Oncologist using Early Career Professorship funding to investigate new immune therapies for cancer patients
Medical Oncology
Since 2019, the Hold’em for Life Charity Challenge has championed cancer research and education through its significant support for clinician-scientist fellowships at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and its partner hospitals. Last year, a generous new donation established 12 new professorships for early-career (within the first five years of academic appointment) clinician-scientists working in a broad range of cancer-related fields at U of T-affiliated hospitals.
Several of the new professorships were awarded to faculty in the Department of Medicine, including oncologist and assistant professor Dr. Sam Saibil.
Dr. Saibil traces his passion for cancer research back to an early opportunity as a summer student in Dr. Robert Kerbel’s lab at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre following his first year of undergrad.
“His lab was involved in this exciting new revolution of studying cancer therapy by blocking angiogenesis with Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) inhibitors,” he says. “To see how this was working in mice and hopefully one day could help patients with cancer was very inspiring, and it got me excited about doing research.”
The treatments Dr. Saibil studied at that time are now commonly used in cancer care. While they haven’t led to the breakthrough and outcomes he and his colleagues hoped for, the experience was pivotal in shaping his path as a clinician investigator.
Today, Dr. Saibil’s research focuses on cancer immunotherapy – exploring ways to make immune therapies for cancer better, and specifically, how to reprogram metabolism and T cells to enhance their efficacy in both cellular therapies and for checkpoint blockade (a cancer immunotherapy strategy that utilizes drugs to block immune system "checkpoints" that prevent T cells from effectively attacking cancer cells).
As a Hold’em for Life Professorship recipient, Dr. Saibil will receive $75,000 per year for three years to support his research efforts.
“Science is incredibly expensive and requires a great team,” he says. “One of the things the Hold’em for Life funding has been great for is that we’ve been able to hire a fantastic technician and purchase the reagents she’s using.”
Dr. Saibil’s team is currently working on two translational projects involving preclinical work, with the goal of gathering data to use in clinical trial applications in the next couple of years. One such project is in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada, who has developed a new CAR T-cell therapy – a type of immunotherapy in which a patient's T cells are modified in the lab to recognize and attack cancer cells.
The hope is to bring this therapy to patients via intratumoural injection (directly into the tumour), rather than intravenously. Support from the Hold’em for Life Professorship has helped to accelerate the development timeline for these projects.
“I really want to express my gratitude that a professorship like this exists for early career investigators, as securing funding can be challenging and it’s amazing that there are internal sources available at the University of Toronto that can provide funding over many years,” Dr. Saibil says.
