Researcher gets more than $2 M to study cancer
Scientist looks at effect of cold virus on cancer cells

BY VITO PILIECI
The Ottawa Citizen
May 14

An Ottawa researcher has received more than $2 million to continue studying how common cold viruses can be used to kill cancer tumours.

John Bell, a scientists with the Ottawa Health Research Institute, received the new money from the Terry Fox Foundation yesterday.

The Terry Fox Foundation said this is one of the largest grants it has ever awarded a researcher.

“The work that Dr. Bell is doing is quite remarkable,” said Martha McClew, provincial director for the Terry Fox Foundation. “I think that in relative terms, Canada has a small but growing research community and the work that is being done here is on par, if not more advanced, than anywhere in the world.”

The new funding will be used to unite scientists from across the country that are conducting similar research. The group will combine research collected about chicken, rabbit, cow and human cold viruses and the impact each has on cancer tumours.

According to Mr. Bell, when a cell becomes cancerous it looses the ability to defend itself against common viruses. The new consortium will examine what happens when these common viruses are introduced to cancerous tumours in humans.

Mr. Bell said that introducing the cold virus into test-tube based cancer cells killed them more than 80 per cent of the time.

“We have done work with animals and it works very well in animal models,” Mr. Bell said. “We can cure 100 per cent of cancer in animals.”

So far, the therapy has only been tested in lab mice. But, Mr. Bell hopes the new money will allow for tests to be conducted in larger animals and possibly even humans by the end of this year.

Nathalie Trepanier
Communications Manager/Gestionnaire, Communications
OHRI/IRSO
Tel:(613)798-5555 ext. 19691
Fax:(613)761-4920
ntrepanier@ohri.ca
www.ohri.ca

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