2022-23 PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst Program Award Winners

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2022-23 PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst Competition! In this first fellowship competition in collaboration with UHN, funding is being provided to postdoctoral and clinical researchers co-supervised by PRiME investigators from four University of Toronto Faculties (Arts & Science, Applied Science & Engineering, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy) and three UHN research campuses (Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and Krembil Research Institute).

These researchers will lead diverse high-risk, high-reward research projects that span from designing novel cancer therapeutics and osteoarthritis treatments to utilizing RNA nanomedicine for immunotherapy. Fellows will be provided stipend support by PRiME and UHN for one year and will be assisted in leveraging their scientific progress to obtain further funding for the next stages of their research and technology development.

Fellowship Awardees (in alphabetical order)

Awardee Profiles

Dr. Meysam Khosravi-Farsani, Postdoctoral Researcher

Supervisors: Drs. Laurie Ailles, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; and Raymond Reilly, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

“PET Theranostics for Head and Neck Cancer”

Meysam Khosravi-Farsani graduated with a BSc. in Diagnostic Radiology (Tabriz University, Iran) and an MSc. in Radiation Biology and Radiation Protection (Babol University of Medical Sciences, Iran). In June 2017, he started a Ph.D. in the laboratories of Professors Brigitte Guérin and Léon Sanche in the Department of Radiobiology and Nuclear Medicine at Université de Sherbrooke, (Quebec, Canada) on “the design, synthesis, and characterization of a novel chemoradiation therapy agent [64Cu]Cu-NOTA-Terpyridine Platinum Conjugate”. Since completing his doctorate in 2022, he has continued as a post-doctoral fellow (PDF) under Pr. Guérin’s supervision. In his second PDF under the Clinical Catalyst Program, he will join the research groups of Pr. Raymond Reilly at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto and Pr. Laurie Ailles at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His new project is entitled “PET theranostics for Imaging and Treatment of Head and Neck Cancer”, the aim of which is to develop “PET Theranostics” for positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging and targeted radiation treatment (TRT) of head and neck cancer (HNSCC). 

1. What excites you about your research project? 

   I am very excited to be working for the first-time with alpha particle emitting radioisotopes. These radioisotopes are very powerful and there is great interest in studying them for cancer treatment with radiopharmaceuticals.

2. What do you look forward to learning and achieving in the next year?

   I look forward to learning cutting-edge technologies including assays for circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), tumour imaging by positron emission tomography (PET) and experimental radiotherapeutics studies for head and neck cancer. I will be introduced for the first time to patient derived tumour xenograft (PDX) mouse models which are the most clinically relevant models for studying new theranostic agents for cancer. I hope that my research will lead to a new approach to imaging and treating head and neck cancer with radiopharnaceuticals.

3. How does your project bring together different disciplines?

   This transdisciplinary project bridges the development of theranostic radiopharmaceuticals for PET imaging and treatment of head and neck cancer with the use of patient-derived tumour xenograft (PDX) mouse models and sensitive assays to monitor circulating tumour DNA for early detection of recurrent tumours.

4. How will the PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program benefit your training experience?

   The Clinical Catalyst PDF at the University of Toronto under the co-supervision of Professor Raymond Reilly, an expert on radiopharmaceutical development and Professor Laurie Ailles at UHN, an expert on PDX mouse tumour models of head and neck cancer along with collaboration with Professor Scott Bratman at UHN, an expert on assays for ctDNA will build on my studies at the Université de Sherbrooke where I gained expertise on radiopharmaceutical characterization, radiation dosimetry and radiobiology. I hope to be able to do some great science that has real-world applications and acquire the experience to continue my work and career.

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Dr. Nitzan Letko Khait, Postdoctoral Researcher

Supervisors: Drs. Michael Tymianski, Krembil Research Institute; and Molly Shoichet, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering

“Co-delivery of neural progenitor cells and a thermostabilized enzyme for tissue regeneration after stroke”

Nitzan received her Ph.D. from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where she used stem cells' membranes as targeted drug carriers. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Molly Shoichet’s lab. Her research focuses on the design of regenerative therapies to treat stroke, by the local delivery of an engineered enzyme, combined with transplantation of neural progenitor cells, both within a modified hydrogel. 

1. What excites you about your research project?

   At present, there are no clinically approved treatments available for stroke survivors in regaining lost function. I am excited to be working on a project that has the potential to advance the field of regenerative medicine and potentially provide a treatment option for these patients in the future.  

