Generously funded by Donors of Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada

Jerome Fortin – McGill University – Montreal, QC

Project Title: “Targeting epigentic molecules for patient-specific therapies in brain cancers”

Description of Project:

The current treatments for brain cancer do not work well and cause a lot of side-effects. This highlights the need to develop better treatments. There are several types of brain tumors. They differ in their age of onset, aggressiveness, and localization within the brain. However, even within a specific brain cancer type, tumors can look and behave quite differently from one another. Treatments that take into account this variability between cancers could work better. Here, we will study the effect of targeting a specific molecule in brain cancers. We predict that targeting this molecule will work especially well in some aggressive brain cancers that affect children.

What receiving this award means:

As an early-career investigator, this grant will be key to establishing a vigorous research program focused on understanding how brain cancers arise and could be treated. Discovering new treatments starts with robust basic and translational science research. We are very thankful that the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada recognizes the value of fundamental research, and it encourages us to work harder than ever to find cures for patients with these devastating diseases.

Update – December 2025

In this project, we are studying the effect of targeting a specific molecule, called SETD2, in a type of aggressive brain cancers that affect children. Thus far, our results suggest that inactivating SETD2 can correct some of the molecular anomalies that cause the initiation of these cancers. We have observed that nearly half of this category of tumours may be sensitive to SETD2 targeting. We are now working to understand why some tumours respond better to SETD2 targeting than others. We hope that our results will pave the way to the development of therapies that are tailored to individual patients