Ralph Durand's Lab
Dr. Durand has closed his lab and is no longer accepting new students.
Research Interests:
Research in our laboratory is focused on understanding the response
of tumour cell subpopulations to therapeutic interventions. Ongoing projects
include studies on the rate and control of cell proliferation in untreated and treated tumours, studies of chemotherapy activity and interactions in tumours and tumour model systems, and the physiological and antitumour effects of drugs and radiation in human tumours transplanted into immunocompromised rodents.
Our work on tumour cell kinetics has led to a number of technical advances,
as well as new biological insights. We are currently perfecting methodology
to measure the cell cycle time of proliferating tumour cells within both
untreated and treated tumours, and expect that this flow cytometry based
technique will soon be used to objectively monitor the response of cancer
patients to their therapy. We are optimistic that this will permit "customization"
of therapy based on early response to treatment.
 A composite image of a spheroid (scanning electron and standard light microscopy) |
The three-dimensional tissue culture system shown on the right,
multicell "spheroids", has proven extremely useful for studies
of anti-cancer drug action and interactions. Our results have contributed
to a much better understanding of both the efficacy and limitations of
conventional and experimental chemotherapy drugs. Besides identifying new
drug combinations for evaluation in clinical trials, we have also identified
features of chemotherapy that are problematic in solid tumours, which in
turn helps to guide new drug development. Our studies on tumour physiology focus on an observation first made
in our laboratories several years ago: tumour blood flow is non-constant,
a finding that has implications for both drug and radiation therapy. Along
with our fundamental studies of this phenomenon, we are currently exploring
the use of conventional chemotherapy agents to selectively modulate tumour
blood flow, with the hope of developing improved combination therapies
that will be more successful against resistant solid tumours.
Please click here for selected publications reporting our findings.
Studies have been funded by:
Senior Scientist
Ralph Durand
The National Cancer Institute of Canada
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