- About
- People
- Faculty
- Tim Audas
- Christopher Beh
- Lorena Braid
- Fiona S.L. Brinkman
- Mark Brockman
- Jack Chen
- Jonathan Choy
- Lisa Craig
- Sharon Gorski
- Nicholas Harden
- Nancy Hawkins
- Robert Holt
- William Hsiao
- Valentin Jaumouillé
- Dustin King
- Irina Kovalyova
- Mani Larijani
- Amy Lee
- Michel Leroux
- Ryan Morin
- Ingrid Northwood
- Mark Paetzel
- Frederic Pio
- Lynne Quarmby
- Dheva Setiaputra
- Sophie Sneddon
- Glen Tibbits
- Peter Unrau
- Esther Verheyen
- Stephanie Vlachos
- David Vocadlo
- Edgar Young
- Emeritus Faculty
- Associate Members
- Adjunct Faculty
- Research Personnel
- Graduate & Postdocs
- Staff
- Department Committees
- Faculty
- Undergraduate
- Prospective Students
- Admission & Transferring
- Degree Programs
- MBB Co-op Program
- Careers in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
- Scholarships & Funding
- Student Stories
- Contact Us
- Current Students
- Advising
- Courses
- Course Offerings
- Summer (1244)
- Spring (1241)
- Fall (1237)
- Summer (1234)
- Spring (1231)
- Fall (1227)
- Summer (1224)
- Spring (1221)
- Fall (1217)
- Summer (1214)
- Spring (1211)
- Fall (1207)
- Summer (1204)
- Spring (1201)
- Fall (1197)
- Summer (1194)
- Spring (1191)
- Fall (1187)
- Summer (1184)
- Spring (1181)
- Fall (1177)
- Summer (1174)
- Spring (1171)
- Fall (1167)
- Summer (1164)
- Spring (1161)
- Fall (1157)
- Summer (1154)
- Spring (1151)
- Course Descriptions
- Course Offerings
- Degree Programs
- MBB Co-op Program
- Research Opportunities
- Scholarship & Funding
- Student Resources
- Prospective Students
- Graduate
- Prospective Students
- Current Students
- Manage Your Program
- Degree Requirements
- Courses
- Course Descriptions
- Course Offerings
- Spring (1241)
- Summer (1244)
- Spring (1231)
- Summer (1234)
- Fall (1237)
- Spring (1221)
- Summer (1224)
- Fall (1227)
- Fall (1217)
- Summer (1214)
- Spring (1211)
- Fall (1207)
- Summer (1204)
- Spring (1201)
- Fall (1197)
- Summer (1194)
- Spring (1191)
- Fall (1187)
- Summer (1184)
- Spring (1181)
- Fall (1177)
- Summer (1174)
- Spring (1171)
- Fall (1167)
- Summer (1164)
- Spring (1161)
- Fall (1157)
- Summer (1154)
- Spring (1151)
- Funding and Awards
- Forms And Resources
- Events
- Graduate Student Caucus
- Research
- Research Labs
- Audas Lab
- Beh Lab
- Braid lab
- Brinkman Lab
- Brockman Lab
- Chen Lab
- Choy Lab
- Craig Lab
- Gorski Lab
- Harden Lab
- Hawkins Lab
- Holt Lab
- Hsiao Lab
- Jaumouillé Lab
- King Lab
- Larijani Lab
- Lee Lab
- Leroux Lab
- Morin Lab
- Paetzel Lab
- Pio Lab
- Quarmby Lab
- Sen Lab
- Setiaputra Lab
- Thewalt Lab
- Tibbits Lab
- Unrau Lab
- Verheyen Lab
- Vocadlo Lab
- Young Lab
- Bioinformatics & Genomics
- Cells & Disease
- Infection & Immunity
- Macromolecular Biochemistry
- Undergraduate Research Opportunities
- C2D2 Centre for Cell Biology, Development, and Disease
- Omics Data Science Initiative
- Research Labs
- Resources
- News & Events
- Seminars
- MBB Calendar
- Colloquia
- Honours & Awards
- News Archives
- 2024
- 2023
- Dr. Dustin King speaks to Molecular Cell about sustainability and molecular biology
- Science Advances paper by new MBB PhD, Casey Engstrom and Professor Lynne Quarmby uses satellites to study the impact of Watermelon Snow on glacier loss in North America
- Dr. Sathiyaseelan and team explore the expression and therapeutic target potential of cysteine protease ATG4 in pancreatic cancer
- 2022
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
- 2018
- 2017
- 2016
- 2015
- Support MBB
- Faculty + Staff Portal
Gorski Lab
The study of autophagy (= “self-eating”) has generated tremendous attention due to the recognition that autophagy is involved in multiple developmental processes and various human diseases including cancer.
