Halloween is almost here and the Institute is looking more... like a haunted house. We do this for the children... Notes from the Director’s Chair:

Halloween is almost here and the Institute is looking more... like a haunted house. We do this for the children... Notes from the Director’s Chair:

Notes from the Director’s Chair:
Halloween is almost here and the Institute is looking more and more
like a haunted house. We do this for the children in Pediatric
Oncology who normally would not have a Halloween night. Instead,
they, along with their family members use CancerCare Manitoba as
their neighborhood to trick or treat and collect a ton of candy. To
make this even more special, members of MICB dress-up in their
Halloween costumes, hand out candy and show their Halloween
spirit. This year, the kids will be coming around on Tuesday, October
30 at 11:00. It is truly a special time of year and I would like to thank
Eileen McMillan-Ward for organizing this activity every year and all
MICB staff that donate money, hang decorations and hand out
candy.
MICB and the Department of Biochemistry & Medical Genetics will be hosting an afternoon of
glow bowling at Academy Lanes (394 Academy Road) on November 2nd from 12:00 - 4:00pm.
Pizza, pop, chips and dip will be provided. This is your opportunity to enjoy an afternoon with
colleagues. Sign up in the front office of MICB or BMG by October 29th.
MICB will be at the Forks on November 9th from 9:30am – 9:00 pm with 14 other research
centres as part of Manitoba Health Research Council’s “Manitoba – Where Health Research
Comes to Life” exhibit. The day will feature displays, hands on science demonstrations and
Q&As for Manitoba’s health research centres. This is to celebrate MHRC’s 30th anniversary.
Come for the mini-donuts! We are also seeking volunteers for our booth. If you or your lab has
been supported by MHRC in the past, please consider volunteering an hour of your time.
Dr. Sabine Mai received a cheque from the
Manitoba chapter for the Motorcycle Ride
for Dad. This organization parades over
800 motorcycles down Portage Ave each
year to increase awareness of prostate
cancer and support research. Dr. Mai will
use this money to study circulating prostate
cancer cells in the blood from prostate
cancer patients for changes in telomere
localization and correlated this with patient
outcomes. The ceremony was aired on
CTV News and mentioned in the Winnipeg
Free Press.
MICB is supported by
October seems to be Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)
month for MICB. Drs. James Johnston, Versha Banerji and
Spencer Gibson took part in CIHR Café Scientifique at McNally
Robinson in Grant Park on October 3rd. The theme of the night
is “CLL Research – New Discoveries and Options for Patients”.
The event attracted students, seniors and CLL patients. After
the event, a medical student committed to doing a B.Sc. Med.
project in MICB on CLL.
The next day, we kicked off
the 8th annual National CLL
Conference where students and senior scientists from MICB
presented their research. Speakers were present from across
Canada NIH and the Mayo Clinic. As suggested by meeting
speakers, we will try to publish the proceedings in a research
journal to promote this meeting. Finally, on October 23rd,
there was a patient education evening for CLL patients that
attracted over 90 people from at least 5 tele-health video
locations in Manitoba and Ontario. This is the largest patient
education evening at CancerCare Manitoba and MICB
research was featured.
Dr Shantanu Banerji co-chaired the first “Innovation on Lung Cancer Symposium” on October
13th. The conference reviewed and discussed the latest innovations in the management of lung
cancer and included guest speaker’s Dr. Murray (Cross Cancer Institute), Dr. Timmerman
(Dallas, TX) and Dr. Tso (Ontario Cancer Institute). The hope is that members of the lung
cancer group will work closer together and conduct more research on lung cancer in the future.
The annual report for CancerCare Manitoba Foundation was circulated in the Winnipeg Free
Press last week. The Institute’s researchers were featured in the report (Drs. Mai, Murphy,
Banerji and Gibson). Copies of the report have been posted on bulletin boards on the 5th floor.
Additional copies are available in the research office. CancerCare Manitoba’s annual progress
report was released online and Drs. McManus and the Banerjis were featured. This illustrates
the importance of research at MICB as part of the mandate of CancerCare Manitoba and its
Foundation.
A draft of the strategic plan was recently sent out to all staff at MICB for their feedback. We
need your feedback to ensure we can make this strategic plan a success. This will be the final
opportunity for staff to have their say before it is finalized.
