Dr. Claude Labrie (2001, 2002 and 2005 Research Grants)

Cancer cells are good at surviving, partially because of their ability to adapt to stress. Dr. Labrie’s lab has shown that the protein AIbZIP, which is found in high numbers in prostate cancer cells, helps cancer cells adapt to stress. He and his team have created peptides that can prevent AIbZIP from doing its job – which could ultimately cause the death of the cells. He is now testing the ability of these peptides to infiltrate cancer cells and cause cancer cell death. The long term goal of this research is to turn these cancer cell killing peptides into new anticancer drugs.