Title:
Associate Professor

Institute:
Université de Sherbrooke

Department:
Pediatrics, Immunology

Province:
Québec

Training:
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Ontario
Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
PhD, Department of Immunology, Madurai-Kamaraj University, Madurai, India
MSc, Department of Biotechnology, Madurai-Kamaraj University, Madurai, India
BVSc, Madras Veterinary College, Madras (now Chennai), India

Research interests:
Tumor suppressor functions of SOCS1 in the liver
Improving the functionality of tumor-specific cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes for adoptive cell therapy
Role of inflammatory cytokines in the induction of autoimmunity

Career highlights:
Involved in the initial characterization of lipid rafts in T lymphocytes.
Co-edited a book on GPI-anchored molecules of the plasma membrane.
Obtained the CIHR new investigator award. 

Research Projects

Project title:
Regulation of Met signaling by Socs1 in hepatocellular carcinoma

Funding period: 
2011-2013

Program:
Operating Grant (Basic Research)

Summary:
Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death. Most of the liver cancer patients die within 5 years after the initial diagnosis. Hepatitis viruses, aflatoxin and alcoholism are the major causes of liver cancer, but how they turn a normal liver cell into a cancer cell has not been yet well understood.  This knowledge will help to develop new diagnostic methods for early detection liver cancer in order to improve the treatment efficacy, and to define the key mechanisms that initiate and perpetuate liver tumor so that they could be targeted by novel therapeutic approaches. Research in our laboratory is focused on a molecule called Socs1 because there is ample evidence that suggest Socs1 plays a key role in preventing liver tumor, but the underlying mechanisms are not known. By elucidating the regulatory functions of SOCS1 in the liver cell, we hope to gain insight into events that precede the development of liver cancer, which could serve as the basis for devising novel therapeutic strategies to arrest the clinical progression of, or even cure, liver cancer.