Meet the inaugural Arthur Child Innovation Catalyst Grant winners.
By Fabian Mayer
Photographs by Jonathan Ferguson and Jared Sych
You never know where the next big cancer breakthrough will come from. That’s why fostering innovation across a broad array of research areas is so important. The Arthur Child Innovation Catalyst Grant Competition provides up to $300,000 to University of Calgary researchers pursuing projects that enhance the screening, diagnosis, treatment and supportive care for individuals affected by cancer. Sponsored by the Alberta Cancer Foundation, the grants provide support for projects from a variety of different fields that may be unlikely to receive funding through traditional academic sources. Many of the projects, which usually last two years, take their own unique approach to specific aspects of cancer diagnosis, treatment and research.
Meet the 2024 Arthur Child Innovation Catalyst Grant winners.
Dr. Rui Fu
Harnessing artificial intelligence
One of artificial intelligence’s (AI) most promising uses is in supporting scientific and medical research and practice. AI can analyze the enormous amounts of data produced by the medical field to discover trends and gaps to help support researchers and doctors. Dr. Rui Fu, an assistant professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, is using the Arthur Child Innovation Catalyst Grant funding for just such a project. Her research could lead to a life-saving tool for Albertans diagnosed with head and neck cancer.
“My project is a pilot study of developing a machine learning-based clinical support tool that can help head and neck cancer doctors to better detect patients at risk of experiencing a catastrophic health event within 14 days after a visit to an oncologist or a treatment appointment,” says Fu. Specifically, the tool could help identify what level of risk a patient may have for a health event like radiation-induced toxicity, carotid blowout or hospital admission.
Recently relocated from Toronto, where she completed a masters and PhD in health economics at the University of Toronto, Fu is a quantitative methodologist who uses statistical methods to analyze the vast amounts of data generated by health care systems with the goal of improving patient care and outcomes.
Beyond the numbers, Fu also plans to integrate the knowledge and experiences of health care professionals, policymakers and patients and their families to ensure the resulting tool is useful and effective.
“Head and neck cancers are a very understudied but devastating cancer type. The research group I am currently with, the Ohlson Research Initiative, is the only Canadian group dedicated solely to improving care for patients with these cancers, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been selected as a grant winner,” says Fu.
Dr. Jongbok Lee
Teaming up exercise with immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is one of the most exciting areas of cancer treatment research today. The idea is to harness the body’s own immune system to help target cancer cells. Dr. Jongbok Lee is an immunotherapy researcher and professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, and his research explores how exercise affects immune cells.
Specifically studying a unique subset of immune cells known as double-negative T-cells, Lee’s project will compare the cancer-targeting abilities of immune cells from highly active individuals versus less active individuals. The project will then explore whether regular exercise can improve the cancer-targeting ability of immune cells in the same individual, by conducting tests before and after either a single exercise session or a six-week exercise program.
“We expect that immune cells from trained individuals and those obtained after six weeks of regular exercise will demonstrate stronger anti-cancer activity,” says Lee. “Lastly, we’ll investigate the specific changes exercise induces in immune cells, focusing particularly on cellular metabolism, to better understand why these cells become more effective against cancer.”
This work involves a close collaboration between Lee and professors from the faculty of kinesiology, Dr. Nicole Culos-Reed and Dr. Brittany Edgett, with the research being spearheaded by Heejae Lee and Dr. Jonathan Low.
The team is leveraging the well-established knowledge that exercise enhances immune cell function. Lee hopes this project can shed light on how immune cells can be most successful at targeting cancer.
“This project is highly interdisciplinary, and we are grateful for the support from the Arthur Child Innovation Catalyst Grant,” says Lee. “It would have been challenging to find a single funding source that covers such a broad and multidisciplinary scope. Our ultimate goal is to develop more effective immune cell-based therapies by using exercise as a lifestyle intervention.”
Dr. Sorana Morrissy
Creating a vaccine for glioblastoma
It’s an unfortunate reality that some kinds of cancer remain incurable. Glioblastoma, the most common and deadly form of brain cancer, is one such type. Still, researchers continue to hunt for ways to better treat and perhaps even cure the disease.
Dr. Sorana Morrissy is one of those researchers. Her Arthur Child Innovation Catalyst Grant project explores the potential of a vaccine as a treatment strategy. Unlike conventional vaccines that are used to prevent disease, this vaccine would be given to patients already diagnosed with glioblastoma.
Morrissy says tumours are like their own mini ecosystems, and the vaccine would aim to change that ecosystem in a way that lets the patient’s immune system more readily target the cancer cells. This strategy has been effective in mice, and Morrissy hopes that the funded research can develop the approach into a new treatment avenue for people with glioblastoma.
“We know some cancers can be cured by leveraging the power of the immune system. That hasn’t happened yet for glioblastoma, but our immune system has the capacity to respond to this cancer, potentially in a way that’s more effective than standard-of-care treatments,” says Morrissy. “Our hope with this research is that we can test this theory in a clinical trial on patients and significantly extend their lifespan.”
Dr. Amir Sanati-Nezhad
Using biomarkers to personalize cancer treatment
Dr. Amir Sanati-Nezhad’s research doesn’t typically focus on cancer. A professor of biomedical engineering, his prior work has included developing biosensors for the rapid detection of concussions. With the help of the Arthur Child Innovation Catalyst Grant, he hopes to apply his knowledge and expertise of biomarkers and biosensing to cancer treatment.
Sanati-Nezhad hopes that examining tiny particles in the blood called exosomes will yield a way to detect how individual cancer patients will respond to immunotherapy treatments.
“The ultimate goal is to give doctors and patients better tools to personalize cancer treatment — especially immunotherapy,” says Sanati-Nezhad. “Right now, many patients undergo immunotherapy without knowing whether it will work for them. We want to change that by offering a quick test that shows if someone’s body is ready to respond to treatment, using just a drop of blood or urine.”
Bridging the fields of engineering, biology and medicine, Sanati-Nezhad says if successful, the innovative test would give oncologists a powerful tool to more precisely determine treatment strategies.
“The grant support means we can take bold steps forward — testing an idea that could truly change lives,” Sanati-Nezhad says. “It also reflects the growing recognition of how innovative, cross-disciplinary science can improve cancer care.”
Dr. Perri Tutelman
Supporting young adults facing cancer
One of the things that makes the Arthur Child Innovation Catalyst Grants unique is the competition’s openness to a wide variety of disciplines and areas of research. That’s great news for Dr. Perri Tutelman, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the department of psychology.
Born out of her clinical work with adolescents and young adults in cancer care, Tutelman’s project is dedicated to producing resources that inform these patients about the care available to them and how to access it.
“We are incredibly fortunate in Calgary to have significant services within the cancer care system and a community to support patients diagnosed with cancer,” says Tutelman. “Counselling services, social work support, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and more are all available. Yet, many patients aren’t aware of these services or how to access them.”
Each year, 2,800 adolescents and young adults between the ages of 18 to 39 years are diagnosed with cancer in Alberta, notes Tutelman, adding that this cohort has specific needs and may be less aware of the supports available. Tutelman’s project seeks to address this problem by creating a brand new digital resource known as ANCHOR. With a research phase confirming the need for such a platform already completed, the grant funding will help develop ANCHOR and put it into clinical practice at the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
