image: “We believe that only by looking at a patient as a whole – from the brain to the gut to the immune cells in our blood – we can truly personalize therapy to maximize success,” says Dr. Michele Ardolino, Professor in the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology and Senior Scientist in cancer research at The Ottawa Hospital’s Research Institute.
Credit: Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
Why do immunotherapies—treatments that mobilize the body’s own immune system to fight cancer—succeed for some patients but fail for others?
A bold new research collaboration, backed by a prestigious $3M Terry Fox New Frontiers Program Project Grant, is setting out to bridge scientific fields and unlock the answer to this all-important question central to patient care.
Led by Dr. Michele Ardolino, the team of investigators will seek to uncover the hidden mechanisms of how the body’s immune system, nervous system, and gut microbiome interact in cancer. Their cross-disciplinary work and innovative approach has the potential to fundamentally reshape cancer treatment.
A simple but transformative idea
By studying these core systems together rather than in isolation, they hope to pinpoint what disrupts effective immune responses—and ultimately design more personalized, integrated treatment strategies that can help patients’ bodies fight cancer more effectively.
“In the past decade or so, much effort has been invested in finding ways to make immunotherapy effective in patients that do not respond to treatment. However, the success has been modest. In this program, we will try to harness ‘unconventional’ players in anti-cancer immunity to improve the outcomes of immunotherapy,” says Dr. Ardolino, Professor in the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology and Senior Scientist in cancer research at The Ottawa Hospital’s Research Institute.
The team’s central premise is ambitious yet straightforward: to truly understand why some patients don’t respond to immunotherapy, researchers must look beyond individual body systems. Instead, they aim to explore how immune, nervous, or microbial systems communicate as a complex interconnected network.
“Our unique holistic approach is pivotal for our success. We believe that only by looking at a patient as a whole – from the brain to the gut to the immune cells in our blood – we can truly personalize therapy to maximize success. This program has this ambitious goal that we will achieve with a phenomenal team of researchers,” Dr. Ardolino says.
Building on a strong foundation
Under Dr. Ardolino’s leadership, the talent-rich group of Canadian researchers is comprised of biomedical scientists at the top of their fields.
The study’s co-investigators are Dr. Sebastien Talbot (Queen’s University) and Drs. Nicolas Jacquelot and Kathy McCoy (University of Calgary). Drs. Barbara Vanderhyden and David Cook of the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine and The Ottawa Hospital’s research institute are among the key collaborators.
Previous research findings from team members have already shown that stimulating certain biological systems can make resistant cancer tumours more responsive to treatment. Now, by uncovering what’s fundamentally blocking the immune system—whether it’s misfiring nerve signals, microbial imbalances, or other factors—the researchers hope to pave the way for new therapies that help a subset of immune cells named Natural Killer (NK) cells do what they were designed to do: eliminate cancer.
Employing advanced technologies
Dr. Ardolino says the grant’s investigators will have access to state-of-the-art facilities and unique mouse models they have generated to potentially achieve brand new insights into the neuro-immune-gut axis.
How does Dr. Ardolino envision success for this high-profile project generously supported by the Terry Fox Research Institute?
“I envision us uncovering new mechanisms that make tumors impervious to immunotherapy and finding ways to overcome them in animal models. This is a first key critical step to provide patients with better care, a goal we keep in mind and that we have honed by involving patient partners in designing the key aspects of this program,” Dr. Ardolino says.
Method of Research
News article
Subject of Research
Cells