We focus our research on three approaches to interfere with the communication between cancer and normal cells within a tumour.

Stat3 and tumourigenesis

Pronounced epithelial Stat3 activity is not only observed during wound-healing, but also in a majority of cancers including those in the colon, stomach, breast and lung. Our lab recently established a novel link, showing that the cytokine interleukin (IL)-11 – through its shared gp130 receptor, the associated Jak kinases and Stat3 signaling – promotes tumourigenesis. Surprisingly, this signaling cascade also becomes rate limiting for the growth of colon and gastric tumours that are driven by mutations in well recognised cancer pathways.

Neoplastic cells

We are therapeutically exploiting that neoplastic cells have often developed a higher dependency on a particular signal than their normal counterparts. For instance, oncogenic activation of the WNT/beta-catenin signaling cascade is the most common tumour-initiating event that occurs in epithelial stem cells and results in the development of sporadic colorectal cancer. Because interference with the gp130/Stat3 signaling cascades limits the expansion of such intestinal (cancer) stem cells, the addiction of colon cancer cells to gp130/Stat3 signaling can be therapeutically exploited in these tumours where targeting of the mutated WNT/beta-catenin signaling cascade is not feasible.

Hck activation

The cellular composition of the tumour microenvironment affects how well a tumour can grow and respond to targeted and immune-modulatory therapy. Although these processes are affected by many different cell types within the tumour stroma, macrophages and other myeloid-derived cells are among the most important players. We have found that the myeloid cell kinase Hck is highly abundant in the tumour microenvironment and aberrant Hck activation suppresses an effective anti-tumour immune response. We are therefore identifying ways by which we can most effectively target Hck to restore and augment anti-tumour immune responses to more effectively kill the cancer cells.