Marie-Claude Bourgeois-Daigneault

Biography

I conducted my PhD at the University of Montreal under the supervision of Dr. Jacques Thibodeau after which I joined the group of Dr. John Bell as a postdoctoral fellow in Ottawa. Now that I am an independent scientist at the “Institut du Cancer de Montréal” and at the “Centre de Recherche du CHUM”, my work specializes on cancer immunotherapy. More specifically, how to use viruses to specifically kill cancers as well as to create anti-cancer vaccines. These so-called oncolytic viruses constitute a novel form of immunotherapeutic cancer treatments.

Team

• Victor Mullins-Dansereau, étudiant au troisième cycle
• Karen Geoffroy, étudiante au troisième cycle
• Delphine Béland, étudiante au troisième cycle
• Stamatios Paradisis, étudiant au troisième cycle
• Bruna Araripe Saraiva, étudiante au deuxième cycle
• Kishan Shamjibhai Italiya, stagiaire postdoctoral
• Alexandra Buccilli, stagiaire
• Gregory Cormack, assistant de recherche

Themes

• Cancer
• Oncolytic viruses
• Immunotherapy
• Cancer vaccines
• Breast cancer
• Leukemia
• Ovarian cancer

Research topics

Our research team studies the use of oncolytic viruses for cancer immunotherapy.

More specifically, our research program includes 3 main facets:

• The use of oncolytic viruses as platforms for personalized anti-cancer vaccination
• The development of novel vaccination strategies using oncolytic viruses and bacteria
• The study of the role of the immunoproteasome for the immunotherapeutic activity of oncolytic viruses

Publications

• Bourgeois-DaigneaultC, Roy D.G, Falls T, Twumasi-Boateng K, St-Germain L.E, Marguerie M, Garcia V, Selman M, Jennings V.A, Pettigrew J, Amos S, Diallo J.S, Nelson B and Bell J.C. Oncolytic vesicular stomatitis virus expressing interferon-γ has enhanced therapeutic activity. Molecular Therapy-Oncolytics 2016.
• Falls T, Roy D.G, Bell J.C and Bourgeois-DaigneaultC. Murine Tumor Models for Oncolytic Rhabdo-Virotherapy. ILAR Journal 2016. *Corresponding author
• Bourgeois-DaigneaultC*, St-Germain L.E, Roy D.G, Pelin A, Aitken A.S, Arulanandam R, Falls T, Garcia V, Diallo J.S and Bell J.C. Combination of Paclitaxel and MG1 oncolytic virus as a successful strategy for breast cancer treatment. Breast Cancer Research 2016.
• Aitken A, Roy D and Bourgeois-Daigneault M.C. Taking a stab at cancer ; Oncolytic virus-mediated anti-cancer vaccination strategies. Biomedicines 2017.
• Aitken A.S, Roy D.G, Martin N.T, Sad S, Bell, J.C and Bourgeois-Daigneault M.C. Brief communication; A heterologous oncolytic bacteria-virus prime-boost approach for anti-cancer vaccination in mice. Journal of Immunotherapy 2018.
• Bourgeois-Daigneault M.C, Roy D.G, Aitken A.S, El Sayes N, Martin N.T, Varette O, Falls T, St-Germain L.E, Pelin A, Lichty B.D, Stojdl D.F, Ungerechts G, Diallo J.S. and Bell J.C. Neo-adjuvant oncolytic virotherapy prior to surgery sensitizes triple-negative breast cancer to immune checkpoint therapy. Science Translational Medicine 2018.
• Martin N.K, Roy D.G, Workenhe S, Van den Wollenberg D, Hoeben R.C, Mossman K, Bell J.C and Bourgeois-Daigneault M.C*. Pre-surgical neoadjuvant oncolytic virotherapy confers protection against tumor-rechallenge in a murine model of breast cancer. Scientific Reports 2019. *Corresponding author
• Mullins-Dansereau V, Petrazzo G, Geoffroy K, Beland D and Bourgeois-Daigneault M.C*. Presurgical oncolytic virotherapy improves breast cancer outcomes. OncoImmunology, 2019. *Corresponding author
• Roy D.G, Bell J.C and Bourgeois-Daigneault M.C. Magnetic targeting of oncolytic VSV-based therapies improves infection of tumor cells in the presence of virus-specific neutralizing antibodies in vitro. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, volume 526, p. 641-646, 2020.
• Geoffroy K and Bourgeois-Daigneault M.C. The pros and cons of interferons for oncolytic virotherapy. Cytokine and Growth Factor Reviews, December p. 49-58, 2020.
• Jenner A.L, Cassidy T, Belaid K, Bourgeois-Daigneault M.C and Craig M. In silico trials predict that combination strategies for enhancing vesicular stomatitis oncolytic virus are determined by tumor aggressivity. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, volume 9, e001387, 2021.
• Roy D.G, Geoffroy K, Marguerie M, Khan S.T, Martin N.T, Kmiecik J, Bobbala D, Aitken S, de Souza C.T, Stephenson K,B, Lichty B.D, Auer R.C, Stojdl D.F, Bell J.C and Bourgeois-Daigneault M.C*. Adjuvant oncolytic virotherapy for personalized anti-cancer vaccination. Nature Communications, volume 12, article 2621, 2021.