2. What do you look forward to learning and achieving in the next year?

   Over the next year, our primary objective is to test our innovative treatments in pre-clinical settings. Additionally, I aim to expand my knowledge of neurophysiology to better tailor our technology to clinical settings.   

3. How does your project bring together different disciplines? 

   Tissue regeneration requires a collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach. Our team includes chemists and engineers who design hydrogels, biologists who test the treatments in cell cultures and animal models, and neurosurgeons who adapt the methods to be clinically relevant. As a biotechnology engineer with a strong background in biology, I possess the expertise needed to advance this project, yet always reach out to experts in other fields for advice.  

4. How will the PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program benefit your training experience?

   The PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program will have several benefits on my training experience and career development, such as the much-appreciated funding, creating opportunities for networking with other professionals in my field, and recognizing my potential and research achievements. Furthermore, the program's collaborative nature is expected to enhance progress, allowing me to gain valuable experience and potentially contributing to new discoveries.  

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Dr. Jeffrey Man, Postdoctoral Researcher

Supervisors: Drs. Marc De Perrot, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute; and Cheryl Arrowsmith, Temerty Faculty of Medicine

“Evaluating epigenetic pathways in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM)”

Jeffrey Man is a clinician-scientist with a clinical background in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and a research background in epigenetics and non-coding RNA. During his clinical training, Jeff became interested in the molecular mechanisms underlying respiratory diseases and the potential for novel therapies based on these mechanisms. His research includes the original description of two endothelial-enriched long noncoding RNAs that have been published in high-impact journals such as PNAS.

With the PRiME Clinical Catalyst Award, Jeff will work in a collaboration between the Toronto Mesothelioma program (Dr. Marc de Perrot) and the Structural Genomics Consortium (Dr. Cheryl Arrowsmith, Dr. Panagiotis Prinos) to evaluate epigenetic pathways in malignant pleural mesothelioma. The goal of this project is to develop new and effective therapies for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

1. What excites you about your research project?

   I am most excited about the opportunity to impact the lives of patients with this devastating disease - malignant pleural mesothelioma. I look forward to working with the labs of Drs de Perrot, Arrowsmith and Dr Prinos, and hopefully beyond, to learn as much as we can with this project.
   

2. What do you look forward to learning and achieving in the next year?

   The understanding of epigenetics and potential therapeutic implications in mesothelioma is in its infancy. We have designed our project to broadly assess epigenetic regulators and efficiently identify potential therapeutic targets that complement our current best treatment protocols. I hope that we can find some candidates worthy of further investigation.
   

3. How does your project bring together different disciplines?

   Our concepts, experimental approaches and team members are multdisciplinary. Insights from a multidisciplinary clinical trial involving medical, surgical and radiation specialists inspired this project. We plan to leverage high throughput drug screening methods and chemical biology approaches and our team includes clinicians, molecular biologists and biophysicists.
   

4. How will the PRIME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program benefit your training experience?

   The PRIME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program has provided a platform for collaboration and expanded the resources available to our research programs. I have had and will have the opportunity to learn from mentors with a range of background and experience. This framework is how I would like to plan and design my future projects.

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Dr. Shahrzad Nouri, Postdoctoral Researcher

Supervisors: Drs. Sowmya Viswanathan, Krembil Research Institute; and Gilbert Walker, Faculty of Arts and Science

“Polarized macrophage-encapsulated hydrogels for osteoarthritis treatment”

Shahrzad is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr. Viswanathan's lab at the Krembil Research Institute. Her research focuses on developing novel immunotherapies for chronic joint inflammation and osteoarthritis (OA). In collaboration with Prof. Walker's lab, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, She will explore the application of a 3D hydrogel delivery system in modulating the inflammatory mediators in human OA explant models and animal models of OA. They aim to increase the survival and functionality of a specific subset of immune cells by providing a controlled physiological 3D environment to shift the pro-inflammatory condition of the OA joint toward a more pro-resolving state.

1. What excites you about your research project? 

   I am excited about this project because we are exploring a promising tool to enhance the efficacy of cell-based therapies for osteoarthritis.  

2. What do you look forward to learning and achieving in the next year? 

   I look forward to learning more about the modulators of chronic inflammation and optimizing cell-based therapeutic approaches currently used in our lab.   

3. How does your project bring together different disciplines? 

   In this project, we will use a  microfluidic-based cell encapsulation platform to increase the functionality and retention of immune cells injected in the joint of mice with experimentally induced osteoarthritis. To achieve this, skills and knowledge in engineering, biomaterials, immunology, in vivo animal models, and clinical and translational research are needed.   

