New grants expand chordoma research in Canada

Stephen Yip, MD, PhD
BC Cancer Agency

Dr. Stephen Yip was recently awarded a $150K grant from Chordoma Foundation

Chordoma is a locally aggressive, treatment- refractory tumour, that affects the spine and skull base. The tumour has very few mutations and low inflammatory cell infiltration and is considered a immunologically “cold” tumour. Findings from dedifferentiated chordoma, a rare variant in pediatric patients, suggest that disruption of the SWI/SNF complex, via the loss of SMARCB1 expression, might enhance the robustness of the antitumour immune response likely via enhanced antigen presentation. Emerging evidence of the respective role of PBRM1 and SMARCA4 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma of the ovary (hypercalcemic type) have also highlighted these other members of the SWI/SNF complex in modulating anti-tumour immune response. This project explores and exploits this mechanism and to recapitulate it in adult chordoma, which does not typically carry these genetic defects, with specific epigenetic probes. The ultimate goal is to enhance the immune response to classical chordoma via selective modulation of the epigenome.

Dr. William Hsiao receives 3 grants to support the development of bioinformatics tools

Dr. William Hsiao, PhD
BC Centre for Disease Control

We are delighted to announce that Dr. William Hsiao, Senior Scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia, was recently awarded three grants as Principal Investigator to support the development of bioinformatics tools to facilitate intersectoral data sharing and analysis, benefiting both the scientific community and public health services in BC and Canada.

  • Bioinformatics Tools to Enable Federated, Real Time Genomic Epidemiology Data Sharing and Analysis in a One Health Framework

    Dr. Hsiao’s Genome Canada/Genome British Columbia grant entitled “Bioinformatics Tools to Enable Federated, Real Time Genomic Epidemiology Data Sharing and Analysis in a One Health Framework”, awarded $1.15M over 3 years, will develop a One Health framework for sharing genomics data and associated contextual information across multiple sectors (health, agriculture, wildlife and environment) at local, national and global levels. The proposed research is highly relevant to public health as the lack of such a trusted system for secure, user-controlled data sharing is a key challenge in distributing and integrating information - getting the right information to the right people quickly and efficiently - during infectious disease health crises. The development of bioinformatics tools to enable data harmonization and sharing in real-time will facilitate improved communication between public health and agricultural institutions, leading to safer food production and distribution systems, and ultimately, healthier Canadians.

  • Bioinformatics Tools to Improve Data Sharing and Re-use in Public Health – applications in antimicrobial resistance

    Dr. Hsiao’s proposal “Bioinformatics Tools to Improve Data Sharing and Re-use in Public Health – applications in antimicrobial resistance”, funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), will help researchers and health-care practitioners to better monitor, understand, control and respond to disease threats and antimicrobial resistance. CIHR has granted Dr. Hsiao ~$597K over 3 years for the proposed research initiatives.

  • Integrated Rapid Infectious Disease Analysis Platform - IRIDA

    Dr. Hsiao’s proposal to extend the “Integrated Rapid Infectious Disease Analysis Platform - IRIDA” for cloud computing, funded by the CANARIE Network (www.canarie.ca), will create a cloud-enabled version of the IRIDA genomic epidemiology analysis platform currently used in the Canadian Public Health organizations. This will enable more rapid deployment and improve scalability of the open-source, freely available platform to be used around the world to support high-resolution pathogen genomic-based infectious disease outbreak investigations. CANARIE is providing ~$225K over 2 and ½ years for the proposed research work.