Autophagy is a catabolic cellular process that provides nutrients and energy through lysosomal degradation of cytoplasmic components engulfed in double membrane-bound vesicles known as autophagosomes. Autophagy occurs at basal rates in virtually all eukaryotic cells to fulfill homeostatic functions such as the recycling of long-lived proteins and damaged organelles. In this way, autophagy acts to safeguard genome integrity and suppress tumorigenesis. Under cellular stress conditions, autophagy is upregulated as an adaptive survival response. Cancer cells may exploit elevated autophagy to survive low nutrient conditions, fuel proliferation, and escape the effects of chemotherapy and other treatments. Consequently, autophagy is under investigation as a target for anticancer therapy in preclinical studies and clinical trials. However, our understanding of the mechanisms by which cells utilize the autophagy pathway to promote both normal development and cancer progression is limited.
To help elucidate these mechanisms, the overall goals of my research program are to identify and characterize regulators of autophagy, investigate the roles of autophagy during normal development, and evaluate the therapeutic potential of autophagy modulation for cancer treatment.
For more information, visit our research lab website.
Email:
SHARON GORSKI
sgorski@bcgsc.ca
Lab Room:
BCCA Genome Sciences Centre 7-124
Lab Phone:
(604) 675-8000 (local 7905)
Selected Publications
- Yang KC, Kalloger SE, Aird JJ, Lee MKC, Rushton C, Mungall KL, Mungall AJ, Gao D, Chow C, *Xu J, Karasinska JM, Colborne S, Jones SJM, Schrader J, Morin RD, Loree JM, Marra MA, Renouf DJ, Morin GB, Gorski SM. Proteotranscriptomic classification and characterization of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms. Cell Reports. Epub 2021 Oct 12. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109817. PMID: 34644566
- Lebovitz C, Wretham N, Osooly M, Milne K, Dash T, Thornton S, Tessier-Cloutier B, Sathiyaseelan P, Bortnik S, Go NE, Halvorsen E, Cederberg RA, Chow N, Dos Santos N, Bennewith KL, Nelson BH, Bally MB, Lam WL, Gorski SM. Loss of Parkinson's susceptibility gene LRRK2 promotes carcinogen-induced lung tumorigenesis. Scientific Reports. 2021 Jan 22;11(1):2097. PMID: 33483550
- Ho CJ, Samarasekera G, Rothe K, Xu J, Yang KC, Leung E, Chan M, Jiang X, Gorski SM. Puncta intended: connecting the dots between autophagy and cell stress networks. Autophagy. 2020 Jun 7:1-6. PMID: 32507070
- Bortnik S, Tessier-Cloutier B, Leung S, Xu J, Asleh K, Burugu S, Magrill J, Greening K, Derakhshan F, Yip S, Ng T, Gelmon KA, Nielsen TO, Gorski SM. Differential expression and prognostic relevance of autophagy-related markers ATG4B, GABARAP, and LC3B in breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. 2020 Oct;183(3):525-47. PMID: 32685993
- Bosc D, Vezenkov L, Bortnik S, An J, Xu J, Choutka C, Hannigan AM, Kovacic S, Loo S, Clark PGK, Chen G, Guay-Ross RN, Yang K, Dragowska WH, Zhang F, Go NE, Leung A, Honson NS, Pfeifer TA, Gleave M, Bally M, Jones SJ, *Gorski SM, *Young RN. A new quinoline-based chemical probe inhibits the autophagy-related cysteine protease ATG4B. Scientific Reports. 2018 Aug 3;8(1):11653. PMID: 30076329. PMCID: PMC6076261.