The Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre Annual Symposium May 6-7, 2021 McGill University Montreal (Qc) Canada Conference ! PROGRAM Table of Contents Sponsors 3 Policies 4 Welcome from the Organizing Committee 5 Program 6 Meet the Keynote Speakers 9 Abstracts 13 Research Staff Recognitions 16 The GCRC Annual Symposium, May 6-7, 2021 2 Sponsors This Symposium was made possible thanks to financial support from the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre and McGill University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences sponsored by the Rose Wiselberg Foundation. The GCRC Annual Symposium, May 6-7, 2021 3 Policies Harassment Policy The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre (GCRC) is committed to maintaining a positive and respectful environment at its Symposia and other events. We expect participants in our events to engage in constructive and professional discussion, in which all are valued for their scien- tific contributions and work. We value diversity, and desire that no participant should be subjected to harassment while involved in our events. For purposes of this policy, harassment means unwelcome and offensive comments or be- haviour directed to the participant's sex, race, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, disability, or other status protected under applicable law. Harassment can include, for example, unwelcome attention, comments or jokes that focus on gender differences or sexual topics and that distract from the professional topics under discussion, unwelcome advances or re- quests for dates or sexual activities, and the use of language or images that demean or degrade per- sons of particular gender, racial, ethnic, religious or national identity. To this end, we expect all participants to support these values and to avoid harassment of others participating in our Symposia and other events. We expect all attendees to assist in ensuring that GCRC events are free from harassment of any kind, including reporting any instances of harassment directly to Daniel Caron (Student Affairs Officer) at daniel.caron2 @mcgill.ca. Anyone who has expe- rienced harassment, or who has witnessed such behaviour, should notify Daniel as soon as possible. People who act contrary to these values and expectations may be warned or asked to leave the event in which the behaviour occurred, may be excluded from access to GCRC conferences and/or other events, and/or may be subject to other disciplinary or corrective action, in accordance with McGill University's policies and regulations. Land Acknowledgement McGill University is situated on the unceded traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Tio’tia:ke), a vital community and one of the founding nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre recognizes and respects the Kanien’kehá:ka as the traditional custodians of the lands and waters on which we meet today. Privacy Policy The GCRC is committed to protecting the privacy of its website visitors and meeting attendees. The GCRC collects personal information when individuals register for our meetings and upon a visitor's request to subscribe to meeting announcements. Information that our visitors and attendees pro- vide or that is derived from internal website tracking is not sold, rented or shared with any third-par- ty individual or organization. By participating in the GCRC Symposium, attendees acknowledge that their name and abstract may be published in a limited fashion in materials produced by the GCRC. For example, to make the meeting a more valuable experience for all involved, attendee names and abstract titles are listed in this program, which is distributed only to attendees of the Symposium. Screenshots of meeting in- teractions taken by the GCRC may occasionally be used for internal purposes only. The GCRC Annual Symposium, May 6-7, 2021 4 Welcome from the Organizing Committee Dear Symposium Participant, The Organizing Committee is delighted to welcome you to the 2021 Rosalind & Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre Annual Symposium! This year, the GCRC is proud to host a two-day conference, featuring presentations from 10 world-renowned scientists and 2 discussion panels. We would like to take this op- portunity to thank our invited speakers: Dr. Jennifer Wargo, Dr. Matthew Vander Heiden, Dr. Christina Leslie, Dr. Kandice Tanner, Dr. Mikala Egeblad, Dr. Karuna Ganesh, Dr. Alexia- Ileana Zaromytidou, Dr. Lewis Cantley, Dr. David Labbé and Dr. David Knapp for gladly ac- cepting to present their latest findings and engage in discussions with students. Your par- ticipation will undoubtedly stimulate new ideas and generate fruitful collaborations. This Symposium is also an important occasion for undergraduate students, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from the GCRC and the Montreal cancer research net- work to present their work. We are looking forward to attending the 6 selected short talks and the dozens of inspiring poster presentations. We would like to thank all of the partici- pating students for their contributions and their hard work. Your