4. How will the PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program benefit your training experience? 

   It will allow me to advance my skills in microfluidic-based cell manipulation systems, biomaterials, and animal models of chronic inflammation.  

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Dr. Yue Xu, Postdoctoral Researcher

Supervisors: Drs. Gang Zheng, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; and Bowen Li, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

“A novel self-reporting circular RNA-based nanomedicine for Malignant pleural mesothelioma immunotherapy”

Dr. Xu will be co-supervised by Dr. Bowen Li (Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy) and Dr. Gang Zheng (Princess Margaret Cancer Centre). Yue's research interests focus on Medicinal Chemistry and Biomedical Imaging, and in this project Yue is working on the de novo design of LNPs for RNA delivery.

Yue will build a novel self-reporting circular RNA (circRNA) LNP therapy platform that combines a circRNA that encodes both IL-12 and a near-infrared (NIR) luciferase (NIR-Luc) with a lung-tropic lipid nanoparticle under the Clinical Catalyst Program. The project combines expertise in pharmaceutical sciences, molecular genetics, cancer nanomedicine, and bioimaging across the Faculty of Pharmacy and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

1. What excites you about your research project?

   What excites me about this research project is the potential to significantly improve drug delivery targeting, reduce patient side effects, enhance therapeutic efficacy, and ultimately improve the lives of cancer patients.

2. What do you look forward to learning and achieving in the next year?

   Looking forward to the next year, I aim to improve the accuracy of drug delivery and efficacy while also gaining more clinical drug-related training.

3. How does your project bring together different disciplines?

   This project brings together different disciplines by combining gene therapy, a hot field in medical research, with targeted delivery of gene drugs and biological imaging.

4. How will the PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program benefit your training experience?

   The PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program will benefit my training experience by providing me with additional opportunities to study drug release and its effects in the body. These skills and experiences will be invaluable for my ongoing work in basic drug research and development.

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Dr. Ilya Yakavets, Postdoctoral Researcher

Supervisors: Drs. David Cescon, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; and Eugenia Kumacheva, Faculty of Arts and Science

“Integration of patient-derived organoids grown in microfluidic tumor-on-a-chip platform with machine learning to identify sequential multidrug cancer chemotherapies”

Dr. Ilya Yakavets, a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Eugenia Kumacheva’s lab in the Chemistry department at the University of Toronto, is working on the integration of patient-derived cancer models, a microfluidic tumor-on-a-chip platform, and machine learning for the discovery of novel and optimization of existing sequential combination chemotherapies. Prior to joining Kumacheva’s lab in December 2020, he was working as a researcher on the screening of nanotherapeutics for photodynamic therapy of cancer at Lorraine Oncology Institute (Nancy, France) and completed a Ph.D. at the University of Lorraine (Nancy, France) in 2019. In 2020-2021, he was awarded a RBC Post-Doctoral Fellowship to combine microfluidics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop and validate an innovative time-, labor- and cost-efficient feedback-driven drug discovery and multidrug regimen development platform to enable the identification of promising clinically impactful drug candidates with maximal therapeutic benefit and minimal potential for harm.

1. What excites you about your research project?

   I'm thrilled to be part of a multidisciplinary team that includes programmers, scientists, and clinicians, as our combined expertise will be essential to the success of this research project.

   I strongly believe that our approach has the potential to significantly advance cancer therapy research, particularly for patients with metastatic breast cancer, and ultimately contribute to better treatment outcomes. The most exciting aspect of this project is the opportunity to translate our findings into clinical practice and improve the quality of life for cancer patients.

2. What do you look forward to learning and achieving in the next year?

   I'm eager to learn more about the most recent developments in combination cancer therapies during the course of the coming year. The validation of the proposed machine learning-driven workflow for the identification of novel new clinical strategies in the treatment of breast cancer is another thing I'm looking forward to.

3. How does your project bring together different disciplines?

   This research project brings together cancer biology, microfluidics, bioengineering and machine learning. The interdisciplinary nature of this project is a significant strength and represents a collaborative effort toward improving cancer treatment.

4. How will the PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program benefit your training experience?

   The comprehensive training in entrepreneurship, project management, and communication skills offered by the PRiME-UHN Clinical Catalyst program will undoubtedly accelerate my development as a scientist and equip me with the necessary skills to effectively translate research findings into clinical practice.

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