Title:
Senior Scientist

Institute:
The Hospital for Sick Children

Department:
Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology

Province:
Ontario

Training:
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research/MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
PhD, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba
BSc, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Visiting Scientist, The Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, United Kingdom

Research Interests:
Breast cancer research, Mammary gland development, Lung cancer research

Career highlights:
Identified mammalian Fringe genes, which control where and when Notch receptors are activated in vivo; Showed that High level expression of Notch receptors and ligands is associated with reduced survival in breast cancer patients; helped, as a postdoctoral fellow, to establish biochemical connections between growth factor receptors and the Ras proteins.

Research Projects

Project title:
Notch4 as potential target in breast cancer stem cells

Funding period: 
2011-2013

Program:
Operating Grant (Basic Research)

Summary:
The Notch4 protein is thought to stimulate growth of breast cancer stem cells, the cells responsible for chemotherapy resistance and even tumor spread. However, it is not clear whether this is true for all forms of breast cancer. Indeed, the term breast cancer describes a very heterogeneous collection of diseases, some of which are metastatic and lethal. Most commonly, the aggressive subtypes express the HER2 receptor, a mutation in an enzyme known as PI3 kinase, or express proteins found in so-called basal cells of the mammary gland. The Egan lab has mouse models for each of these three types, and will use these models to directly test whether Notch4 is required in each disease. Furthermore, experiments are designed to determine how Notch4 functions to control stem cell behavior in the mammary gland. There are few treatment options for patients with aggressive types of breast cancer; results from these studies will help determine which forms of human breast cancer are likely to be effectively targeted by new therapies against Notch4.