Student name: Kathleen Houlahan Supervisor name: Dr. Paul Boutros, Professor PhD thesis: Germline polymorphisms contribute to the somatic variability of prostate cancer
Cancer is caused by the accumulation of DNA mutations that facilitate abnormal cell growth and metastasis. There are three sources of DNA mutations: genetic, environmental and stochastic. Every individual is different – born with a unique set of inherited DNA variants (genetic), exposed to a unique combination of environmental mutagens (environmental) and subjected to unique random events (stochastic). These differences result in tumours with mutational profiles that differ from individual to individual, even amongst tumours with the same clinical characteristics. The mutations a tumour harbours can influence diagnosis and response to treatment. Understanding why mutational profiles differ across individuals is foundational in facilitating personalized medicine.
The DNA we are born with can influence cancer initiation and progression. Our inherited DNA provides the context in which additional mutations are acquired and it remains unknown how our inherited DNA influences which, if any, cancer-causing mutations we acquire over the course of our lifetime. Kathleen demonstrated that inherited variants modulate chemical modifications of DNA and influence which cancer-causing mutations an individual may develop in their lifetime. These data demonstrate that inherited variants are more deterministic of a how a tumour evolves than previously appreciated. These foundational studies provide the blueprints for predicting an individual’s risk of developing cancer-causing mutations decades before diagnosis.
While at the University of Toronto, Kathleen was awarded the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a competitive post-graduate scholar affiliation with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. During her 4-year PhD, she published 16 peer-reviewed papers in top journals, including Nature, Cell, and Nature Medicine and filed two patents based on her doctoral work. Upon graduation, Kathleen received the Walker/Marshall Prize, an award recognizing Medical Biophysics students whose work and achievements are judged to be both outstanding in their own right and representative of the ideals and culture of the Department.
Beyond her academic achievements, Kathleen was deeply integrated in student life in the Department of Medical Biophysics. During the course of her degree, she co-chaired the Social and Career Development Committees of the Medical Biophysics Graduate Association. Kathleen was also an instructor at the Coding Hive, an organization focused on providing high school students the tools and expertise they need to launch a career in data science. Her engagement with the Coding Hive led to longer term mentorship of high school students interested in learning more about how data science can be applied to cancer research.
At present, Kathleen is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University under the guidance of Dr. Christina Curtis. She continues to explore the effect of inherited variants on tumor evolution during early tumorigenesis with a specific focus on how inherited variants influence immune surveillance.