MICB is supported by
The start of Cell Biology Club was well attended and there was strong discussion about the
research presented. This is what the Club is all about. I encourage everyone to continue
attending the Cell Biology Club to support trainees, learn about research, technology and
techniques. It benefits everybody. The schedule for Cell Biology Club is online at www.micb.ca
under “Workshops & Seminars”.
The Genomic Centre’s will conduct a workshop on "Microscopy, Optics and Imaging" in
November. There will be a number of seminars open to everyone related to this
workshop. The next seminar is the “Edge of Science and Medicine” IMAGING
Seminar Series presenting Dr. Richard Klemke, Ph.D., Professor Department of
Pathology UC San Diego & Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, California. The title
of his talk is “Zebrafishing for Metastatic Clues at the Tumor Cell-Vascular
Interface”. It will take place on Monday, October 29th, 2012 from 12:00 – 1:00
PM in Theatre B, Basic Medical Sciences Building.
The Western Canada Children's Cancer Research Network (WC3RN) was formed 3 years ago
as a means of gathering Western Canadian childhood cancer researchers together for closer
collaboration. At their last meeting, discussions around whether they should try to initiate a
Western Canadian biobank of pediatric tissues was raised, with the plan of having a small, part
formal - part informal meeting in Winnipeg in November. Thus, the WC3RN biobanking meeting
will be held in Winnipeg Nov 29/30th, 2012. On the evening of Thursday November 29th at the
Hotel Fort Garry, Dr. Nada Jabado will be the keynote speaker and on Friday November 30th the
meeting will be held at CCMB Arnold Greenberg Theatre to discuss creating a prairie biobank
for pediatric cancers. If you what to attend please contact Cecile Verrier in the research office.
In my continuing feature on research activities for 2011/2012, I will discuss our training at MICB.
The Institute represents 82% of all training occurring at CancerCare Manitoba as an average
over five years. There were 28 graduate students and
14 post-doctoral fellows studying at MICB in 2011.
This unfortunately was a decrease from 2010. Total
funding for trainees in 2011 is approximately $650,000
and is again a decline from 2010. This represents a
continuing decline in training funding since 2008. The
main funding agencies supporting trainees are
MHRC/CCMF, NSERC and CIHR. Overall, this indicates the need to provide more support for
trainees in the future to maintain our excellence in training and research.
MICB is supported by
A new feature of the Notes is profiling members of MICB. Since the focus this month was on
trainees at MICB, I selected Dr. Sajesh Babu who is a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. McManus’
laboratory. He received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Mangalore in India (B.
Sc; University of Mangalore, India) with majors in Chemistry, Zoology and
Botany. He then went on to do a Masters (M. Sc; University of Mangalore,
India) and Ph. D (University of Mysore, India) in Zoology; with specialization in
Developmental Biology. For his Ph.D, he generated and characterized
mutations that were responsible for the development of a subset of flight
muscles in Drosophila. The mutations now serve as models to study muscular
degeneration and myopathies. Currently, he is characterizing the molecular
and etiological origins that increase the rate of complex rearrangements of
genetic material within cancer cells. This aberrant chromosome stability is
considered to be a driver of tumour development. However, he has realized
that cancer cells with these defects are highly susceptible to the targeting of a second unlinked
gene product. This would specifically and selectively kill cancer cells alone, while normal cells
remain unaffected. This therapeutic strategy is defined as synthetic lethality. Within the lab, he
employs cutting edge technology, involving RNAi coupled to high content microscopic imaging
to screen for such specific and novel synthetic lethal targets. He then characterized and
validated them as potential drug candidates. The highlight of his training, so far, is winning the
Dean of Medicine Poster award at the 2011 CSHRF research days, an EMBO travel award to
attend a conference in Vienna in 2011. He is supported by a Fellowship from MHRC in
partnership with CCMB Foundation. On a personal note, he enjoys swimming, playing cricket,
chess and driving.
We would like to congratulate Armando Poeppl who is a technician in
Dr. Versha and Shantanu Banerji’s laboratory on the birth of his new
son William Jia Tai Poeppl, born September 28, 2012, weighing in at
7lbs 4oz. Mom and Baby are well and are home. If you have any
announcements for the notes, please let me know so I can share the
good news.
