Page 8 - Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre Annual Report 2023 to 2024

PRINCIPAL INVES
Dr. Xi Huang
Senior Scientist, Principal Investigator
Dr. Annie Huang
Senior Scientist, Principal Investigator
Dr. Annie Huang earned her MD and PhD in
Molecular Genetics from the University of
Toronto and trained in Paediatric Oncology at
SickKids, where she is now a senior neuro-
oncologist. Her research program focuses on
the molecular pathogenesis of rare childhood
brain tumours.
LABORATORY PERSONNEL
Yacine Choutri, Graduate Student
Ben Ho, Graduate Student
Lydia Leung, Graduate Student
Laurie Liu, Graduate Student
Yuqing Yang, Graduate Student
Fupan Yao, Graduate Student
Ian Bell, Postdoctoral Fellow
Oliva Palander, Postdoctoral Fellow
Nikhil Raghuram, Resident, Research Fellow
Mei Lu, Research Project Manager
Jack Reily, Clinical Research Coordinator
An Dang Vu, Assistant Research Technologist
Liming Xu, Bioinformatician
Dr. Xi Huang is a Senior Scientist in the
Developmental, Stem Cell, and Cancer
Biology Program at The Hospital for Sick
Children and an Associate Professor at the
Department of Molecular Genetics at the
University of Toronto. Dr. Huang holds a
Canada Research Chair in Cancer Biophysics.
While extensive research has informed
genetic and biochemical mechanisms
in tumourigenesis, how mechanical and
electrical signaling regulate cancer is less
defined. The Huang lab decodes ion channel-
mediated mechano-electrical-chemical
signaling in tumours and develops ion
channel-targeting therapeutic approaches
to treat brain cancer.
Dr. Huang’s research focuses on
understanding the molecular spectrum of rare
childhood brain tumours, including ATRTs and
PNETs/embryonal brain tumours, to define
disease mechanisms and improve diagnosis
and therapeutics for rare diseases. She
leads an International Consortium for Rare
Paediatric Brain Tumours studies, in which
over 70 International centres contribute to
a tissue and clinical data repository. The
creation of this repository has enabled her
group and others to conduct seminal genomic
studies leading to the discovery of new rare
brain tumour entities, as well as molecular
classes of ATRTs, which has helped advance
detection, diagnosis and the development of
new therapeutic approaches to these rare,
often fatal diseases of childhood.
LABORATORY PERSONNEL
Zaleena Akheralie, Graduate Student
Jade Chan, Graduate Student
Anders Erickson, Graduate Student
Nicolaes Min, Graduate Student
Robert Du Yang Zhang, Research Student
Wei Wang, Research Project Coordinator
Junsheng Chen, Postdoctoral Fellow
Julia Carrillo Garcia, Postdoctoral Fellow
Qi Yang, Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Support: Cancer Research Society, Canadian Institutes
of Health Research, Canada Research Chair Program, Charlie Teo
Foundation, Meagan’s HUG (Meagan Bebenek Foundation), SickKids
Garron Family Cancer Centre, SickKids Industry Partnerships and
Commercialization
Research Support: b.r.a.i.n.child, Canadian Institutes of Health
Research, SickKids Garron Family Cancer Centre, Meagan’s HUG
(Meagan Bebenek Foundation), Rally Foundation, US Department of
Defence
8
IMAGINE 2023-24