OICR young investigator Dr. Fernando Suarez

As a child growing up in Mexico, Dr. Fernando Suarez was always interested in science, but the exact field of study remained elusive. First, it was biological sciences. Later he became extremely interested in astronomy, which is where his passion for science was born. "I was no longer just interested in it, I needed to know more and more and more," he says.

But it was the medical sciences that ultimately appealed to him mainly because of the human interaction. After completing an internship as part of his MD, he felt there was something missing, especially in cancer. "I was treating patients during my internship and I wished I could offer them more," he says.

That was when Suarez moved to Toronto to begin graduate studies at the University Health Network's Princess Margaret Hospital. He later joined the lab of Dr. Robert Rottapel as a postdoctoral fellow in OICR's Selective Therapies Program.

Today, his team is using the latest technology, including high-throughput screening and next generation sequencing, to map the genes of ovarian cancer so researchers can develop new therapies to treat it.

The team analyzes cell lines and generates a map of the genes that cell line is sensitive to. This allows them to see what happens if they turn off that gene using RNAi. "What we're learning is that even though they have things in common, each cell line will have its own set of genes, which is different to every other cell's. That gives us insights into molecular pathways, saying that cell line A, B and C are sensitive to manipulation of one pathway, but not the others."

This information would potentially allow researchers to define groups of patients that are sensitive to manipulation of that pathway but not to others.

Researchers in the Selective Therapies Program are collaborating with OICR's Medicinal Chemistry Platform so that when a target is identified it can be evaluated for development into a treatment.

"Instead of referring to ovarian cancer patients as a whole, we will one day be able to refer to different types of ovarian cancer. We are doing this already, but we could have personalized medicine. Each patient would be screened for a set of markers and given a treatment or combination of treatments based on the characteristics of their disease."

That is still many years away, but now, Suarez's major task is to help bring together the very different – and not always easily comparable – data from the different technologies in use in their lab. This requires developing new analytical tools to make sense of all the very different datasets produced.

"Your career doesn't take you exactly where you wanted to go at the beginning, but it takes you exactly where you need to be."