Jeremy Carver, Jim Dennis , Paul Goss, and Rajan Shah - are internationally recognized researchers. Their expertise spans the disciplines of molecular design, cancer biology, clinical oncology, and chemical synthesis. Cancer Research - Groundbreaking Scientific Findings Developments over the last decade of cancer research have led to the prevailing model for cancer in which cancers arise from cells that have undergone mutations in multiple genes. Cancer-causing mutations affect many biochemical pathways, cumulatively resulting in the observed behaviour of cancer cells. Normal growth constraints and environmental cues are ignored resulting in expansion and organ damage as the tumour spreads.
Carbohydrates play an important role in the growth and spread of cancer.
Many of the molecular cues that regulate growth and differentiation are provided by glycoproteins, including growth factors, their receptors, and extra cellular matrix glycoproteins. Malignant transformation is often associated with structural alterations in the carbohydrate portion of glycoproteins, some directly affecting the growth and invasive characteristic of the cells. In the early 1980s, Drs. Carver and Dennis received funding from the Terry Fox Foundation to investigate the role of cell surface carbohydrates in the growth and metastasis of cancer. By the late 1980s, they were the first to identify the cell surface carbohydrate structures responsible for tumor growth and spread and to define the enzymes responsible for making these structures.