Featured Researcher

Fei-Fei Liu, MD, FRDPC

Conducting groundbreaking cancer research at the Princess Margaret Hospital, part of University Health Network (UHN), Dr. Fei-Fei Liu has recently published her work in the prestigious journal Science Translational Medicine.  Dr. Liu is a Senior Radiation Oncologist-Scientist with laboratory and translational expertise in human cancers.

It is her laboratory’s work on an enzyme, known as UROD, which has caused quite a buzz recently. When this enzyme is targeted appropriately, it can generate the same toxic effects that radiation and cancer drugs create in the cells, thereby allowing doctors to greatly reduce those harmful therapies when fighting tumours. 

"UROD is an enzyme involved in the production of a molecule called heme, which is vital to all body organs. Targeting UROD creates an opportunity to exploit the heme synthesis pathway, which disrupts the equilibrium of iron and free radical levels in cells which in turn kills cancer cells." says Dr. Liu.

This discovery holds a promising future for cancers such as head and neck cancer (HNC), which is currently an area of significant unmet medical need. Since head and neck tumours are often located in close proximity to critical organs such as the spinal cord, optic nerve, and the brain itself.  Using RNA materials to block working parts of the enzyme, this group of researchers have successfully shut down UROD actions in both human tumours in mice, and in several lines of human cancer cells in laboratory settings.

"Our analysis of patient biopsies revealed that UROD levels were significantly higher in tumor tissues versus normal tissues. Cancer patients with lower UROD levels prior to radiation treatment had a superior clinical outcome, suggesting that UROD could also potentially be used to predict patients' response to radiation therapy," says Dr. Fei-Fei Liu.

Full journal article (http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/67/67ra7.short)

For more information on Dr. Liu’s work as well as other cancer therapeutic technologies available for licensing please contact:

Rahbar Rahimpour, PhD, MBA

(416) 581-7728

rrahimpo@uhnresearch.ca

Previously Featured Inventors:

Aaron Schimmer

Shaf Keshavjee