Ian Lorimer

Glioblastoma is an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer. My lab has two main projects aimed at improving patient outcomes for this disease:

1. To date immunotherapy strategies have been unsuccessful in glioblastoma. We have identified efferocytosis as a key pathway mediating immunosuppression by glioblastoma tumours. We are developing small molecule and biotherapeutic strategies to inhibit this pathway. These are evaluated in cell culture and clinically-valid mouse models. 

2. We are developing additional biotherapeutic strategies for glioblastoma treatment that target glioblastoma cells directly. We have engineered a version of the tumour suppressor PTEN that efficiently transfers from cell-to-cell. This is currently undergoing pre-clinical evaluation as a therapeutic, using neural stem cells as delivery vehicles. Additional therapeutic proteins that selectively promote glioblastoma cell death and that are optimized for brain delivery are also under development. 
 

Current lab members:

Ian Lorimer
Margarita Lui (technician)

Shu Song (M.Sc. student)
Hannah Verge (M.Sc. student)
Nayomi Thambiadiah (co-op student)

Our current funders:

Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada

Brain Cancer Canada