Publications:
Delcuve GP, Khan DH, Davie JR Targeting class I histone deacetylases in cancer therapy.
Expert Opin Ther Targets. 2012 Oct 15. [Epub ahead of print]
Khan DH, Jahan S, Davie JR Pre-mRNA splicing: role of epigenetics and implications in
disease. Adv Biol Regul. 2012 Sep;52(3):377-88. Epub 2012 Apr 28.
Lagier-Tourenne C, Polymenidou M, Hutt KR, Vu AQ, Baughn M, Huelga SC, Clutario KM, Ling
SC, Liang TY, Mazur C, Wancewicz E, Kim AS, Watt A, Freier S, Hicks GG, Donohue JP,
MICB is supported by
Shiue L, Bennett CF, Ravits J, Cleveland DW, Yeo GW Divergent roles of ALS-linked proteins
FUS/TLS and TDP-43 intersect in processing long pre-mRNAs. Nat Neurosci. 2012 Sep 30. doi:
10.1038/nn.3230. [Epub ahead of print]
Kraft J, Blanchette V, Babyn P, Feldman BM, Cloutier S, Israels S, Pai M, Rivard GE, Gomer S,
McLimont M, Moineddin R, Doria AS Magnetic resonance imaging and joint outcomes in boys
with severe hemophilia a treated with tailored primary prophylaxis in canada. J Thromb
Haemost. 2012 Oct 15. doi: 10.1111/jth.12025. [Epub ahead of print]
Grant deadlines:
An online calendar has been set up with grant deadlines. Please follow the link at
https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=manitobainstituteofcellbiology%40gmail.com&ctz
=America/Winnipeg
November 1 – Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders LOI
-
Clinic and Laboratory Integration Program
-
LOI Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada
-
Movember Global Action Plan for prostate cancer imaging expressions of interest
November 2 – Expression of Interest – Movember Global Action Plan Prostate Cancer Imaging
Nobember 9 – Pediatric Onocology of Ontario (POGO) Seed Funding
-
Stem Cell Drug Discovery Program, Impact Research Grant and Outreach Award
November 15 – Canadian Hemophilia Society Dream of a Cure Research Program
-
Canadian Hemophilia Society Care until a Cure Research Program
-
International Society for CNS clinical trials and methodology
-
LOI Foundation for Fighting Blindness
-
Melanoma Research Alliance academic-industrial partnership award
-
Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigators award
November 16 – Brain Canada Multi-Investigator Research Initiative (LOI was 2 months ago)
November 23- CancerCare Manitoba Foundation Letter of Intent deadline for infrastructure and
equipment grants.
MICB is supported by
November 30 – Earlier.org Breast Cancer research program
-
Canadian Cancer Society Awards for Excellence in Cancer Research
-
Bayer Hemophilia Awards
December 1 – Friends for an Earlier Breast Cancer Test
-
Manning Innovation Award
December 3 – Canadian Diabetes Association Registration
-
CIHR Team grant in Epigenetics
-
FAAF Susan G Koman For the Cure Research Grants
-
Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research – Scientific Scholar Award
and Research Pilot Award.
Studentships and Fellowships
November 1 – Banting Post Doctoral Fellowship deadline
-
Canadian Federation of University Women Fellowships
-
Azrieli Fellowship Program
-
Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program Rising Star Support Program
-
Canadian Federation of University Women
November 6 – CIHR Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Research Award
November 15 – Canadian Blood Services Graduate Fellowship
-
Canadian Hemophilia Society Studentship in Inherited Bleeding Disorders
-
Fulbright Canada Scholarships
November 23 – Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Research Fellowship
-
Clinical Trials Group AstraZeneca Fellowship
-
Clinical Trials Group Breast Cancer Fellowship
-
Clinical Trials Group Translational Research Fellowship
MICB is supported by
Please see Eilean for more details. If you are applying through the University, FAAF’s are due
with ORS at least 1 week before the deadline.
As always, have a great research month.
Spencer Gibson
Director
Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology
Manitoba’s Leader in Cancer Research
MICB is supported by