efforts will have a major positive impact on the study of malignant diseases and lead to innovations that will form the basis of the next generation of clinical applications. On behalf of the GCRC, thank you for joining us and bringing your exciting insights to enrich these scientific exchanges. We hope that this conference meets or surpasses your expectations and helps to highlight your important work, which will accelerate discovery in the field of cancer research. Sincerely, Sheri McDowell, PhD Candidate, McGill University Contact: [email protected] Simon Milette, PhD Candidate, McGill University Contact: [email protected] Daniel Caron, Student Affairs Officer, The Goodman Cancer Research Centre Contact: [email protected] The GCRC Annual Symposium, May 6-7, 2021 5 Program https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/84703112835? pwd=U1ViQWFEOEpic1l5NlNDbDYzbDhp- QT09 Thursday, May 6th, 2021 8:45 – 9:00 Welcome from the Organizing Committee Opening Remarks: Thomas Duchaine, The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre, Canada 9:00 – 11:00 Tumour Metabolism and Microbiome Session Session Chair: Stephen Robbins, The Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital, Canada 9:00 – 10:00 Jennifer A. Wargo, University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA 10:00 – 11:00 Matthew Vander Heiden, The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Re- search at MIT, USA 11:00 – 11:15 Break 11:15 – 12:30 Student Short Talks 11:15 – 11:40 Michelle Shen, Graduate Student, McGill University 11:40 – 12:05 Elena Kuzmin, Post-Doctoral Fellow, McGill University 12:05 – 12:30 Matthew Salaciak, Graduate Student, McGill University 12:30 – 13:30 Lunch Break 13:30 – 15:30 Genetics and Tumour Dynamics Session Session Chair: Logan Walsh, The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre, Canada 13:30 – 14:30 Christina Leslie, The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA 14:30 – 15:30 Kandice Tanner, The National Institutes of Health, USA 15:30 – 16:00 Break 16:00 – 17:30 Poster Session and Networking Zoom breakout rooms are assigned to each poster presenter (Please consult the abstract list on page 13) The GCRC Annual Symposium, May 6-7, 2021 6 Program https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/84703112835? pwd=U1ViQWFEOEpic1l5NlNDbDYzbDhp- QT09 Friday, May 7th, 2021 9:00 – 11:00 Tumour Microenvironment Session Session Chair: Daniela Quail, The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre, Canada 9:00 – 10:00 Mikala Egeblad, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA 10:00 – 11:00 Karuna Ganesh, The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA 11:00 – 11:15 Break 11:15 – 12:30 Student Short Talks 11:15 – 11:40 Marina Fukano, Graduate Student, McGill University 11:40 – 12:05 Samuel Doré, Graduate Student, McGill University 12:05 – 12:30 Diana Berry, Graduate Student, McGill University 12:30 – 13:30 Lunch Break 13:30 – 15:00 Panel Discussion on Academic Publishing Panel Moderator: Morag Park, Director, The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre Panelists: Alexia-Ileana Zaromytidou, Editor-in-Chief, Nature Cancer and Lewis Cantley, Editor-in-Chief, Cancer Discovery 15:00 – 15:15 Break The GCRC Annual Symposium, May 6-7, 2021 7 Program https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/84703112835? pwd=U1ViQWFEOEpic1l5NlNDbDYzbDhp- QT09 Friday, May 7th, 2021 (Continued) 15:15 – 16:45 Panel Discussion for Early Career Scientists Panel Moderators: Sheri McDowell and Simon Milette, Students, The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre Panelists: David Labbé, Asst. Professor at McGill University Dept. of Surgery and David Knapp, Asst. Professor at Institut de recherche en im- munologie et en cancérologie, Université de Montréal 16:45 – 17:00 Closing Remarks Morag Park, Director, The Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Re- search Centre, Canada The GCRC Annual Symposium, May 6-7, 2021 8 Meet the Keynote Speakers Jennifer Wargo MD MMSc’s career commitment is to advance the under- standing and treatment of disease through science. After completing her medical degree, she entered surgical residency training at the Mass- achusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass- achusetts where she became interested in the biology and treatment of cancer. During her training, she completed two fellowships in Surgical On- cology with a focus on immunotherapy for cancer. Massachusetts General Hospital recruited Dr. Wargo in July 2008 where she headed an active re- search laboratory focusing on melanoma tumourigenesis and im- munotherapy. In September 2013, Dr. Wargo joined the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with joint appointments in Surgical Oncology and Genomic Medicine, where she continues her critical research to better understand responses to therapy and develop novel strategies to combat Jennifer Wargo MD MMSc resistance. In 2019, Dr. Wargo started a microbiome and translational re- search program called PRIME TR. Matthew Vander Heiden MD PhD, is the Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology.