Acquiring new knowledge and accelerating the discovery of new therapies
All cancers are the result of genetic alterations in one cell of our body, which results in said cell becoming abnormal, which then leads to a disorderly cell proliferation and tumor formation.
More than 200 different types of cancer can be caused by a number of different mutations producing specific anomalies at the molecular and cellular level.
Traditional therapeutic approaches such a chemotherapy and radiation therapy are nonspecific and are often accompanied by significant adverse side effects.
IRIC Investigators are working towards acquiring new knowledge to better understand the mechanisms of cancer and to develop personalized therapeutic approaches.
Grenier-Pleau IJ, Kaur J, Wells CJ, Vermeulen M, Slobodyanyuk M, Holmes SM, Bonneil E, Hall C, Beaulieu J, Hosseini M, Chan SM, Dick SA, Knapp D, Tyryshkin K, Postovit LM, Thibault P, Rudan JF, Mann S, Craig AW, Reimand J, Chan EYW, Abraham SA
Haematologica
2026-03-26
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A collaborative research project between the teams of Guy Sauvageau, director of the IRIC Molecular Genetics of Stem Cells Research Unit, and Anne Marinier, CEO of biotech company RejuvenRx, recently received $3,697,199 in funding. The grant was made possible by investments from the Quebec Consortium for Drug Discovery (CQDM), the Quebec government, RejuvenRx, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Université de Montréal Partenariat fund.
The Canadian Biomedical Research Fund (CBRF) and the Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund (BRIF) are investing $21 million in a research project aimed at accelerating the discovery of new antibiotics to counter drug-resistant bacteria. Led by Yves Brun, professor in the Department of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology and researcher at the UdeM Faculty of Medicine’s Centre for Biomedical Innovation, the project will involve various IRIC teams.
Despite the therapeutic advances of recent years in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), this pathology remains associated with a poor prognosis. In a new study, the Leucegene group led by Guy Sauvageau, Director of IRIC’s Molecular Genetics of Stem Cells Research Unit, Anne Marinier, Director of IRIC’s Drug Discovery Unit, and Josée Hébert (Banque de cellules leucémiques du Québec (BCLQ), Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Center) proposes a therapeutic strategy based on copper overdose as a treatment for a genetic subgroup of AML particularly sensitive to this approach. Led by Céline Moison and Deanne Gracias (biology), and Julie Schmitt and Réjean Ruel (chemistry), in collaboration with the BCLQ genetics laboratory team, this project has been published in the prestigious journal Science Advances.
Cell division, a process required for the survival of all species, enables the genetic material of a mother cell to be separated and shared between its two daughter cells. As many aspects of cell division remain poorly understood, the team led by Jean-Claude Labbé, Director of the Cell Division and Differentiation Research Unit, focused on one of its final stages, cytokinesis. The team identified a new protein, OSGN-1, as being required for the correct completion of cell division. The study, published in the journal PNAS, was led by research associate Eugénie Goupil and doctoral student Léa Lacroix.
Geneviève Deblois, Director of IRIC’s Metabolic and Epigenetic Alterations in Cancer Research Unit, is the recipient of a Emerging Scholar Research Grant from the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS). Sixteen of these grants were awarded across the country in the 2023 competition to advance cancer research programs. Geneviève Deblois, the only researcher to be funded in Quebec, has been awarded $550,000 for her project “Finding better ways to treat triple-negative breast cancer”.
The ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), an important advance for cell-based therapies, can lead to replicative and metabolic stresses; much as aging does. In their efforts to identify the best strategies for HSC expansion, the team led by Guy Sauvageau, Director of IRIC’s Molecular Genetics of Stem Cells Research Unit, has been investigating the molecular mechanisms induced by the UM171 molecule, which was jointly discovered in 2014 by his laboratory and the team led by Anne Marinier, Director of IRIC’s Drug Discovery Unit, and enables the ex vivo expansion of HSC derived from umbilical cord blood. Their most recent study, led by researcher Jalila Chagraoui and published in the journal Blood, reports that the UM171 molecule preserves HSCs from cell culture-induced stress by modulating the activity of the MYC protein.
