In the Rottapel lab, we welcome members from a diverse range of academic backgrounds. We foster a collaborative environment between post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and lab technicians.
We love to celebrate graduations, new publications, and other achievements with lunch at Bangkok Garden or with a bottle of Champagne at Mercatto!
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Robert Rottapel
Dr. Rottapel is a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre where he holds the Amgen Chair for Cancer Research. He is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Immunology and Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. After completing his medical studies at George Washington University, the NIH and UCLA, he pursued his postdoctoral studies with Allan Bernstein at the Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto and with Patrice Dubreuil at INSERM, France. Dr. Rottapel is a clinical rheumatologist at St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto. His clinical expertise is in monogenic autoinflammatory disorders and the autoimmune adverse effect resulting from checkpoint inhibitors in cancer patients.
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Donna DeFrancesco
Since 1995, Donna De Francesco has provided professional administrative assistance to many clinical and research offices at the University Health Network.
Donna has worked on many special projects throughout her career including the NCIC Program Project Grant; the cost recovery project at the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute; Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation Myeloma Fund; organization of FASEB meetings and coordinating the Terry Fox Ontario Node Symposium for a number of years. Through UHN, Donna also worked for two years on a special contract with Senior Scientist Mike Moran at The Hospital for Sick Children.
Donna continues to provide professional administrative services to clinician/senior scientist Robert Rottapel, and to a new clinician/scientist at UHN and PMCRT, Dr. Phedias Diamandis, Neuropathologist. Donna is the primary contact for their offices and laboratories at the University Health Network.
LAB MANAGER
Jose La Rose
Jose La Rose has been the lab manager for Dr. Rottapel for approximately 24 years. His background is molecular biology at the University of Toronto. The Rottapel lab acquires data using a wide range of techniques so his experience has grown beyond that of molelcular biology. He started with a passion for benchwork and this remains the same to this day.
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Dr. Kyle Francis
Dr. Kyle Francis received his PhD in Molecular and Clinical Medicine (Pathology) from the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral thesis involved studying checkpoint kinases as druggable targets in ovarian cancer. He joined the lab to identify new therapeutic vulnerabilities in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) using functional genomics.
Dr. Francis’ work involves studying the regulation of immunogenic RNA by nonsense mediated decay (NMD) in HGSOC. His research has identified a therapeutic window where NMD inhibition induces cell death and presents a unique set of MHC class I-associated antigens for tumour immune detection. Ongoing work involves studying the immune-mediated effects of NMD inhibition on HGSOC progression.
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Dr. Tian Sun
Dr. Tian Sun received her Ph.D. from the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto in 2017. Her Ph.D. work focused on the investigation of antiviral adaptive immune responses in the gut. Specifically, her work illustrated the subtypes of dendritic cells that are important in mounting antigen-specific T cell responses. She also identified non-redundant roles of the lymphotoxin beta receptor signaling pathway and NLRC5 in mucosal immunity.
Previous members in the Rottapel lab have identified that the autocrine loop of relaxin signaling is essential for proliferation and tumourigenesis of high-grade serous ovarian cancer cells. Tian is carrying the relaxin story forwar to develop relaxin neutralizing antibodies as a therapeutic agent to treat high-grade serous ovarian cancers in the Rottapel lab.
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Dr. Pallavi Mathur
Dr. Pallavi Mathur received her PhD in Cell and Development Biology from Institut Curie, Paris, France, in 2022. During her doctoral thesis, she studied the changes in organelle organization that accompany tumorigenesis. Using normalized cell cultures on adhesive micropatterns in a bladder cancer model, it was observed that lysosomal positioning becomes increasingly scattered towards the cell periphery in aggressive bladder cancer cells. Mechanistically, her work has shown that lysosome positioning is under the control of Transcription factor EB (TFEB) and that hyperactivation of TFEB leads to the characteristic cellular phenotype of lysosome dispersion in aggressive bladder cancer cells. Moreover, activation of TFEB leads to a global increase of phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PI3P) at lysosomes and strong recruitment of FYVE-domain-containing proteins, thus uncovering a novel role of TFEB in regulating cellular PI3P levels.
In Rottapel lab, her work is focused on studying kinases important for formation and metastasis of high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) spheroids. These multicellular spheroids are found in malignant ascites that accompanies peritoneal dissemination of ovarian cancer. Additionally, Pallavi is also studying the role of Akt signaling pathway in regulation of nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) in HGSOC.
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Dr. Yosuke Asano
Dr. Yosuke Asano received his Ph.D. from the department of Nephrology, Rheumatology, Endocrinology and Metabolism at Okayama University, Japan, in 2023.
During his doctoral thesis, he studied the efficiency of endonuclease for osteoblast collection, and also studied the relationship between pharmacologic inhibition of tankyrase and inflammatory cytokine production.
In the Rottapel lab, his work is focused on the relationship between adaptor protein 3BP2 and osteoblasts. Previous members in the Rottapel lab have reported the effects of 3BP2 in osteoblasts. He will aim to clarify how 3BP2 contributes to proliferation, differenciation and survival of osteoblasts.
POST-DOCTORAL FELLOW
Dr. Oro Uchenunu
Dr. Oro Uchenunu completed his PhD in Experimental Medicine from McGill University at the Lady Davis Institute in Montreal under the supervision of Drs. Ivan Topisirovic and Michael Pollak. His doctoral thesis involved investigating perturbations in energy metabolism to identify targetable metabolic vulnerabilities in cancer. His work elucidates plausible adaptive mechanisms that cancer cells turn on to survive energetic stress due to nutrient deprivation or inhibition of mitochondrial complexes. His work provides previously unrecognized insights into metabolic adaptation and plasticity of cancer cells.
Dr. Uchenunu joined Dr. Rottapel’s lab in 2023 as a postdoctoral researcher to elucidate the role of GCN2 in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (HGSOC) under nutritional and chemotherapeutic stress. His current research involves the use of novel small molecule GCN2 inhibitors in combination therapies to better understand the mechanistic functions of GCN2. This may open new avenues to treat HGSOC.
DOCTORAL STUDENT
Justin Cowen
Justin received his Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Biochemistry from Queen’s University. His undergraduate research with Dr. Peter Greer focused on the control of actin branching by the Arp2/3 complex in triple-negative breast cancer.
As a PhD candidate in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, his research focuses on the role of GEF-H1 in pancreatic cancer. Justin is currently studying cell signaling pathways that link GEF-H1 and cytoskeletal architecture to the Hippo pathway, in collaboration with Dr. Boris Hinz at the Faculty of Dentistry. His work looks at how these pathways may contribute to cancer growth, invasion, and maintenance of the tumour microenvironment.
DOCTORAL STUDENT
Munira Verdawala
Munira Verdawala received her B.Sc. (honors) from Ryerson University in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Physics. At Ryerson, Munira worked under the supervision of Dr. Roberto Botelho to uncover and investigate the molecular mechanisms that limit phagocytic appetite. Munira joined the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto as a member of the Rottapel Lab in August 2021 to pursue her PhD.
Munira is currently studying the role of the adaptor protein 3BP2 and its inhibitor Tankyrase in macrophages. Specifically, her work aims to elucidate underlying signaling pathways. In addition, Munira is also working with Ryder to evaluate the effects of mutations in the Rho-GTPase Cdc42 in macrophages.