Funded Research Projects

In June 2021, the Charles-Bruneau Foundation pledged to invest more than $25 million over five years to support the work of accomplished researchers all across Québec.

This year marks a critical moment for the Foundation: It is halfway through this commitment, the largest in its history. The project is based on an unprecedented collaboration among Québec’s four university hospitals specializing in pediatric immunology, hematology and oncology. They have all joined forces in the fight against all types of childhood cancer.

This fight is being waged on several fronts: In-depth analysis of cancer, simplifying diagnosis and follow-up, developing precision treatments, and enhancing nursing care, along with preventing psychological distress and after-effects. These concerted efforts have already produced tangible encouraging results.

Research projects

In keeping with its mission, the Charles-Bruneau Foundation orients its decisions on the medium term. The scientific projects it supports are selected following a long and rigorous process (approval by the scientific community and various governing bodies, creation of partnerships between institutions, financial agreements, etc.).

Learn about the research projects funded by the Charles-Bruneau Foundation:

Signature

This major program involves the sequencing of the human genome of children and teenagers suffering from cancer, in order to determine the molecular characteristics of each tumour, make a precise diagnosis, identify the abnormalities involved and deliver targeted therapies. This precision medicine strategy promotes the discovery of biological markers of efficacy. Once detected, these genetic markers point to the most effective treatment to prescribe and the likely course of the illness.

PROFYLE

The Foundation supports the Canada-wide PROFYLE project. This financial aid is enabling researchers to look for the origins of certain childhood cancers. Some of their breakthroughs have already had a positive impact on several young patients with high-grade or refractory tumours. The PROFYLE and Signature projects are fostering more active collaboration among the hematology-oncology teams at the four Charles-Bruneau Centres and Units in Québec. This joint work is helping to identify more therapeutic targets, allowing new treatment possibilities.

FIT

Three research projects are being supported by the Foundation following the Therapeutic Innovation Fund (FIT) competition. These innovative projects aim to explore new avenues of treatment to improve the outcome of children treated in hematology and oncology.

Targeted Delivery of MicroRNA-181a and Temozolomide by Engineered Lipid Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Pediatric Glioblastoma (Dr. Pierre Hardy)
Development of Improved iPSC-Derived NK Cell Therapies Against Therapy-Induced Senescent Cells (Dr. Christian Beauséjour)
Targeting Neuroblastoma Epigenetic Machinery Using 3D Spheroid Models (Dr. Noël Raynal)

Training the next generation

Fellowships awarded to clinical monitors are pivotal to the development and productivity of the Centre de cancérologie Charles-Bruneau at the CHU Sainte-Justine, particularly in terms of research. Because the specialty is so rare, these clinical monitors often come from abroad. They pursue cutting-edge training in pediatric hematology-oncology, and sometimes even more specific training, such as in pediatric bone marrow transplantation. What’s more, these monitors add to the knowledge of teams in place. In fiscal year 2023-2024, ten clinical monitors received Charles-Bruneau scholarships.

Fighting cancer with liquid gold

Dr. Janusz Rak and his team at the Montréal Children’s Hospital have been studying exomes for over a decade. These tiny “bubbles” secreted by cells, including cancerous ones, contain ample information about the cells from which they originate. The development of non-invasive tests will enable cancer cells to be detected and identified by rapidly targeting one or more exome biomarkers. Detection via this process is often several months quicker than via conventional methods. Detecting cancer in a drop of blood will not only allow far less invasive interventions in children, but will also yield more accurate results.

Best practices in pediatric oncology: Applied research with families

Impressive therapeutic breakthroughs often go hand in hand with constantly evolving clinical services and practices, particularly for nurses.

Unfortunately, very few French-language resources are available to help nurses upgrade their skills in pediatric oncology. In Québec, updating and standardizing practices based on the best available knowledge, in partnership with patient families, is a major challenge. The proposed organizational innovation will consolidate human expertise and improve the consistency and coordination of care provided by hematology-oncology nurses.

