Dr. Anne-Claude Gingras — The Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute

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Dr. Anne-Claude Gingras
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Dr. Gingras focuses on the cellular mechanisms involved in cancer and in resistance to cancer drugs. She is a recognized authority in the field of proteomics — the study of a full set of proteins in a particular cell — and in the cellular pathways that control cell growth. She studies phosphotases, proteins known to interrupt cellular signals.

Using the latest technology available to explore cell function, Dr. Gingras, seeks new insights into why and how cells grow and proliferate. In particular she is focused on molecules involved in cell growth and proliferation, which present attractive targets for cancer therapy. Her research is aimed at generating new information on how signals are relayed within cells with the goal of moderating the uncontrolled cell division that characterizes tumours.

Developing effective treatments for cancer remains a challenge for researchers. In recent years, rapamycin, an immunosuppressant drug developed and used to prevent rejection in organ transplantation, has proved to be a potent drug in the fight against cancer. By applying state-of-the-art proteomics, Dr. Gingras is identifying how rapamycin works to destroy cancer cells. The information she generated may improve the effectiveness of rapamycin, and may also reveal future therapeutic uses for the drug.

In order to conduct her research, Dr. Gingras uses a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer, a device that helps researchers analyze cells at the molecular level. As part of her research program, she is working to develop specialized mass spectrometry tools that will help other researchers better analyze basic cellular processes involved in health and disease.

Dr. Gingras was recruited to the Lunenfeld in 2005 from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. She was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Functional Proteomics in 2006, and in August 2007, she received a prestigious Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.

Samuel Lunenfeld
Research Institute
Mount Sinai Hospital
992A-600 University Ave, Toronto, ON, M5G 1X5
CANADA

Tel.: 416-586-4800 ext. 8272

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Jun 12, 2009 05:05 PM

At a Glance

“Cancer research has come a long way, but the potential for impacting all cancers will not be realized until we have a far better understanding of the biological systems that underpin our health,” says Dr. Gingras. Developing effective treatments for cancer remains a challenge. Cancer cells that are chronically exposed to chemotherapy drugs through prolonged treatment can often become resistant, leading to recurrence of cancer. Dr. Gingras hopes that her research will lead to the development of drugs that will improve the efficiency of chemotherapy.
Dr. Gingras was named one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2011.

Major Research Activities

Dr. Gingras studies interactions between proteins, as well as the networks of cellular pathways involved in health and disease, and how they control cell growth and proliferation. This knowledge has important implications for cancer, an illness in which the normal mechanisms of cell growth are disrupted. Dr. Gingras uses technologies such as proteomics and mass spectrometry to analyze basic cellular processes involved in common and complex illnesses such as cancer.

Recent Publications

Choi, H., Larsen, B., Lin., Z.-Y., Breitkreutz, A., Mellacheruvu, D., Fermin, D., Qin, Z.S., Tyers, M., Gingras, A.-C.*, Nesvizhskii, A.I*. SAINT: probabilistic scoring of affinity purification - mass spectrometry data. Nature Methods. 2010 ; 8:70-3.

Templeton, G., Nimixk, M., Morrice, N.A., Campbell, D.G., Goudreault, M., Gingras, A.-C., Takemiya, A., Shimazaki, K.I., Moorhead, G.B. Identification and characterization of Atl-2, an Arabidopsis homolog of an ancient protein phosphatase (PP1) regulatory subunit. Biochem J. 2010 ; 435(1):73-83.

Skarra, D.V., Goudreault, M., Choi, H., Mullin, M., Nesvizhskii, A., Gingras, A.-C.*, and Honkanen, R*. Label-free quantitative proteomics and SAINT analysis enable interactome mapping for the human Ser/Thr protein phosphatase 5. Proteomics. 2010 ; in press.

Kean, M.J., Ceccarelli, D., Goudreault, M., Tate, S., Larsen, B., Sanches, M., Gibson, L.D., Derry., W.B., Scott, I.C., Pelletier, L., Baillie, G.S., Sicheri, F., and Gingras, A.-C.*Structure-function analysis of core STRIPAK: a signaling complex implicated in Golgi polarization J Biol Chem. 2010 ; PMID 21561863.

Ceccarelli, D.F., Laister, R.C., Kean, M.J., Goudreault, M., Scott, I., Derry, W.B., Gingras, A.-C.* and Sicheri, F.* CCM3/PDCD10 is a scaffold for GCKIII kinases. J Biol Chem. 2011 Jun 27; PMID 21561863.

Dunham, W.H., Larsen, B., Tate, S., Gonzalez Badillo, B., Tehami, Y., Kislinger, T., and Gingras, A.-C.*A cost-benefit analysis of multidimensional fractionation of affinity purification – mass spectrometry samples Proteomics. 2011 Jun 27; PMID 21630450.

Li, Z., Vizeacoumar, F., Bahr, S., Li, J., Warringer, J., Vizeacoumar, F., VanderSluis, B., Bellay, J., DeVit, M., Fleming, J., Stephens, A., Haase, J., Lin, Z.-Y., Baryshnikova, A., Min, R., Lu, H., Yan, Z., Jin, K., Barker, S., Datti, A., Giaever, G., Nislow, C., Bulawa, C., Costanzo, M., Myers, C., Gingras, A.-C., Zhang, Z., Blomberg, A., Bloom, K., Andrews, B. and Boone, C. Systematic exploration of essential gene function with temperature-sensitive mutants Nature Biotech. 2010 ; 29:361-7.

Olhovsky, M., Williton, K., Dai, A., Pasculescu, A., Lee, J.P., Goudreault, M., Wells, C.D., Park, J.G., Gingras, A.-C., Linding, R., Pawson, T., and Colwill, K. OpenFreezer: A web-based laboratory information and workflow management system for reagents. Nature Methods. 2010 ; in press.

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