Centre for Cancer Innovations

After centuries of cancer devastating almost half the population, the last decades of cancer research have brought unprecedented insights into the causation and treatment of this disease.

The ongoing increase in all forms of liver disease is a large burden for our healthcare system. Especially the 350% increase in liver cancer in the last 30 years. Much of this increase is attributed to metabolic disease, often in conjunction with diabetes. Our focus in liver disease research is understanding the roles of a key enzyme family in progressive liver damage and cancer.

Cancer progression refers to the process by which cancer cells grow, spread, and develop into advanced stages. It involves the cancer cells continually changing and accumulating genetic alterations, leading to their increased ability to divide, invade nearby tissues, and potentially metastasize (spread) to distant parts of the body.

Our work is devoted to understanding pathways at the cellular and molecular levels that drive liver injury and cancer. These pathways may then be identified as targets to modulate these processes or be used for diagnosis and staging of liver disease and cancer.

The Epigenetics of Melanoma Program seeks to understand how deregulation of epigenetic modifiers can potentially govern all hallmarks of cancer. Using cutting edge techniques such as CRISPR, high throughput drug screening and mouse models, we seek to identify new targets for potential treatments.

The Yeo Laboratory conducts groundbreaking translational research to develop new treatments for patients with solid tumors. We focus on understanding cancer at the molecular level to enable non-invasive monitoring, identify effective therapies, and evaluate novel therapeutic approaches.