What Nobler Venture?

"There's a bit of pride, yes, that we've been able to roll this rock up the hill. It's going to mean that our research will hopefully be a little less theoretical and a little more tangible: It has to be tested in people, and the investment in Turnstone [Biologics] means we can actually launch those clinical trials."
"This financing is incredible validation that we’re on the right track. We all want to be part of a scientific narrative that changes lives, and I believe that our immunotherapy approach is it."
Dr. David Stojdl, senior scientist, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Doctors David Stojdl, left, and John Bell are investigating the cancer-fighting potential of the Maraba virus DARREN BROWN / POSTMEDIA

"It's a big deal [windfall in venture capital to advance research] because it's going to allow us to explore in a lot more cancer patients how well this therapy works."
"Community support has been and will continue to be crucial for our research. However, developing new therapies is extremely costly, so we also need to engage the private sector to take our research to the next level."
Dr. John Bell, senior scientist, The Ottawa Hospital

"We're hoping to see continued results in the clinic that will get our product to patients as soon as possible."
"We saw an opportunity for the company to really expand and accelerate the development programs we were working on. We are seeing promising results in the first clinical trial, and we are starting to see the type of activity that we had hoped for."

"Much of it [the company's progress in developing and bringing products to market] depends on what kind of results we see in the clinic. These therapies take a very long time to develop. We’re moving along as fast as we can."

"What we and others in this field are driving towards are cures for cancer. There’s no question about it – that’s our goal."

Sammy Farah, Turnstone chief executive, biotech industry veteran

The three senior cancer scientists who together launched an Ottawa biotech company named their firm Turnstone Biologics. What they had in mind is a play on words and taking from nature the inspiration to turn over in their minds all the possible ways in which they might be able to find a way to help advance the search for a cancer cure. There is a shorebird called the Ruddy Turnstone, it habitually turns rocks over in its search for crabs. It appears as the zodiac symbol for Cancer. And so, it seemed propitious and inspirational to name their laboratory for this enterprising bird.

A stocky, brightly patterned shorebird, the Ruddy Turnstone can be seen actively pecking, probing, and flipping over stones along rocky shores.  © Dave Wendelken

The three scientists, after all, were interested in learning from nature, manipulating natural resources, and using what they discovered to help train the human body, through its immune system, to help itself. Dr. Bell of The Ottawa Hospital, Dr. Stojdi of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and Dr. Brian Lichty, senior scientist at McMaster University had worked with one another 16 years ago, in Ottawa and still do, exploring the methodology to turn viruses against cancer.

In particular they have focused on the Maraba virus along with other oncolytic viruses in all that time. To accelerate their research they helped found Turnstone in 2015. The Maraba virus is set to be tested in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor -- an immunotherapy drug -- in various tumours like those produced by head and neck, cervical and prostate cancer. Viruses have evolved as infectious agents capable of infecting, colonizing and destroying human cells.

The Maraba virus was initially discovered in 1984 in sandflies from the Amazon basin of Brazil. A genetically modified version of the virus that was later developed in Ottawa to infect and replicate within cancer cells only, without harming healthy cells. Oncolytic viruses represent a form of immunotherapy to make use of the capacity of the immune system to treat cancer and other diseases. The first oncolytic virus, T-Vec was approved last year for the treatment of advanced melanoma by the FDA in the U.S.

In the United States the federal government recently launched a whopping $1-billion investment in cancer research. Noted American philanthropists like the former president of Facebook, Sean Parker, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, have committed to funding hugely on immunotherapy research. In Canada, there is less of a tradition of private wealth funding enterprising medical research projects. 

So that the fact that Turnstone Biologics attracted the attention of American venture capital to the tune of $41-million represents a rare occasion. Four American firms are prepared to see this Canadian biologic firm through to financing three clinical trials on top of one that is currently in progress. Preliminary results of the current trial have been positive enough in their outcome to date and prognosis to attract the attention of that needed American venture capital.

Researchers are now able to custom design viruses to hunt and destroy very specific types of cancer cells. What's more, these oncolytic viruses have the unique properties that enable them to trigger an immune response by the body's own genetic protector-agency against tumours, and in the process serve to 'train' that immune response to replicate what the viruses themselves do; identify and attack returning cancer cells.

It's the wave of the future in cancer care to defeat that ancient dread disease.