Dr Paul Rennie
Position:
- Director, Laboratory Research, The Vancouver Prostate Centre
- Professor, Department of Urologic Sciences and Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia
Websites:
Biography:
Dr Rennie is the co-founder and Director of Laboratory Research for The Vancouver Prostate Centre. His lab has had a long history of characterizing hormone regulation of prostate cancers and has contributed much of the groundwork for the development of widely used, cost-efficient treatments for advanced prostate cancer in the eighties and for providing the mechanistic basis for intermittent androgen suppression treatment protocols.
Dr Rennie’s current research is aimed at determining how androgens regulate gene transcription and how to use this knowledge to prevent progression to castration resistance/androgen independence in prostate cancers. In this regard, he is using RNA interference and a small molecule approach to knockdown, and to inhibit, the androgen receptor. In addition, he is working to develop replication-competent oncolytic viruses that can selectively target and kill prostate tumour cells.
As Director of Laboratory Research for The Prostate Centre, and as PI of the Terry Fox/NCIC Program Grant on Prostate Cancer Progression, Dr Rennie has established an integrated, multidisciplinary group to study molecular, cellular and translational aspects of prostate cancer progression to androgen independence. The program grant, which was initially awarded in 1998, is ongoing and has been repeatedly renewed, yielding over $15million in research funds. This program has provided the central thematic basis for much of the research currently performed at The Vancouver Prostate Centre and has established core facilities which are the nucleus of gene array, pathology and animal model activities.
In recognition of his career achievements in science, Dr Rennie was named a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2007.
androgen receptor, cancer progression, castrate resistance, metastases, prostate cancer, oncolytic viruses.
