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  • Mutational Landscape of Grey Zone Lymphoma

    Using exome and targeted sequencing, our work uncovers for the first time, the mutational landscape of grey zone lymphoma (GZL). The study, which was led by Clementine Sarkozy, highlights distinct mutational profiles between thymic and non-thymic GZL, and the unique landscape of poly-EBV-L. These results suggest distinct cells-of-origin and modes of disease evolution within the […] Read More

  • Gene expression profiling of gray zone lymphoma

    Using gene expression profiling, our work provides a comprehensive phenotypic characterization of Grey Zone Lymphoma (GZL), highlighting the importance of tumor microenvironment biology and macrophage infiltration.  The study, which was led by Clementine Sarkozy, confirms and further characterizes the existence of two groups of GZL with presumably distinct cells of origin and evolutionary modes, as […] Read More

  • TMEM30A loss-of-function mutations drive lymphomagenesis and confer therapeutically exploitable vulnerability in B-cell lymphoma

    Our work demonstrates for the first time, a clinical and biological role of TMEM30A in human cancer.  The study, which was led by Daisuke Ennishi and Shannon Healy, uncovers clinically relevant mutations in DLBCL patients, and through the use of knockout mouse models and drug assays provide new biological insights into membrane physiology in B-cell […] Read More

  • Single-Cell Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Disease-Defining T-cell Subsets in the Tumor Microenvironment of Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma

    Our work establishes for the first time the phenotype of the Hodgkin lymphoma-specific immune microenvironment at single-cell resolution.  The study, which was led by Tomohiro Aoki and Lauren Chong, identifies a regulatory T-cell-like immunosuppressive subset of LAG3+ T cells contributing to the immune-escape phenotype and insights aiding in the development of novel biomarkers and combination […] Read More

  • The Ride to Conquer Cancer 2019

    The Steidl Lab participated in the 2019 Ride to Conquer Cancer to help raise money for life-saving research at BC Cancer – support Team Blood, Sweat and Cures! Read More


Welcome to the Steidl Lab!


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The research of the Steidl laboratory focuses on the molecular characterization of lymphoid cancers and biomarker discovery in a variety of Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes. Our translational lymphoma research group uses a variety of state-of-the-art genome-wide discovery tools including array-based and digital gene expression profiling, single-nucleotide polymorphisms analysis and massively parallel sequencing techniques. A main research goal of the lab is to identify and functionally study underlying genetic mechanisms of immune privilege in lymphoid cancers. In previous work using next generation sequencing, we identified several driver mutations and gene fusions, in particular, that have been shown to arise from specific chromosomal rearrangements in Hodgkin lymphoma and primary mediastinal large B cell lymphoma. Most of the identified genes (e.g. CIITA, CD274, PDCD1LG2) feature prominently in immune cell function impacting non-neoplastic cells in the tumour microenvironment. The discovery of these changes across a wide spectrum of lymphomas will likely reinforced the paradigm that immune privilege is a critical component of cancer phenotypes.

Another focus of the laboratory is on the specific composition of the tumour microenvironment in Hodgkin lymphoma. Using gene expression profiling and immunohistochemistry we have identified that the number of tumour-associated macrophages in lymph node biopsies is linked to unfavourable treatment outcome. However, many questions remain regarding the molecular mechanisms underlying the interaction of the malignant cells with infiltrating macrophages and immune cells in the microenvironment in general. Recently, CSF1R has been identified as a key molecule expressed on Hodgkin Reed Sternberg (HRS) cells and tumour-associated macrophages in Hodgkin lymphoma. We now seek to better describe the phenotype of tumour-associated macrophages found in lymphoma biopsies to shed more light on this tumour-microenvironment interaction and to test if this cross-talk can be targeted by small molecule inhibitors in-vitro.

Lymphoma relapse and progression is still one of the major clinical challenges in clinical care and our knowledge about the underlying biology of relapse is still rudimentary. Our preliminary data indicate that certain gene findings have developed during treatment and might be characteristic of this relapse biology. Therefore, we specifically focus in ongoing translational studies on lymphoma relapse biopsies using highly-annotated clinical data sets. By collaboration with our clinical colleagues we are working on solutions how to develop better outcome predictors and predictive biomarkers that inform on individualized treatment options. These studies encompass biomarker evaluation in Hodgkin lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, large B cell lymphomas, and mantle cell lymphoma.

 

Collaborations


As a translational research laboratory we pursue the goal of translating our research findings into better treatments for our patients. The Centre for Lymphoid Cancer (CLC) provides an excellent infrastructure to answer clinically relevant questions in collaboration with clinical oncologists (Joseph Connors, Laurie Sehn, Kerry Savage), hemato-pathologists (Randy Gascoyne), genome researchers (Marco Marra) and computational biologists (Sohrab Shah). The Centre for Translational and Applied Genomics (CTAG) and the Genome Sciences Centre (GSC) is providing cutting technology to facilitate translational research from bench to bedside. Multiple collaborations with researchers inside and outside the Cancer Agency complement the research focus areas to provide additional expertise in epigenomics (Martin Hirst) in vivo modelling (Steidl lab, Einstein College, NY), endogenous retroviruses and epigenetics (Mager lab, Terry-Fox Laboratory, BCCA), immune pathology (Anke van den Berg, Arjan Diepstra, University of Groningen, NL), and childhood lymphomas (Horton lab, Baylor College, Houston, TX).

Our Affiliations

Dept. of Experimental Therapeutics, BCCA
Dept. of Pathology and Lab Medicine, UBC
Centre for Lymphoid Cancer, BCCA
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Genome Canada / Genome BC
Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
British Columbia Cancer Foundation
Terry Fox Research Institute

Funding

Funding

Our Collaborators

Academic

Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre
Steidl Lab, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Terry Fox Laboratory, BCCA
Horton Lab, Baylor College
University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG)
Wendy Cozen, University of Southern California
Shah Lab for Computational Cancer Biology

Industry

Nanostring
Bristol Myers Squibb
Trillium
Vasculox
CTI Biopharma
Seattle Genetics
Roche
Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD)

Consortia / Clinical trial groups

Children’s Oncolgy Group (COG)
Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG)
Leukemia and Lymphoma Molecular Profiling Project (LLMPP)
Canadian Cancer Trials Group
International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium

Steidl Lab
Lymphoid Cancer Research
675 W 10th Avenue, Room 12-110
Vancouver, BC Canada V5Z 1L3
Tel 604 675 8046
Website steidllab.med.ubc.ca
Email csteidl@bccancer.bc.ca
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