to develop novel treat strategies
for glioblastoma”.
RIOH is still in the transition year. A
job posting was placed on the CancerCare Manitoba website and in
Nature Jobs for a new Director for
RIOH. A search committee was
formed and hopefully we will have a
new Director in place sometime next
year. At the CancerCare Manitoba
Board presentation, a new strategic
plan for CCMB was released where
research was one of the strategic
goals. Furthermore, plans for a new
building were announced that will go
in the location of the Manitoba clinic
across the street. Research space
will be doubled in the future plans.
The future is coming!
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Dr Jim Davie also received $65,000 in MPP
funding from Research
Manitoba / Children’s Hospital Research Institute of
Manitoba for his project
entitled “Regulation and
function of histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation
(H3K4me3) in pre-mRNA
splicing“.
Belated congratulations to
Dr Issai Vanan who was
awarded $70,000 in July
from HSC Foundation for
“Improved treatment for
pediatric brain tumours using adenanthin and Ecadherin peptide modulation of blood-brain barrier
permeability”.
TRAINEESUCCESS
Page 2
The Breast Cancer Society of Canada, the
University of Manitoba and CancerCare Manitoba are proud to announce the winners of the
inaugural Hope Scholarship to Mamneet
(Sheena) Manghera, Vasudeva Bhat and
Forouh Kalantari. The Hope scholarship is
funded by the Breast Cancer Society of Canada (BCSC) to encourage an enriched training experience for graduate students who are involved in breast cancer-related research projects. The 3
students awarded with the Hope Scholarship will be conducting research
at CancerCare Manitoba and the University of Manitoba under the supervision of Dr Yvonne Myal (Professor – Pathology and Physiology)/Dr
Renee Douville (University of Winnipeg), Dr Afshin Raouf (Assistant Professor – Immunology), Dr Sabine Hombach-Klonisch (Associate Professor – Human Anatomy & Cell Science) respectively.
The annual BSc Med awards were presented and our trainees were recognized for their
outstanding work. Thank you to CancerCare Manitoba Foundation for their support of
BSc Med students.
Matt Packer, in Dr Sachin Katyal’s lab, received the Phillip Yaffee Memorial Prize for
Cancer Research, the MMSF Dr. Lyonel Israels Memorial Award, the MMSF James E.
Wilson Memorial Award.
Hilary Bews, from Dr Davinder Jassal’s lab, won the MMSF Morris Neaman Memorial
Award. Mohammad Pannu, supervised by Dr James Johnston and Marni Wiseman,
received the BScMed Program Award for outstanding Clinical Research Project.
Rebecca Kummen, supervised by Drs Donna Wall and Cynthia Ellison, received the
Merck Sharp Award for Best Basic Science Award and the ADE & Co. Award for Excellence in Basic Sciences with potential for commercial application.
Linda (Jinyan) Pan, supervised by Drs Harvey Chochinov and Genevieve Thompson,
received the Dr JRW Nicholson Prize for BScMed Thesis and the A. Allyn Rossen Award
for best BSc Med Thesis.
Allison Love, supervised by Drs Mark Nachtigal and Alon Altman, received the Dr
Phillip F Hall Women’s Health Research Award for best project in Women’s Health.
Kyle Curtis, supervised by Dr Mojgan Rastegar and Jim Davie, received the ADE &
Co. Award for Excellence in Biochemistry and Molecular Biochemistry with potential for
commercial application.
Andrew Kochan, supervised by Drs Harvey Quon and Aldrich Ong, received the MED
II Summer Research Program Award for outstanding Med II Project
Matt, Rebecca and Hilary won the University of Manitoba BSc Med Travel Award for Excellence which will be presented at the 2016 National Research Forum in Texas!
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Page 3
MEETATRAINEE—HILARYBEWS
Supervisor: Dr Davinder Jassal
Current Level of training: 3rd year Medical Student at the University
of Manitoba
What is your current research project investigating?
Chemotherapy (Doxorubicin+Trastuzumab) induced cardiomyopathy
contributes significantly to the morbidity and mortality in the breast cancer population. My B.Sc. (Medicine) project investigated the cardioprotective potential of the antioxidant NACA to protect against this chemotherapy induced cardiomyopathy. In a murine model, we demonstrated the ability of NACA to decrease adverse cardiac remodelling and dysfunction associated with chemotherapy administration, and hope to translate these basic science findings
