Overview

The BC Cancer Agency's Micheal Smith Genome Sciences Centre's primary mandate is to deploy resources and technology of a high-throughput genome mapping and DNA sequencing lab to decrypt the genetic code, specifically to advance cancer research, diagnosis and treatment.

Combining the experience of world-renowned scientists, the GSC is poised to play a major role in the field of bioinformatics and various genome projects around the world. The priority of the centre is to find innovative means to automate the sequencing and fingerprinting process, develop cost-effective measures that will make such research financially viable and utilize state-of-the-art computing facilities to collect, mine, analyze and disperse data collected at this and other genome facilities.

Experimental genomics is carried out on the latest sequencing and fingerprinting equipment, such as the MegaBace machines from Molecular Dynamics and the ABI 3700 DNA Sequencers from Applied Biosystems, with data collected and analyzed on one of the most innovative and flexible bioinformatics computing facilities in the world.

We are dedicated to high-performance Linux computing carried out on high-end i686 workstations. The centre's current on-line data capacity is 2.5 terabytes of redundantly-served RAID-5. Our connectivity is provided by BC Net through a wireless 4 Mbit link onto CANet II.

Cancer Research

No challenge in medical research is more daunting than cancer. Despite remarkable progress in treating and curing some forms of cancer, half of all cancer patients have a survival rate of five years or less. This unacceptable situation drives cancer researchers internationally to find new versions of standard treatments, and more important, innovative approaches to the puzzle of cancer.

Since 1990, cancer researchers have discovered a new vision of tackling cancer at its source. Scientist are learning how to "turn off" the genes that drive cancer growth, and "turn on" our body's best defenses against cancer. This is the goal of cancer researchers in gene science: a world safe from the fear of cancer.

How is gene science applied to cancer?

There are at least 100 human genes that have the potential to cause malignancy. In some cases they are inherited and in other cases, they are dormant until "turned on" by an environmental trigger such as smoking, a high-fat diet, or a virus.

Cancer starts as a genetic change in one cell. A healthy cell undergoes more than a dozen genetic changes (mutations in specific genes) in a precise sequence to turn into a pre-cancerous and then a cancerous cell. Unless checked by the body's own defenses, that one cell becomes an identifiable "cancer" by growing, sometimes over years. into a tumour. It then sends out daughter cells with the damage genes, usually through the body's lymph system. These cells in turn "seed" and grow into new tumours. Understanding the exact genetic processes at each of these changes is the work of genome sequencing in cancer research.

The standard therapies of surgery, radiation and cancer killing drugs are extremely successful in a variety of cancers, such as Hodgkin's disease, some childhood leukemias and early-stage leukemias and early-stage colorectal cancer. Even when they cannot cure cancer, they extend life and improve the quality of life for many patients. However, eliminating the cancer cell before it spreads through the body, before it grows into a tumour, or even earlier, is the ultimate goal of gene scientists.

Gene Therapy and prevention

Genetic research in cancer includes:

• Pinpointing which anti-cancer drugs will work best in individual patients
• Finding the exact genetic "on/off" switches in the cell's cancer processes
• Devising genetic screens to identify individuals at high risk of cancer
• Creating vaccines or viral messengers to induce the body to make antibodies against it cancerous cells at an early stage
• Developing drugs and highly specialized radiation techniques targeted at early stages of cancer growth, to stop it in its tracks and prevent disease growth

Its senior scientists and state-of-the-art technology will chart the genes of cancer processes, improving the effectiveness of current treatments and the paths toward cures for specific cancers. Its ultimate goal is to find effective means of preventing cancers from starting.

The Genome Sciences Centre is forging partnerships with other leading laboratories at University of British Columbia, across Canada, and the around the world. Meanwhile, it partners with laboratories under the same roof at the BC Cancer Research Centre. The Genome Sciences Centre's mandate includes supporting the BC Cancer Research Centre's world-renowned senior scientists with their research in cancers of the lung, prostate, breast, skin, cervix and lymph system, as well as cancers of the blood (leukemias) and many others.

Origins

The Genome Sciences Centre was founded in 1999 by Dr. Michael Smith, PhD (1932 - 2000). He won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his foundation work in gene science.

"Creating this Genome Sciences Centre is a thrilling opportunity to make Canada a world leader in finding better treatments and, we hope, cures for cancer and other genetic diseases."

-- Dr. Michael Smith

Web Site

The Genome Sciences Centre has it's own web site at  http://www.bcgsc.ca.