OICR announces collaboration of world-leading institutes to uncover genetic causes of cancer

Dr. Tom Hudson (left), Dr. John McPherson, Dr. John Evans and Premier Dalton McGuinty tour the OICR cancer genomics laboratory
(CPimages/D. Oliver)

A new collaboration among the world’s leading genomics experts could bring researchers much closer to unravelling the mystery of cancer.

On April 27, Premier Dalton McGuinty visited the MaRS Centre to announce Ontario will be a major player in the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). His news conference coincided with a series of announcements by other jurisdictions throughout the world that they, too, would join the ICGC, enabling some of the world’s leading genomic researchers to collaborate on finding the genetic causes of cancer.

“Cancer is devastating to families and that's why we're doing all we can to help save lives. This investment puts Ontario at the forefront of international research that will save lives around the world," said Premier Dalton McGuinty.

The ICGC’s goal is to identify all of the genetic mutations involved in causing the 50 most common types of cancer. Drawing on talent and infrastructure from around the world, the scientists are aiming to conduct complete genome sequencing on 25,000 tumours – 500 for each type of cancer being studied.

“It’s like 25,000 human genome projects,” explains Dr. Tom Hudson, president and scientific director of Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). Hudson, along with many other researchers involved with the ICGC, played a major role in the original Human Genome Project.

OICR has been selected to house the data centre for the ICGC. Computer expertise and state-of-the-art technology are essential to genomic research because sequencing DNA produces massive amounts of data. The amount of data the project will produce is “staggering,” explains Francis Ouellette, Associate Director of OICR’s Informatics and Biocomputing Platform. 

“When you’re sequencing tumours, you’re invariably going to find a lot of mutations. So the question is, which of those are involved in causing the cancer, and which ones are just irrelevant bystanders. To find out, you need to examine hundreds of tumours for each type of cancer,” Ouellette says.

Information technology experts will need to build large servers capable of processing and storing several terabytes every week (a terabyte is one thousand gigabytes of information). Furthermore, the data needs to be shared – not just among participants in the ICGC, but with the entire world.

“We envision a system where data is posted on the Internet within hours of it coming out of the laboratory,” says Ouellette. “The general feeling in the international cancer research community is that everyone is much farther ahead if they have access to all the data that’s out there as soon as it is produced.”

In addition, OICR has been chosen to host the ICGC secretariat, which will carry out administrative functions related to the project. The Institute will also make a research contribution – the OICR cancer genomics team will sequence pancreatic tumours.

“Pancreatic cancer is a difficult area. There is existing research, but so far there has not been much success – survival rates are still very low,” says Hudson. “We’re interested in applying genomic research techniques to get a better understanding of the disease in order to improve treatments.”

OICR has been involved in planning the ICGC from the outset. Last October, the Institute hosted scientists from more than 22 countries for a discussion of how to apply the groundbreaking genomic advances of the past decade to the fight against cancer. After two days of meetings, a consensus emerged to embark on one of the largest human genome research endeavours to date. Delegates selected Hudson as the leader of an executive committee to develop a proposal on how the project should move forward.

Hudson says that throughout the planning process, researchers were impressed with OICR’s research capacity and particularly the enthusiasm to use knowledge about the human genome to fight cancer. John Wilkinson, Ontario’s Minister of Research and Innovation, says he is also impressed with the leadership OICR has shown in getting research projects off the ground and partnering with world leaders.

"In just two years OICR has earned an international reputation for unique and innovative research, attracting many top researchers from around the globe," said Wilkinson. "Ontarians can be proud that the international cancer research community has chosen OICR as the location for this invaluable and massive undertaking."

More than 20 countries were involved in the initial planning of the ICGC, but the project is open to even more partners – any laboratory with genomic sequencing capacity can contribute, provided they follow strict standard operating procedures and are willing to share their data.

“This is truly a worldwide effort, so we want to have partners in all areas of the globe,” says Hudson. “We’re inviting all cancer researchers who share our goals to participate. The more people and institutes that are involved, the more quickly we can move forward with this very important research.”

ICGC membership
(as of June 18)

Australia
National Health and Medical Research Council (Observer Status)

Canada
Genome Canada (Observer Status);
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

China
Chinese Cancer Genome Consortium

Europe
European Commission (Observer Status)

France
Institut National du Cancer

India
Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology

Japan
RIKEN;
National Cancer Center

Singapore
Genome Institute of Singapore

United Kingdom
The Wellcome Trust;
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

United States
National Institutes of Health