Chris joined the lab last year as a PhD student. He is interested in basic and translational research pertaining to oral cancer. Despite being one of the most commonly occurring cancer types in Canada, the survival rate for this disease has shown little improvement for several years.

Early detection is critical for improving long-term outcomes for oral cancer Chris’ work focuses on examining exosomes, small vesicles secreted by most cell types that contain protein and RNA and can be used in inter-cellular communication. MicroRNAs are a common molecule packaged into and excluded from cells by exosomes. Interestingly, cancer cells are known to secrete different microRNAs via exosomes than healthy cells. This means that microRNA expression profiles obtained from exosomes may be useful for delineating different disease states for oral cancer and other cancer types. As it emerges that exosomes play a key role in driving malignant processes, these small molecules may also be attractive as targets for novel drugs that could improve patient outcomes.

Chris is currently resolving differences in microRNA expression signatures in exosomes depending on healthy, precancerous, and cancerous states. He is undertaking this work for both patient samples and in cell model systems. His interesting findings are already the subject of multiple presentations and we are excited to see what he discovers moving forward.

Welcome Chris!

(Open access article available at this link.)

The Garnis Lab welcomes Marina Laissus as a Visiting Scientist/Student. She joins our group from the ESTBB – School in Biology-Biochemistry-Biotechnologies at the Université Catholique de Lyon (France). She is presently working with Dr. Rajan Saini on developing new oral mucosa cell models for studying oral cancer progression. Thank you for joining us Marina!

The Garnis Lab welcomed Danielle Truong into the fold many months ago now. She has been a wonderful addition to the team. She has multiple roles, including her work as a research technician at the BC Cancer Research Centre and her work with the UBC Division of Otolaryngology, where she assists with the Temporal Bone Laboratory. We are very glad to have her as part of our group and grateful for her broad technical experience. A (somewhat belated) welcome to Danielle!

Back row, from L to R: Rajan Saini, Jamil Manji, Mike Gorenchtein, James Lawson.

Front row, from L to R: Marina Laissus, Sara Maclellan, Becki Towle, Danielle Truong, Cathie Garnis.

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UPDATE (Jamil’s research interests):

Jamil (BScHon. University of Western Ontario) is conducting clinical research into the development of naturopathic therapies for patients with Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS). Rhinosinusitis is a group of disorders characterized by inflammation of the mucosa of the nose and paranasal sinuses. CRS is rhinosinusitis of at least 12 consecutive weeks’ duration.
CRS affects more than 3 million Canadians and is among the top 10 most commonly diagnosed medical conditions in Canada. The fact that conventional oral antimicrobial therapy is frequently ineffective in eradicating bacteria in the biofilm form has led to the study of topical therapies. However, the use of antibiotics is not without risk, as there has been an increasing prevalence of bacterial resistance to antibiotics and there is always the possibility of allergic reactions. The need for novel therapies has renewed interest in natural products exhibiting antibacterial, anti-inflammatory properties.

Jamil’s bench research includes identification of inflammatory cytokine profiles in CRS patients and quantitative analysis of biofilm colonies by confocal scanning laser microscopy using a PNA-FISH platform.

We’re very glad to see you getting your feet wet James!

The Garnis Lab happily welcomes Sara Maclellan as a new graduate student. She comes to us direct from Nova Scotia (St. Francis Xavier University). Sara is already hard at work in the lab, learning the skills she’ll need to pursue her independent research studies going forward. We’ll add an update on her specific project in the near future.

Glad to see you in the fray Sara!

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UPDATE (Sara’s research interests):

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The poor survival rates among lung cancer patients are due to the frequent diagnosis of late stage (i.e. inoperable) disease. Because early stage lung cancers are more treatable, the development of a screening program for high risk individuals could drastically increase the survival rates of lung cancer patients. To develop a screening program, reliable biomarkers that can easily be detected are required.

MicroRNAs are small, non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression. Some microRNAs have already been shown to be involved in many oncogenic processes and recent studies have shown that microRNAs are stably expressed in human serum and plasma samples. My current research focuses on examining the usefulness of microRNAs circulating in blood (serum or plasma) as biomarkers for either early detection of lung cancer or assessment of tumor progression likelihood. If such blood biomarkers can be identified, they will aid significantly in the diagnosis and management of lung cancer.

From L to R: Shevaun Hughes, Rajan Saini, James Lawson, Angie Chu, Jamil Manji, Becki Towle, Cathie Garnis, Sara Maclellan, Mike Gorenchtein.

The Garnis Lab welcomes Rajan Saini as a post-doctoral fellow! Rajan completed his PhD at the National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, where he investigated the association of human papillomavirus with oral cancer. Additionally, he was a Lecturer in the field of Oral Pathology and Medicine at the Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Now at the BCCRC, Rajan’s research interests include oncogenesis of oral cancers (especially the role of microRNAs in this process), biomarker development for early detection of oral cancers, and development of naturopathic therapies for chronic oral diseases (including oral cancer/precancer).

Welcome to the team Rajan!

The Garnis Lab is extremely grateful to the Terry Fox Foundation/Terry Fox Research Institute for its decision to provide funding for a project entitled ‘Circulating microRNAs as a lung tumour proxy: determining whether a small RNA species in plasma can be used as an early cancer detection tool’. This 3 year New Investigator award is doubly exciting because it offers the opportunity to participate in a wider cross country lung cancer screening project that could significantly impact the way we approach this disease. (Additional information on this project can be found at this link – Early Detection of Lung Cancer: A Pan-Canadian Study.)

We are very excited about being a part of this important work!

Details on the Terry Fox Foundation can be found here. Details on the Terry Fox Research Institute can be found here.

UPDATE: The TFRI website now has details of all the individuals across Canada who received this award. You can find this information here.

Congratulations to Dr. Raj Chari – a Garnis Lab collaborator – on receiving the Lloyd Skarsgard Research Excellence Award for his graduate work at the BC Cancer Research Centre (done in the lab of Dr. Wan Lam in the Department of Integrative Oncology). You can learn more about Dr. Chari’s impressive research here and here.

We wish him the best of luck in Boston in 2011!

In this month’s issue of the UBC Medicine Magazine, there’s an article profiling Dr. Garnis and detailing the role of the Pacific Otolaryngology Foundation in the establishment of the Garnis Lab.

(Go to this link to see the article. A pdf of the UBC Medicine Magazine issue can be downloaded by clicking this link [Dr. Garnis' article is on page 23].)

Everyone in the Garnis Lab would like to again extend their profound thanks to the Pacific Otolaryngology Foundation for its support – without which, we wouldn’t exist!

Today, a Terry Fox Foundation fundraiser took place at the BC Cancer Research Centre. Tickets for various games were sold off and a silent auction was also held. A dunk tank featuring various senior scientists in the building and Terry’s brother Darrell proved very popular.

Cathie played at the roulette table.

Shevaun tried to dunk Darrell Fox…

…so did Angie…

…and so did Mike.

Shevaun manned the dart board…

…and Becki threw the darts (she also tried to dunk Darrell, but the picture didn’t turn out).

From L to R: Mike Gorenchtein, Angie Chu, Becki Towle, Darrell Fox, Shevaun Hughes, Cathie Garnis.

Terry’s story is an incredible inspiration to all Canadians, including those who are actively involved in cancer research. We all feel that it’s a privledge to work in this field and Terry’s efforts spur each of us to do much more in our own work.

Back row (L to R): Cathie Garnis, Mike Gorenchtein, Shevaun Hughes
Front row (L to R): Becki Towle, Angie Chu

(Picture taken on 15th floor of the BC Cancer Research Centre.)

The Garnis Lab welcomes Angie Chu into the fold. She will be working as a research technician at the BC Cancer Research Centre and contributing to the UBC Division of Otolaryngology via assistance to the Temporal Bone Laboratory. We are pleased to have her join the team. Welcome Angie!

Parallel molecular analysis of different disease stages – and different histological subgroups of disease – is yielding important insights into the mechanisms that drive cancer initiation and progression. Ultimately, genes like BRF2 may become targets for the next generation of therapies that are tailored against individual tumors.

Lockwood WW, Chari R, Coe BP, Thu KL, Garnis C, Malloff CA, Campbell J, Williams AC, Hwang D, Zhu CQ, Buys TPH, Yee J, English JC, MacAulay C, Tsao MS, Gazdar AF, Minna JD, Lam S, Lam WL. (2010) Integrative Genomic Analyses Identify BRF2 as a Novel Lineage-Specific Oncogene in Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma. PLoS Med 7(7): e1000315. (link)

Congratulations to Shevaun on receiving a CIHR CGS Masters Award for the Feb 2010 competition! The title of the funded project is “Identification of Causal Genetic Events in Oral Cancer Progression”. Further details about the project can be found be searching under the Investigator tab at this link.

The Garnis Lab would also like to extend its sincere thanks to the CIHR for its continued support of graduate research efforts!