Title:
Professor

Institute:
University of Alberta

Department:
Medical Genetics

Province:
Alberta

Training:
Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario
PhD, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
BSc, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario

Research interests:
Gene regulation, human development, obesity

Recognitions:
Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Foundation for Prader-Willi Research
Chair, CIHR Operating Grant panel (Genetics)

Career highlights:
Discovered and characterized three genes important in a human developmental disorder, Prader-Willi syndrome.
Discovered the function of two MAGE genes important in cell cycle regulation and in development.

Research Projects

Project title:
A cell model for MAGE over-expression in cancer progression and chemotherapy resistance

Funding period: 
2011-2013

Program:
Operating Grant (basic research)

Summary:
Melanoma-associated antigen (MAGE) proteins are not usually found in normal cells. However, many different MAGE proteins are found in cancer cells of several types, including liver, lung, ovarian, and skin cancer. Other scientists have found that certain MAGE proteins help some cancer cells live through chemotherapy. There are about 40 different MAGE proteins and many different kinds of cancer cells in which these MAGE proteins are overly active. It has therefore been difficult to find out how MAGE proteins help cancer cells grow and resist cell death during chemotherapy. We found that there is only one MAGE protein in other animals, such as birds, fish, and insects, so it is far easier to find out what MAGE protein does in those animals. The goal of our proposal is to study how cells react when human MAGE proteins are over-expressed in fly cells that have no MAGE protein of their own. We will test how MAGE proteins interact with other cancer proteins and how the cells respond to different types of chemotherapy when they have too much of different kinds of MAGE proteins.