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The Sabatinos lab is part of the Department of Chemistry and Biology at Ryerson University in beautiful, liveable Toronto, Canada.


Life is stressful!

We are interested in how cell cycle checkpoints interact with signals from the cellular environment, and how this may help cells survive drug exposure. We test and refine our hypothesis and models in the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe. S. pombe is a power genetic microorganism with enormous benefits- it has chromosomes that "look" and mimic human chromosomes, remarkable similarities between pathways/proteins and their functions, and even forms structures that resemble micronuclei after replication stress! Sometimes called "the micro-mammal", fission yeast has a collaborative global community and is a fantastic learning tool for graduate and undergraduate research projects.


We want to know how some cells escape chemotherapy during cancer treatment- the Escapees. Escapees are potentially dangerous because they survive drug treatment, but are in low numbers and are normally not considered or monitored. We feel that Escapees are an important and overlooked source of cancer relapse; by understanding what allows an Escapee to survive, we understand more about the pathways that help to establish cancer.


Are Escapees are different from the original cell population- do they have additional mutations or genomic rearrangements that make them harder to eliminate? By examining how the cell environment and drug treatment interact with cells and their ability to start/hold a checkpoint and survive... Escape!, we ask how to eliminate Escapees in the original treatment or catch them before they can regrow into a large population that is potentially more dangerous.




Information on applying to our graduate program can be found HERE.



I am frequently recruiting motivated individuals to do research in the lab; if you wish to contact me at ssabatinos@ryerson.ca, please include a CV and a statement describing how my research interests you.