Building bridges at the inaugural Sinai Health Cancer Research Retreat

The theme for the retreat was Building Scientific Bridges in Cancer Research at Sinai Health – Merging LTRI Discovery with Clinical Research.

Dr. Anne-Claude Gingras, Director of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI) and Vice President of Research at Sinai Health, said the retreat marks a significant step in bringing together the strengths of discovery scientists and core facilities at LTRI and the exceptional translational and clinical teams across Sinai Health. “By building scientific bridges, we are fostering a collaborative environment where fundamental insights and clinical innovation come together to accelerate progress in cancer research—and ultimately improve outcomes for patients,” she said.

Dr. Christine Brezden-Masley, Medical Oncologist and Medical Director of Sinai Health’s Cancer Program, co-chaired the retreat. She explained that the event brought scientists and clinicians together to increase understanding of the current strengths within cancer research, and encourage new scientific collaborations. "This day highlighted the scientific breadth of both discovery research and clinical cancer research at Sinai Health. What an incredible day!” she said.

The biology of cancer is an area of focus at the LTRI, a world-leading biomedical research centre. LTRI scientists are studying how and why cancer develops and investigating new approaches to cancer prevention and treatment. Central to this effort is the Network Biology Collaborative Centre (NBCC), a state-of-the-art core facility offering services in genomic and proteomic technologies. As a shared resource across Sinai Health, the NBCC provides deep molecular insights that, when combined with clinical expertise, are driving transformative cancer research.

Although they work in different settings, scientists at the LTRI have a lot in common with clinician researchers at Mount Sinai’s Chris Hugh Sharp Cancer Centre. The Centre specializes in detection and treatment of head and neck cancers, breast cancer, sarcomas, gastrointestinal cancers, peritoneal surface malignancies and others. The clinical team provides a full range of leading-edge treatments, including innovative drug therapies, specialized surgeries and other targeted therapies. Clinician researchers at the Centre are dedicated to making new discoveries that will further improve care, through cancer prevention, diagnostic tests and treatments.

Dr. Rebecca Gladdy, Surgical Oncologist at the Chris Hugh Sharp Cancer Centre, Surgeon-Scientist at the LTRI, and event co-chair, said the retreat offered a unique opportunity for a meeting of some of the brightest minds in laboratory and clinical cancer research. “The Retreat created a networking opportunity that showcased the world-class clinical, translational and discovery science already ongoing, while fostering new collaborations to understand cancer and novel ways to treat it.” She added that this “team science" approach to research combined with outstanding leadership, synergies and expertise will yield an exciting future for Sinai Health cancer care.