Honors and funding: a source of great pride for IRIC

The excellence of IRIC’s scientific work is recognized, year after year, by their peers and by funding bodies, increasing the scope of their research.

Canada Foundation for Innovation
LeadAction Breast Cancer du Sein Competition
2021 Killam Prize
Omics Data Against Cancer Competition
LeadAction Ovarian Cancer Competition

Katherine Borden, David Knapp and Geneviève Deblois receive substantial support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation

IRIC Principal Investigators received financial support of $688,762, $528,749 and $415,565 respectively for their research project.

The project led by Katherine Borden tackles multi-drug resistance in cancer, notably by developing strategies to restore sensitivity to chemotherapy in patients.

David Knapp’s project explores the molecular mechanics supporting the establishment and loss of cell identity when they become cancerous. By revealing new vulnerabilities, they can be targeted by therapeutic solutions.  

The goal of Geneviève Deblois’s project is to study the resistance to treatment in triple-negative breast cancers. Cancer cells develop this resistance, among other things, by altering their metabolism and the expression of their genes. A better understanding of these mechanisms paves the way for the development of new, more effective therapeutic strategies.

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The project carried out by Sylvie Mader and her team receives the LeadAction|Breast Cancer du Sein grant

The laboratory headed by Sylvie Mader is one of the 4 winning teams that will receive a total of $3M over 3 years as part of the competition funded by IRICoR and the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation. The competition is aimed at accelerating breast cancer research work and at developing additional therapeutic options for those affected by this cancer.

Her team’s project, carried out in collaboration with the team headed by Anne Marinier, Principal Investigator and Director of IRIC’s Drug Discovery Unit, aims to counter the resistance to treatments of this type of cancer and better treat those affected by hormone-dependent breast cancer (ER+).

Michel Bouvier is the laureate of the 2021 Killam Prize in Health Sciences

Among the most prestigious honors in Canada, the Killam Prizes are awarded annually by the Canada Council for the Arts to Canadian investigators who have distinguished themselves through their excellence and by having a significant impact in their field.

A world-renowned expert in cell signaling and molecular pharmacology, Michel Bouvier has achieved several major breakthroughs in the field of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), which make up the largest class of therapeutic targets focused on by the pharmaceutical industry. His work has led to new concepts that have a direct impact on the discovery of new drugs.

His leadership at IRIC continues to have a major influence on the interactions between academic and industrial research following innovative models.

Sébastien Lemieux and his team’s project is a recipient of the Omics Data Against Cancer Competition

Sébastien Lemieux’s team is one of the five recipients that will receive a total of $1.5M in funding as part of the competition organized by Génome Québec, Ivado and Oncopole, which aims to support projects developing applications and artificial intelligence tools used to better exploit the datasets generated by genomics and the study of cancer.

The work carried out by Sébastien Lemieux and his colleagues consists of developing new reduced vector representations for the use of transcriptomic and chemical data in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In the longer-term, these advances should facilitate the exploitation of artificial intelligence algorithms for drug development and precision medicine. This promising project would therefore be very useful for developing new classes of drugs for resistant subtypes of AML and in precision medicine, to combine treatments with each patient in an optimal way.

Claude Perreault receives the LeadAction Ovarian Cancer grant

The project to develop therapeutic ovarian cancer vaccines, carried out by the team headed by Dr. Perreault, is one of the competition’s three winning projects, born from a collaboration between IRICoR and Ovarian Cancer Canada.

The two organizations each invested $1.15M over two years to foster innovation in research to fight this cancer, which is the 5th most common among women, as well as one of the most fatal.

The discovery of molecules (called antigens) specific to ovarian cancer and capable of being targeted by the immune system, will make it possible to apply immunotherapy to ovarian cancer. Using a revolutionary approach, the team discovered 55 of these specific antigens.

On average, ovarian cancers have 5 or 6 of these newly discovered antigens on their surface. The goal is to develop a therapeutic vaccine, based on these antigens, to treat ovarian cancer.