Taking action – Distress

This pilot project introduces the role of mental health and psychosocial nurse clinician in pediatric hematology-oncology, to offer young patients and their families comprehensive care. In addition to providing direct support, including mental health interventions, these professionals play a key role in training and supporting care teams to ensure quality psychosocial care. They also participate in research projects that help improve practices in pediatric hematology-oncology.

Taking action – Moving is a must

Children with hematological-oncological diseases undergo intensive treatments that affect their quality of life, and in turn their physical, emotional and social development. Studies show that a healthy lifestyle, including physical activity, during and after treatment, is crucial to improving their well-being and reducing the risk of complications. However, hospitalized families often find it hard to maintain healthy habits. Instead, they adopt poor practices such as increased screen time and excessive rest, due, for example, to the side effects of treatment. There is little data to guide medical teams in putting appropriate prevention strategies in place. This project aims to evaluate the implementation of the mobilization, prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyles program, an interdisciplinary intervention in pediatric hematology-oncology at CHU Sainte-Justine.

Studying the tumour immune environment of pediatric tumors through gene expression profiling analysis

Dr. Raoul Santiago and his team are striving to identify children who are likely to benefit from immunotherapy, in order to offer new therapeutic options for pediatric cancers that do not respond to conventional treatments. Ultimately, this research will make it possible to offer individualized treatments to children who are very likely to respond to immunotherapy.

Music therapy

Music therapy in pediatric hematology-oncology is a valuable tool for psychosocial teams. This service is designed to accompany young people of all ages, from newborns a few months old to teenagers in late adolescence, throughout their journey from diagnosis with cancer or a hematological disease to the end of treatment (active treatment, transplants, relapses, intensive or palliative care.) Music therapy helps young people adapt to illness and hospitalization by providing physical, emotional and relational support. It can counter isolation, allow patients to express emotions beyond words, reduce pain and anxiety, and strengthen the bond between children and their parents.

Innovative research platforms supported

The main objectives of a technological platform are to promote locally initiated research and to accelerate the transfer of discoveries to the application. Choosing the right platform helps researchers go from making a discovery to understanding this discovery, and then evaluating its clinical usefulness. In other words, these platforms accelerate the transfer of research to the patient’s bedside.

Learn about the innovative research platforms supported by the Charles-Bruneau Foundation:

Humanized mice

This platform is designed to test new drugs while trying to better understand the development of cancer cells. Funded by the Foundation, it is essential to research teams specializing in immunotherapy, among other areas. Using preclinical models that mimic clinical situations, researchers can study pediatric cancers such as leukemia and neuroblastoma.

Pediatric cancer biobank

Access to high-quality biological samples is essential for translational research projects. Samples are linked with molecular, clinical and therapeutic data, bridging the gap between clinical and basic research. This biobank should accelerate research in pediatric oncology, particularly in predictive and personalized medicine.

Proteomics

The proteomics platform provides expertise and high-quality results in the planning, design, execution and analysis of mass spectrometry data. The result is an innovative program for the discovery of tumour antigens as part of the development of new immunotherapeutic strategies to treat cancer.

Bioinformatics analysis of cellular complexity

This service offers access to various methodologies and bioinformatics tools for analyzing the genome and its activity. These new sequencing technologies will revolutionize research and the clinical evaluation of young patients.

Flow cytometry

The flow cytometry platform is essential for researchers, who use it to measure various parameters from blood samples, in particular by simultaneously measuring several physical characteristics of a cell. Operating and upgrade costs are covered by the Foundation.

Gene editing and cell reprogramming

This platform allows researchers to develop and use a new generation of genome repair tools to recreate cancer models. This technology is perfectly aligned with the humanized mouse platform to validate, for example, the functionality of stem cells created in vitro in mice before proceeding with therapeutic trials in humans.