Supervisor:
Program of Study:
Postdoctoral Fellow, Microbiology and Immunology
Project Title:
Elucidating the mechanism of action of IL‐5 as a promoter of IFN expression by mast cells in the tumour Microenvironment
Research Summary:
One of the deadliest diseases in Canada is cancer. At least one of every two Canadians will get cancer during their life, and one in four will die from it. Drugs used to target and kill tumour cells do not
always work and when patients need them for a long time, they can become ineffective.
An alternative to these drugs is what we call immunotherapy, which educates the immune system
of the patient to recognize and eliminate tumours. However, tumours have developed ways to hide
from the immune system. For example, tumours release molecules to create a hostile environment,
so when immune cells approach, they do not function well.
To combat cancer, we want to improve immunotherapy. We will do so by providing a better
opportunity for immune cells to kill cancer cells. To do so we use a special immune cell found
close to most tumours, the mast cell. Mast cells make large amounts of chemical messengers known
as “interferons” that attract other immune cells towards the tumour and make them more efficient
at killing tumour cells. Interferons also help the immune system develop a better long-term supply
of cancer fighting immune cells to improve the patients’ health. We will test new ways of getting
human mast cells to make more interferons and test their ability to help fight cancer.
Scholarships and/or Awards:
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- BHCRI DMRF CRTP Fellowship 2022
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- Cancer Research Training Program (CRTP) Traineeship Award 2021
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- RNA Society Poster Award – 25th Annual RNA Society Meeting, 2020
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- RNA Society Travel Grant – 25th Annual RNA Society Meeting, 2020
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- FWO Travel Grant 2020 (BELGIUM)
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- Kom op Tegen Kanker – Emmanuel van der Schueren fellowship, 2018 (BELGIUM)
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- EACR Travel Fellowship 2018 (DENMARK)
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- Broaden your horizon travel grant (FRANCE)
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- Mobility Grant 2015 (NORWAY)
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- VIB International PhD Fellowship (2014-2018) (BELGIUM)
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- ERASMUS Fellowship 2012 (DENMARK)
Location:
Dalhousie University
Publications:
Barra J., Vendramin R., Leucci E. (2021). M(R)apping RNA-protein interactions. Methods in molecular biology (pp. 259–272). doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1158-6_16 (Book Chapter)
Barra J., Gaidosh G. S., Blumenthal E., Beckedorff F., Tayari M. M., Kirstein N., … Marine, J.-C. (2020). Integrator restrains paraspeckles assembly by promoting isoform switching of the lncRNA NEAT1. Science Advances, 6(27), 1–16. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz9072
De Troyer L., Zhao P., Pastor T., Baietti M. F., Barra J., Vendramin R., … Sablina, A. A. (2020). Stress-induced lncRNA LASTR fosters cancer cell fitness by regulating the activity of the U4/U6 recycling factor SART3. Nucleic Acids Research, 48(5), 2502–2517. doi:10.1093/nar/gkz1237
Barra J. & Leucci E. (2017). Probing long non-coding RNA-protein interactions. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 4(45), 1–10. doi:10.3389/fmolb.2017.00045
Olvedy M., Tisserand J. C., Luciani F., Boeckx B., Wouters J., Lopez S., Rambow F., Aibar S., Thienpont B., Barra J., …Marine, J. C. (2017). Comparative oncogenomics identifies tyrosine kinase FES as a tumor suppressor in melanoma. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 127(6). doi:10.1172/JCI91291
Adriaens C.*, Standaert L.*, Barra J., Latil M., Verfaillie A., Kalev P., … Marine, J. C. (2016). P53 induces formation of NEAT1 lncRNA-containing paraspeckles that modulate replication stress response and chemosensitivity. Nature Medicine, 22(8), 861–868. doi:10.1038/nm.4135