to the clinical setting.
What made you choose CancerCare for your training?
I have always had an interest in oncology, stemming from my past volunteer work at CancerCare Manitoba. I was very excited to incorporate this interest in my B.Sc. (Medicine)
project and to be introduced to the emerging discipline of Cardio-Oncology.
Which paper/poster/award have you received that you’re most proud of?
I am honoured to have received the Travel Award for Excellence for my B.Sc. (Medicine)
final presentation. The award provides me the opportunity to present at the 2016 National
Research Forum in Galveston Texas.
Once your training at CancerCare has been completed, where do you hope to go
next?
My B.Sc. (Medicine) research has inspired me to pursue a career as a clinician scientist.
I am unsure of the direction my medical career will take me but I am confident that research will play a large role in my future. Dr. Jassal has been a great mentor to me, guiding my future career in this regards.
SPECIALGUEST
We welcomed Eric Keilback to Dr Israels’ lab this
month. Eric is participating in the HERO (Hemophilia,
Experiences, Results and Opportunities) program organized by the Canadian Hero Advisory Board to let
boys with hemophilia job shadow in professions
they’re interested in pursuing. CancerCare Manitoba
is one of 4 Canadian centres participating in this important program. Eric spent the day with Dr Israels’
technician, Eileen McMillan-Ward, learning about
platelet activation and electron microscopy.
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Page 4
INTHENEWS
Ryan Zarychanski delivered the 2015 Joe Doupe
Memorial Lecture on September 3. His talk “It’s
you duty to be bold—Challenging conventions in
medicine” was delivered to a packed lecture theatre of medical students and staff.
Approaching Cancer Research from Many Angles—Café
Scientifique Sept 21
With number of Manitoban diagnosed with cancer on the rise,
cancer research is underway in Manitoba to better understand
the causes and develop new treatments to improve cancer
survival rates. Our graduate student panelists discussed their
research into blood, brain and colorectal cancers and what
they are finding. Moderator: Dr. Afshin Raouf, Panelists:
Mrs. Rebecca Dielschneider (PhD student -Gibson Lab),
Ms. Lisa Liang PhD student, Ms. Erin McAndrew (MSc student—McManus Lab). To read the live-tweets from
@UM_Medicine, please go to http://sfy.co/e0m0o
Congratulations to Dr Jim Davie who was appointed as a Fellow of both
the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences for his pioneering work in chromatin, a field now known as epigenetics. His research laid the groundwork for the development of histone
deacetylase inhibitor drugs for use in many cancers and blood disorders.
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Page 5
SAVETHEDATES!
11THCANADIANCLLMEETING—OCTOBER1&2ND,2015
This year’s CLL Meeting will be held at The Inn at the Forks in
Winnipeg, Manitoba. Key note speaker is Dr. Stanley Riddell
from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Centre. Call for Abstracts:
Submissions Deadline August 15, 2015! For more information
about the meeting, please go to www.cllmeeting.ca
2015CANADIANCANCERRESEARCHALLIANCECONFERENCE—NOV8‐102015
The Canadian Cancer Research Alliance is hosting the 2015 Canadian Cancer Research Conference from November 8-10 at the Hotel Bonaventure in Montreal. http://
www.ccra-acrc.ca/index.php/ccrc-home Early bird registration to attend this national conference is due by August 31. http://www.ccra-acrc.ca/index.php/registration
CANCERCAREMANITOBARESEARCHDAYMAY9TH,2016
The organizing committee is excited to announce that the keynote
speaker will be Dr Rosalyn Juergens from McMaster University. Dr.
Juergens’ clinical expertise is in the area of lung cancer and esophageal cancer. Her area of research expertise is in functional imaging
with FLT PET. Her other area of research has been in developmental
therapeutics with a focus on epigenetics. Her work focuses on the inhibition of DNA methyl transferase and histone deacetylators as therapeutic options in oncology.
Presentation by Dr John Wilkins
The new SomaLogic Platform for protein
discovery and validation
October 19th @ 2:00—CCMB Lecture Theatre
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Page 6
PUBLICATIONS

