Page 2 - Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre Annual Report 2022 to 2023

2 IMAGINE 2021-22
Introduction DR. JAMES RUTKA
I am pleased and proud to provide you with this year’s introduction to the Annual Scientific Report of the Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre (BTRC). We have had, once again, a highly productive and memorable year characterized by numerous successes, honours and awards. All Principal Investigators have garnered numerous multi-year grant awards and have published their work in the best scientific journals. Students and researchers, from all corners of the world including Italy, China, France, Japan, Ukraine, and the United States, continue
to join us for advanced training in the lab. We celebrated the ninth annual Mike and Dianne Traynor Lectureship in brain tumour research, and our lecturer was Dr. Hideho Okada from the University of California San Francisco. Our 24th Annual Labatt BTRC Academic Lecturer was Amy Heimberger from the Northwestern University in Chicago. Once again, these two academic lectures were given virtually given the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This past year, Michael Taylor and colleagues published a seminal report in Nature on
the failure of differentiation of the human rhombic lip as a cause of medulloblastoma;
Cynthia Hawkins and her lab group published on oncohistone interactome profiling in high-grade gliomas in Acta Neuropathologica; Peter Dirks published on a brain precursor atlas revealing developmental-like sites in adult brain tumours in Nature Communications; Annie Huang and her lab group published on clinical and molecular heterogeneity of pineal parenchymal tumours in Acta Neuropathologica; Vijay Ramaswamy and colleagues published on ultra high-risk PFA ependymoma being characterized by loss of chromosome 6q in Neuro-Oncology; Uri Tabori
and his lab published on the genomic predictors of response to PD-1 inhibition in children
with germline DNA replication repair deficiency in Nature Medicine; Gelareh Zadeh and her
lab published on a clinically applicable integrative molecular classification of meningiomas in Nature; and my laboratory published on multidisciplinary management of optic pathway glioma in children with NF-1 in Frontiers in Surgery.
We are actively involved in three separate Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) Program Grants through the efforts of the Dirks, Tabori, Annie Huang and Rutka labs.
We look forward to sharing future issues of Imagine with you as we strive to translate our research observations into tangible clinical benefits for patients, both adults and children, with brain tumours.
James T. Rutka OC, O Ont, MD, PhD, FRCSC, FRSC, FACS, FAANS
Director and Principal Investigator
The Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre
ABOUT THE BTRC
Since our move to the new Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning (PGCRL) on September 17th, 2013, we have quickly expanded to fill the space that has been allocated to us on the 17th floor. We now have a record 174 personnel working within the Labatt BTRC at this site. This includes all Masters and PhD students, post- doctoral fellows, research assistants and associates, and Principal Investigators. Our space on the 17th floor of PGCRL is comprised of a balance of office and wet lab bench spaces for the conduction of scientific studies. We are also enjoying the friendly “neighbourhood” space which enables individuals from the 16th-18th floors to come together to discuss ongoing science and research projects. The Labatt BTRC played host to numerous invited scholars and scientists last year. Our academic lectureship program is becoming the envy of brain tumour centres around the world.
ON THE COVER
Artwork generated by an artificial intelligence algorithm based on the scientific discovery of cancer cell ensheathment on blood vessels
to form the blood-tumour barrier.