Are you ready to join the fight?

"The Innovation Grant program really allows researchers to identify grants that would be best characterized as crazy, but not stupid." 

When it comes to the Society’s Innovation Grants, innovation is more than a name – it is a requirement.

“The innovation of each application is specifically assessed, as well as scientific merit and other important criteria,” explains Dr Sian Bevan, Director of Research, Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute. “These projects are based on high-risk ideas with the potential for high rewards.”

The program “really allows researchers to identify grants that would be best characterized as crazy, but not stupid,” says Dr Craig Thomas. A scientist at the National Centre for Advancing Translational Sciences, US National Institutes of Health, Dr Thomas is a 5-time volunteer grant reviewer for the Society, and a big fan of the Innovation Grants program.

“These are wonderful opportunities for researchers throughout Canada to put ideas down on paper that they would love for their colleagues – the people on the grant review panel – to take a look at and say, ‘wow, that’s outside the box.’”

The focus on innovation is paying off. Innovation Grant holders are already reporting discoveries in high-powered journals. The program’s success has inspired new i2I (Innovation to Impact) Grants, which allow scientists with significant Innovation Grant findings to take their ideas further.

Here are some Innovation Grant successes:

• The rare and devastating pituitary blastoma (PitB) primarily affects infants – who are unable to communicate any symptoms that could lead to early diagnosis. Dr William Foulkes at Montreal’s Lady Davis Institute is tackling the genetics of the disease. He has published findings in Acta Neuropathol showing that gene mutations he is studying can be directly linked to the cancer. His work could lead to earlier detection of PitB and more effective treatment.

• Colorectal cancer is responsible for the most Canadian cancer deaths, after lung cancer, but we know little about its causes. Dr Stephen Girardin at University of Toronto is studying the protein NLRX1, which is connected to colorectal cancer. Recently, he reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry that NLRX1 levels are controlled by glucose (sugar), indicating that NLRX1 is linked to energy metabolism, which is altered in cancer cells. His team further determined that this protein regulates the death of cancer cells. This is essential new information about the processes that lead to colorectal cancer.

• Some cancers are so difficult to treat because of the strategies used by cancer cells to avoid normal cell death. Dr Robert Korneluk at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa published a paper in the prestigious journal Nature Biotechnology, reporting on his development of a new treatment that in mouse models caused tumours to shrink and extended survival. The treatment combines 2 types of drugs: one that counteracts a protective mechanism used by cancer cells and one that kills them more effectively. As both drugs are already being independently tested, this combined treatment should pass through regulatory channels much more quickly than an entirely new drug.

• The study of the genetics of cells within tumours is a complex area of research. Dr Sohrab Shah at University of British Columbia has published a paper in Nature Methods describing a new innovative research tool he has developed. Called PyClone, it can organize gene mutation data about tumours and project characteristics of those tumour cells, such as the ability to spread or resist drugs.

• Lung cancer is difficult to diagnose in its early stages, when treatment could be most effective. Dr Igor Stagljar at University of Toronto has published a paper in Nature Methods outlining a new method he has devised to identify molecular-level processes leading to non-small cell lung cancer. This is a tremendous step toward developing new diagnostic tools and treatments for lung cancer.

• Depriving cancer cells of the food they need to survive is one path scientists are exploring to fight the disease. Dr Poul Sorensen at University of British Columbia published a paper in Cell about his investigations into how cancer cells adapt to the stress caused by nutrient deprivation, so that counter-tactics can be developed. His work suggests that the protein eEF2K is a clear target for drug development as its absence makes cancer cells less able to survive nutrient stress.

Links:

• Focus on Innovation