Dr. Jeff Wrana

Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum
Research Institute
Mount Sinai Hospital
Joseph & Wolf Lebovic Health Complex
600 University Avenue
Toronto Ontario M5G 1X5

Tel: 416-586-4800 ext.2791
► Send Email
 

Dr. Jeff Wrana 
SENIOR INVESTIGATOR

Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Senior Investigator Dr. Jeff Wrana is internationally recognized for his cancer research. While most current cancer investigations focus on specific disease pathways, Dr. Wrana believes cancer involves a complex network of pathways that work together to misregulate cells and cause disease. His research aims to expose the mechanisms involved in the development of these networks and to reveal new targets for treatments that would attack the entire disease network, not just individual hubs. Dr. Wrana's research program involves the application of high-throughput, robotics-based technologies to interrogate biological systems on a genome-wide scale. He established the LTRI SMART high throughput biology facility that was amalgamated into the Network Biology Collaboration Centre in collaboration with Drs. Anne-Claude Gingras and Laurence Pelletier. Dr. Wrana’s group is currently exploiting human patient specimens, animal models, and 3D organoid models, together with single cell technologies, to understand at the cellular and molecular level, the intimate link between the acquisition of stem cell phenotypes, tissue regeneration and the initiation and progression of cancer.

At a Glance

• Studies the molecular basis underlying the intersection of early development, tissue regeneration and cancer
• Discovered new ways by which cells communicate with each other
• Holds the Mary Janigan Research Chair in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
• Inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 2006
• Received a Premier's Summit Award in 2010

Major Research Activities

Dr. Wrana's lab is primarily interested in defining the signalling networks that control tissue formation, how tissues regenerate after injury, and how these networks are aberrantly organized to drive cancer initiation and progression to metastatic disease. His current interests build on his discovery of the TGFbeta signalling pathway, the Smurf family of ubiquitin ligases that play key roles in cell polarity, and more recently on how these pathways are integrated with the Hippo tissue size control pathway. This work has revealed new mechanisms underlying cell fate determination and tissue regeneration in multiple models.

Recent Publications