The Princess Margaret “Transformers”

16 PRINCESS MARGARET CANCER CENTRE HARNESSING THE TECHN TECHNOLOGY HARNESSING THE POWER OF A CELL SINGLE CELL TECHNOLOGY Senior Scientist Dr. John Dick has found his most promising clues about cancer in single cells. Dr. Dick’s meticulous attention to detail, down to the cellular level, is driving his world-leading work at The Princess Margaret. “People often think of tumours as being nasty hunks of cells where every cell is the same,” he says. “But the reality is that every one of those cells in the tumour can be a little different. And one of the things we’ve come to realize is that some cells have more ability to keep that cancer going over a long period of time. Those cells are cancer cells, yes, but they have the properties of stem cells, or what we call ‘stemness.’ They’re similar to the stem cells in our skin, our blood, our brain and so forth, in that they can keep regenerating tissue.” Dr. Dick and his team have observed that this “stemness” gives some cancers an unwelcome staying power. “Many of the cells of the tumour are killed by chemotherapy. But often, these cancer stem cells have the ability to lie dormant and to protect themselves from chemotherapy. Eventually, they come roaring back and so does the tumour.” Today, the traditional studies of whole tumours no longer make sense. “We need to find ways of sampling the individual cells in the tumour,” he says. “And this has brought forward the idea of single-cell biology. We need to take the tumour, split it up into single cells, and then monitor millions and millions of those single cells. We have to ask: Which are the stem cells? Why are they different from cells that don’t have stem cell properties? Why are they resisting therapy? Without question, single-cell genetic technologies are major ways forward.” In his award-winning career spanning three decades, Dr. Dick has never seen so much potential in cancer research. “Even five years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined we’d be able to generate the kind of data and make the progress we’re making today. That’s partly due to broad advances in the scientific world, of course. But there’s also a recognition that team science is really important. No one person has all the best ideas.”