Research summary
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, and researchers increasingly view it as a complex and rapidly evolving ecosystem. Cancers can be resistant to treatment due to things such as genetic and cellular differences in tumours as well as the rapid evolution of both the tumour itself and its microenvironment.
As Canada Research Chair in Cancer Systems Biology, Dr. Hong Han aims to shed light on the gene regulatory circuitry that underlies treatment-resistant cancer. She and her research team are developing and leveraging the power of state-of-the-art, systematic experimental and computational approaches to understand the RNA regulatory network and how it works with other gene regulatory layers in the evolution of the cancer ecosystem. Ultimately, their findings will support the discovery and development of a new generation of therapies for treatment-resistant cancers, such as glioblastoma and prostate cancer.