GCI researchers lead and contribute to newly funded CIHR cancer research teams

Researchers at the Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Institute (GCI) have secured funding through a recent Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) Team Grant competition, supporting large-scale national collaborations aimed at advancing cancer research and improving outcomes for patients. This new Team Grant competition, titled Bridging Biology to Cancer Prevention, is the first of its kind by CIHR and aims at improving prevention and diagnosis of this rapidly growing disease.

CIHR Team Grants support interdisciplinary teams working across institutions and research domains to address complex challenges in cancer, integrating discovery science, clinical research, and population health approaches.

Luke McCaffrey, PhD, a Principal Investigator at the GCI and Associate Professor in Oncology, will co-lead one of the funded research teams with the LDI’s Josie Ursini-Siegel, PhD., providing scientific leadership for a multi-institutional program bringing together investigators from across Canada. The project, Decoding Breast Cancer: How Intrinsic Factors and Distinct Tissue Microenvironments Collaboratively Drive Breast Cancer Initiation, aims to uncover how early biological changes and tissue environments interact to drive the earliest stages of breast cancer development, with the goal of improving early detection and prevention strategies.

Detecting cancer early is crucial. It allows for more treatment options and lower burden on patients, while improving survival outcomes. To do so, we need to better understand the biological mechanisms leading to cancer initiation and how we can identify them even earlier and more easily.

GCI Principal Investigator’s, William Muller, PhD. and Daniela Quail, PhD. are contributing members of a separate CIHR-funded research team co-led by the MUHC-RI’s Maziar Divangahi and McGill’s Ajitha Thanabalasuriar, contributing their expertise to national efforts spanning multiple areas of cancer research on a project titled, Unlocking the Power of Trained Immunity in Cancer.

Lastly, William Muller, PhD. is also a contributing member on a grant led by LDI Researcher Dr. Michael Pollak on a project titled, Incretin-mimetic drugs for cancer prevention: Mechanisms and clinical potential.

Together, these awards highlight collaborative research projects across Quebec and Canada and reflect the GCI’s role in advancing coordinated, team-based approaches to cancer discovery and translation.

The GCI is proud to see our researchers both leading and contributing to national research teams supported through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Terry Fox Research Institute, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, the Cancer Research Society, and BioCanRx.