Science Café – Can a Virus Fight Cancer?

• In-Person event
• 1049 Bank St , Ottawa , ON , K1S 3W9

• Contact
• Jessie Cartwright, jessie.cartwright@carleton.ca

What if we could get our own immune system – and even viruses – to fight cancer for us? Immunotherapies aim to do just that, helping the immune system recognize and attack cancer. One exciting approach uses cancer-killing viruses, which can infect and destroy cancer cells while sounding the alarm for the immune system to join the fight. But tumours have their own tricks. They can hijack immune cells called macrophages, turning these would-be defenders into helpers that support tumour growth. My research asks whether cancer-killing vaccinia virus can flip the script, turning these macrophages back into cancer fighters. Even more intriguingly, could macrophages become “Trojan horses,” carrying the virus through the tumour and delivering it to more cancer cells? By exploring this unlikely partnership between viruses and immune cells, my research aims to uncover new ways to turn some of cancer’s own tricks against it.

About the Speaker:

Robyn Skillings, MSc, PhD candidate, Health Sciences Department, Carleton University 

Robyn Skillings is a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Edana Cassol’s lab in the Health Sciences Department at Carleton University studying cancer immunology and cancer-killing virus therapy. Her research explores how viruses can be harnessed to fight cancer, focusing on macrophages – immune cells that can either help tumours grow or fight them. Her work investigates how the cancer-killing vaccinia virus interacts with and reprograms these cells to better understand how the immune system can be leveraged to improve cancer therapies. Before beginning her Ph.D., Robyn completed her M.Sc. at the University of Ottawa, where she also studied oncolytic viruses as cancer therapeutics. She is passionate about making complex science accessible and sharing how our immune system can be used to fight cancer.

Lab Website: https://www.cassollab.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robyn-skillings-44747152/ 

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