The Deleted in Liver Cancer 1 (Dlc1) tumor suppressor is haploinsufficient for mammary
gland development and epithelial cell polarity. Basak P, Dillon R, Leslie H, Raouf A,
Mowat MR. BMC Cancer. 2015 Sep 9;15(1):630. doi: 10.1186/s12885-015-1642-x.

Successful Matched Sibling Donor Marrow Transplantation Following Reduced Intensity
Conditioning in Children with Hemoglobinopathies. King AA, Kamani N, Bunin N, Sahdev
I, Brochstein J, Hayashi RJ, Grimley M, Abraham A, Dioguardi J, Chan KW, Douglas D,
Adams R, Andreansky M, Anderson E, Gilman A, Chaudhury S, Yu L, Dalal J, Hale G,
Cuvelier G, Jain A, Krajewski J, Gillio A, Kasow KA, Delgado D, Hanson E, Murray L,
Shenoy S. Am J Hematol. 2015 Sep 8. doi: 10.1002/ajh.24183.

Predictors and risks for death in a population-based study of persons with IBD in Manitoba.
Bernstein CN, Nugent Z, Targownik LE, Singh H, Lix LM. Gut. 2015 Sep;64(9):1403-11.
doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2014-307983. Epub 2014 Sep 16.

Pure Immature Teratoma of the Ovary in Adults: Thirty-Year Experience of a Single Tertiary
Care Center. Alwazzan AB, Popowich S, Dean E, Robinson C, Lotocki R, Altman AD. Int
J Gynecol Cancer. 2015 Sep 1.

Improving diagnostic precision, care and syndrome definitions using comprehensive nextgeneration sequencing for the inherited bone marrow failure syndromes. Ghemlas I, Li H,
Zlateska B, Klaassen R, Fernandez CV, Yanofsky RA, Wu J, Pastore Y, Silva M, Lipton
JH, Brossard J, Michon B, Abish S, Steele M, Sinha R, Belletrutti M, Breakey VR,
Jardine L, Goodyear L, Sung L, Dhanraj S, Reble E, Wagner A, Beyene J, Ray P, Meyn
S, Cada M, Dror Y. J Med Genet. 2015 Sep;52(9):575-84. doi: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2015103270. Epub 2015 Jul 1.

Phase II study of PX-866 in recurrent glioblastoma. Pitz MW, Eisenhauer EA, MacNeil MV,
Thiessen B, Easaw JC, Macdonald DR, Eisenstat DD, Kakumanu AS, Salim M, Chalchal H, Squire J, Tsao MS, Kamel-Reid S, Banerji S, Tu D, Powers J, Hausman DF, Mason WP. Neuro Oncol. 2015 Sep;17(9):1270-4. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/nou365. Epub 2015
Jan 20.

Malakoplakia After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. Robinson T, Streu
E. Oncol Nurs Forum. 2015 Sep 1;42(5):558-61. doi: 10.1188/15.ONF.558-561.

Moving the Science Forward. Katz A. Oncol Nurs Forum. 2015 Sep 1;42(5):437-8. doi:

Berberine induces apoptosis by suppressing the arachidonic acid metabolic pathway in
hepatocellular carcinoma. Li J, Li O, Kan M, Zhang M, Shao D, Pan Y, Zheng H, Zhang X,
Chen L, Liu S. Mol Med Rep. 2015 Sep;12(3):4572-7. doi: 10.3892/mmr.2015.3926. Epub
2015 Jun 12.

DNA methylation screening of primary prostate tumors identifies SRD5A2 and CYP11A1 as
candidate markers for assessing risk of biochemical recurrence. Horning AM, Awe JA,
Wang CM, Liu J, Lai Z, Wang VY, Jadhav RR, Louie AD, Lin CL, Kroczak T, Chen Y, Jin
VX, Abboud-Werner SL, Leach RJ, Hernandez J, Thompson IM, Saranchuk J,
Drachenberg D, Chen CL, Mai S, Huang TH. Prostate. 2015 Sep 1. doi: 10.1002/
pros.23052.

