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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
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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 that perform thousands of tests at a time and enable
studies of gene function on a genome-wide scale. With his special
expertise and phenomenal success securing support from granting
agencies, he has established a Robotics Facility at the
Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute. The expertise and advanced
technology available in the facility extends the research capacity of
scientists throughout the Lunenfeld and
beyond.
In February 2009, Dr. Wrana unveiled a
new technology tool that analyzes breast cancer tumours to determine a
patient's best treatment options. The technology, called
DyNeMo, analyzes networks of proteins in cancer cells, and can
predict with more than 80 per cent accuracy a patient's chance of
recovering from breast cancer. Wrana and his team hope that the
technology will eventually provide individualized analysis to breast
cancer patients and their oncologists so that they are better informed
and empowered to select a treatment best suited to
them.
Dr. Wrana has also made significant
discoveries related to colorectal and other cancers. In particular, he
is interested in metastasis, the spread of cancer from its initial
site to other places throughout the body, and which is responsible
for 90 percent of cancer deaths. Insights into this little-understood
process have the potential to make a significant impact on survival
rates for breast and other cancers.
In December 2012, Dr. Wrana
and his team garnered media attention for their major discovery
about the way cancer spreads. The team found that proteins produced in
normal cells near the environment of a cancer tumour influence the
cancer’s ability to spread to other tissues of the body. This alters
the standard thought that cancer cells were responsible for cancer
spreading, and this discovery has the potential to transform the
way cancer is treated.
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