Graphic titled, "Terry Fox Research Institute Year in Review." Features photos of the 5 awardees. Subtitle, "$2.6 million for the 2025 Terry Fox New Investigator Awardees"

Terry Fox Research Institute Year in Review: February 2025

TFRI awarded $2.6M to future leaders advancing research in melanoma, lung, brain, blood, and pediatric cancers and driving progress in detection, metastasis, drugs, immunotherapy and precision medicine.

Learn more: tinyurl.com/mv5sw6kz

Really excited to be part of this initiative! Huge thanks to @braincanada.bsky.social & @src-crs.bsky.social for investing in brain cancer research and supporting the great work of these two amazing teams! @pmresearch-uhn.bsky.social @uhnresearch.ca

🇨🇦🇦🇺 Thank you to @garvaninstitute.bsky.social for joining us at the Allan Slaight Breakthrough Forum! Scientists were brought together to tackle tumour complexity for translational impact. Together, we’re accelerating the path toward more precise and effective cancer care.💙

Weekly #cancerresearch highlight: @fgaiti.bsky.social and his team are pinpointing mutations that signal lymphoma, aiming to intercept this #cancer before it develops. This could significantly improve the chances of successful treatment for those at higher risk. Learn more: is.gd/djdklR

Grazie mille Mario!

#Glioblastoma #CancerNeuroscience #Epigenomics #SingleCell #BrainTumor #DevCell

Neurodevelopmental hijacking of oligodendrocyte lineage programs drives glioblastoma infiltration Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive brain tumor with a highly invasive nature. Despite the clinical relevance of this behavior, the molecular underpin…

📖 Read here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Proud to contribute to the field of #CancerNeuroscience, building on the foundational work of leaders and pioneers in the field!

🙏 Huge thanks to our incredible collaborators @uhn.ca @uhnresearch.ca @pmresearch-uhn.bsky.social , the patients & families, and our funders @CIHR @NSERC @pmresearch-uhn.bsky.social @theabta.bsky.social @oicr.on.ca @braincanada.bsky.social @src-crs.bsky.social @terryfoxresearch.bsky.social

💡 What’s next? Can we target these epigenetically sustained cell states or disrupt tumor-neuron crosstalk to limit recurrence?

➡️ Our findings provide insights into the neurodevelopmental hijacking that drives GBM infiltration in patients, revealing how tumor cells mimic brain development to invade.

We found that:
🧬 Infiltrating GBM cells adopt an uncommitted oligodendrocyte progenitor-like state
⚡ They engage in synaptic signaling and neuron-tumor crosstalk
🧠 This state is epigenetically regulated and sustained by developmental transcription factors such as ZEB1, and others

We performed single-cell and spatial profiling of infiltrating GBM cells directly from human patients, moving beyond preclinical models to reveal how these cells behave at the invasive edge in the human brain.

Excited to share our first lab paper, now published in Developmental Cell @cellpress.bsky.social !

🧠 How do glioblastoma (GBM) cells invade the brain, and what enables them to spread so effectively?

Congratulations to @pmresearch-uhn.bsky.social's Dr. Federico Gaiti, who was awarded the Terry Fox Research Institute's New Investigator Award, supporting the next generation of #cancer researchers! 🙌

Congratulations to our scientist Dr. Federico Gaiti who received Terry Fox New Investigator Award from Terry Fox Research Institute.

Read more about the award announcement and Dr. Gaiti's research project on understanding the spread of brain tumour: www.tfri.ca/our-research...