Loss of lamin A function increases chromatin dynamics in the nuclear interior. Bronshtein I,
Kepten E, Kanter I, Berezin S, Lindner M, Redwood AB, Mai S, Gonzalo S, Foisner R,
Shav-Tal Y, Garini Y. Nat Commun. 2015 Aug 24;6:8044. doi: 10.1038/ncomms9044.
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Page 7
FUNDINGOPPORTUNITIES
HTTPS://WWW.GOOGLE.COM/CALENDAR/EMBED?SRC=MANITOBAINSTITUTEOFCELLBIOLOGY%40GMAIL.COM&CTZ=AMERICA/WINNIPEG
Sept 30
The Wiley Foundation—Endowing the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Science
Fritz Thyssen Stiftung Foundation
Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research
Registration—Movember Rising Star in Prostate Cancer Research
LOI—Voices Against Brain Cancer
Oct 1
CCSRI Innovation Grant
CCSRI Innovation to Impact
LOI - IODE war memorial PhD scholarship
Cancer Research Institute - Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
Kidney Foundation of Canada – 2015 Biomedical Research Grants
FAAF - CIHR Partnerships for Health System Improvement (PHSI)
FAAF - World Cancer Research Fund International
FAAF - Google Faculty Research Award
CanFASD Travel Award
NSERC/CIHR Collaborative Health Research Program (CHRP)
LOI - CIHR Team Grant: Environments and Health: Intersectoral Prevention Research
CIHR Knowledge to Action
CIHR Clinician-Scientist Award Phase 2
CIHR Doctoral Research Award
CIHR Operating grant: Canadian DOHaD Cohort Registry
Oct 2
Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba – Small Grants
FAAF - Alex’s Lemonade Stand – Family Impact Grants
FAAF CIHR Population Health Intervention Research
FAAF - Alex’s Lemonade Stand – Psychosocial Launch Grants
Oct 5
CIHR Catalyst Grant : COEN Initiative
FAAF - Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute – Research Grant
Oct 7
CIHR Travel Awards
MITACS Elevate Postdoctoral fellowship
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LOI—AACR Basic Cancer Research Fellowship
Oct 8
Compute Canada Resource Allocation Competition
EOI Movember—International Registry to Improve Outcomes in men with
Advanced Prostate Cancer
Oct 9
World Cancer Research Fund International
Oct 12
LOI - Melanoma Research Alliance Team Science Awards
Oct 13
Canada Graduate Scholarships – Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement
Oct 15
University of Manitoba URGP
CIHR SPOR network in chronic disease - chronic disease
CIHR Population Health Intervention Research
Google Faculty Research Award
Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute – Research Grant
CIHR Partnerships for Health System Improvement (PHSI)
Voices Against Brain Cancer
University of Manitoba Indigenous Research Program
Oct 16
Alex’s Lemonade Stand – Family Impact Grants
Alex’s Lemonade Stand – Psychosocial Launch Grants
CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH)
LOI—Wellcome Trust Translational Fund
Oct 19
FAAF - Manitoba Institute for Patient Safety –
Dr. John Wade Patient Safety Initiatives Grant – Request for Applications
FAAF - CIHR Fellowship
FAAD - Discovery Grant Program
FAAF - Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation
Faculty/Post-Doctoral Grant Program
FAAF - American Society of Transplantation
Oct 26
NSERC Research Tools and Instrumentation
FAAF - Komen for the Cure Career Catalyst grant
FAAF - Komen for the Cure Postdoctoral and clinical fellowship
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LOI—Alliance for cancer gene therapy sarcoma research grant
Oct 27
AACR-Aflac Inc Career Development Award for Pediatric Cancer Research
Oct 29
UM Undergraduate research poster competition
Oct 30
Movember Rising Star in Prostate Cancer Research
Oct 31
Worldwide cancer research operating grant
Nov 1
Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program
Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation – Faculty/Post-Doctoral
Clinic and Laboratory Integration Program
Desmoid Tumour Research Foundation General RFP
Desmoid Tumour Research Foundation New Investigator Grant
CCSRI Quality of Life Research Grant
Global Education and Training Initiative (GETI) Beginning investigators
American Society of Transplantation – Fellowship Research Grant
LOI Cancer Research Institute—Cancer Immunotherapies
Nov 2
Manitoba Institute for Patient Safety – Dr. John Wade Patient Safety Initiatives Grant
FAAF - The Commonwealth Fund - Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy
and Practice
CIHR Fellowship
NSERC Discovery Grant program
Nov 4
Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery
FAAF - Melanoma Research Alliance – Young Investigator Awards
Doctoral Research Award : Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships
AACR Fellowships in—Multiple Myeloma Research, Hepatocellular Carcinoma &
Lymphoma Research
AACR Bayer Prostate Cancer Research Fellowship
Tuesday, October 27, 2015 | 6:00 PM
RBC Convention Centre, Main Floor
Guest speaker: Dr. Jennifer Arnold, Board Certified in both Pediatric
and Neonatal Medicine and is currently the Medical Director of a state
-of-the-art simulation centre at Texas Children's Hospital and is a
practicing neonatologist at the largest NICU in the country.
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