Awardees

Supervisor: Dr. George Yousef
Award: KRESCENT Fellowship
Institution: Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital
Year: 2014-2017

Dr. Zsuzsanna Lichner will pursue her post-doctoral fellowship under the supervision of Dr. George Yousef at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Dr. Lichner wishes to enhance her understanding of the role of cancer stem cells in the pathogenesis of kidney cancer.

Cancer stem cells are able to maintain themselves by self-renewal or by initiating the growth of an entire tumor. Recent findings suggest the metastatic potential and therapy resistance of tumors may be attributed to their cancer stem cell content, so therapeutic elimination of these cells is necessary for the complete eradication of a tumor. Dr. Lichner’s research will focus on identifying the pathways that lead to cancer stem cell formation in kidney cancer and investigating the effect of microRNAs, small RNA molecules reported to regulate stem cell formation and maintenance. A better understanding of stem cell formation may lead to the identification of therapeutic targets for their elimination in kidney cancer and potentially in other types of cancer as well.