Dr. Philippe Lefran莽ois
- Assistant Professor of Medicine听
- Director of Research in the Division of Dermatology听
MD, PhD, FRCPC, DABD听
Currently supervising students
Dr. Philippe Lefran莽ois lab鈥檚 main goal is to improve pathogenetic, diagnostic and therapeutic knowledge of skin cancers, especially Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), the most common of all human cancers, so patients can benefit from new targeted therapies and management options. In particular, we aim to define the cellular and molecular phenotypes of BCC that underlie aggressive tumor behavior. We are using computational biology, genomics, and molecular biology approaches on several types of samples. These include data from large cancer consortia, patient-derived tumors, publicly-available sequencing data from other patient cohorts, and primary cancer cell lines. With emphasis on clinically-important features, we are also interested in finding novel signaling pathways and actionable targets for BCC, and in characterizing the BCC tumor microenvironment.听
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Projects:听听
Understanding the genomic landscape of advanced Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC).听
Using genomics (exome, transcriptome) on patient-derived samples, we try to identify recurrent driver mutations, molecular signatures, and dysregulated pathways characteristic of aggressive BCC.听
Understanding the tumor microenvironment of advanced BCC.听
We are characterizing the stromal and immune elements specific to advanced BCC using a combination of spatial molecular techniques, immunohistochemistry, and computational biology.听
Clinical correlates and biomarker discovery for early aggressive BCC.听听
We aim to determine clinical features and simple molecular biomarkers that can discriminate between potentially aggressive BCC and non-aggressive BCC on a cohort of patient-derived BCC samples obtained through biobanking.听
Pan-cancer comparison of BCC to other skin cancers and to other solid organ malignancies.听
Due to the paucity of BCC experimental models for advanced BCC, we are looking at potential 鈥渞elatives鈥� among other cancers that display similar genomic and cellular events, using data from large cancer consortia.听
Biological Modelling, Cellular Mechanisms, Computational Biology, Genomics and Bioinformatics, Cancer, Drug discovery/ Therapeutics, Immunology听
Dr. Lefran莽ois is the Director of Research in the Division of Dermatology at McGill University. He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, and of Surgery. He is a full-time staff dermatologist at the Jewish General Hospital where he is actively involved in multidisciplinary skin cancer clinics and tumor boards. He is an investigator at the Lady Davis Institute where he established a broad skin cancer biobank and a skin cancer translational genomics laboratory. He leads the Terry Fox Research Institute 鈥� Marathon of Hope Cancer Centre Network initiatives on BCC and SCC. He is a member of the R茅seau Recherche Cancer 鈥� Qu茅bec, and Qu茅bec Cancer Consortium. He co-chairs SkIN Canada鈥檚 Translational Research Committee. His research program is supported by the JGH Foundation, LDI, TFRI-MOHCCN, FRQS, Cancer Research Society, Canadian Dermatology Foundation/CIHR, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Montreal Dermatology Research Institute, and CQDM. His translational activities include collaborations with biotechs to bring novel cancer therapeutics and diagnostics to pre-clinical and phase I studies. Dr. Lefran莽ois holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, and a M.D. from Universit茅 de Montr茅al. He completed his dermatology residency at McGill. His work on skin cancers has been recognized by the CDA and the AAD.听
