As Director of the Academy of Translational Medicine (ATM), Dr. Poul Sorensen continues to lead by example. In 2023, Dr. Sorensen made ground-breaking contributions to pediatric oncology research, amongst his many accomplishments.
The advancements made by Dr. Sorensen and his colleagues have been instrumental in accelerating pediatric cancer therapeutics through the pipeline from bench to bedside. Due to the low survival rates associated with childhood cancers that have relapsed or are metastatic, this is an area of urgent need. In a feature for Science in Vancouver, Dr. Sorensen and his colleagues addressed the relevance of the discoveries presented in the publication A MYCN-independent mechanism mediating secretome reprogramming and metastasis in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma, for which Dr. Sorensen is the senior author.
“A major roadblock is the paucity of known tumor-associated surface proteins that could potentially serve as targets for immunotherapy in these diseases. We have therefore developed a world-class pipeline for the discovery of such targets in childhood malignancies, using plasma membrane enrichment linked to mass spectrometry based proteomics to identify novel surface targets.” – Read the article here
For the project “Harnessing the osteosarcoma surfaceome for immunotherapy targets to block metastatic capacity”, the Osteosarcoma Institute awarded $500,000 USD to Dr. Poul Sorensen, Dr. Gregg Morin, and Dr. Wei Li. The summary of the project includes the following background on the importance of this research:
“Osteosarcoma is the most common bone cancer of children, adolescents, and young adults. When osteosarcoma tumor cells spread to other parts of the body, known as metastasis, survival is drastically reduced from ~75% to ~25%. Since metastatic disease has remained largely incurable for decades, there is a critical need to identify new treatments for patients with metastatic osteosarcoma.” – Find the full summary and announcements on the BC Cancer website and on the Faculty of Medicine’s website
Dr. Sorensen’s involvement with innovative initiatives also includes leading one of three targeted projects within The Spatial Metabolome Hubble Project to Decipher Tumour Driven Immunosuppression (Metabohub), with ATM Member Dr. Seth Parker. Dr. Sorensen and Dr. Parker’s project will “examine how tumour cells cope with metabolic stress in specific types of cancer, like pancreatic cancer and Ewing sarcoma, and how this can prevent CAR-T cells from being effective.” The Spatial Metabolomics Hub is funded from 2023 to 2027 with a total of $2.4 million by the Terry Fox Foundation and the Lotte & John Hecht Memorial Foundation. Inspired by the James Web telescope, advanced imaging technology will be used to examine metabolic profiles in various areas of tumour tissues, to better understand the activity of certain immune cells in different parts of a tumour. More detailed information regarding the Hub can be found here.
Collaborative efforts are a prominent theme in Dr. Sorensen’s success. In November of 2024, Derm-Biome Pharmaceuticals Inc., for whom Dr. Sorensen is CSO, announced its collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition, Dr. Sorensen has been working with other high-profile researchers on initiatives targeted for Canada’s Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub.
Dr. Sorensen was also made a 2023 Ambassador to Technical University Munich, and a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Technical University Munich. This honour is given to renowned international scientists that, through their work with Technical University Munich investigators, carry out impactful research with global outreach.
In his role as Director for the Academy of Translational Medicine, Dr. Sorensen demonstrates excellence in the translation of such discoveries into applications with clinical impact. The ATM congratulates Dr. Sorensen for his contributions to translational medicine in 2023!
Read Dr. Poul Sorensen’s bio on the ATM website here
Did you know that Dr. Poul Sorensen and the ATM were featured in an award-winning edition of Pathways Magazine? Learn about it here