Dr. Jennifer Chan, assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Calgary, will receive $397,614 over three years to pursue her research study: “A novel platform for glioma modeling to accelerate the therapeutic targeting of glioblastoma.” Dr. Chan's goal is to establish a rapid and accurate in vivo system for studying specific subtypes of glioblastoma, a highly aggressive brain cancer, by introducing different combinations of cancer genes into normal neural stem and progenitor cells.
"The ultimate goal of the project is to improve treatment for patients diagnosed with brain cancer by developing new ways to validate targets and to efficiently test them in predictive model systems. My hope is that this work will help bring more new drugs to clinical trials faster," says Dr. Chan.
Mentoring her is Dr. Gregory Cairncross, Professor and Chair of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary, who leads TFRI’s Pan-Canadian Therapeutic Targeting of Glioblastoma Multiforme Project. "Jennifer is astute, insightful, and creative; unafraid to question dogma and explore new approaches as she pursues the cellular origin of brain tumours," says Dr. Marco Marra, a collaborator and co-lead investigator on the project, from the BC Genome Sciences Center. "Yet she is also highly practical, always keeping in mind how one should move forward efficiently. These personal qualities, in combination with her training as a developmental neurobiologist, position her well to make unique contributions to the field."
Mentoring Program: Pan-Canadian Therapeutic Targeting of Glioblastoma Multiforme Project
Mentors/PIs: Dr. Gregory Cairncross