Professor Leonardo Salmena is a member of the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at the University of Toronto. He joined as an Assistant Professor in 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019. Since 2022, he has served as Associate Chair, actively contributing to departmental and faculty-level committees. He also serves on numerous national and international cancer research grant and awards panels, supporting the advancement of cancer research through peer review and strategic evaluation.
An accomplished cancer researcher, Prof. Salmena was awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Signal Transduction and Gene Regulation in Cancer. He is also a recipient of the Career Development Award from the Human Frontier Science Program. His lab’s research, funded by CIHR, the Cancer Research Society, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Brain Cancer Canada, and others, has revealed novel roles for phosphoinositide signaling in leukemia and pancreatic cancer. He has also identified specific microRNAs as promising therapeutic targets in leukemia, prostate cancer, and glioblastoma. His work aims to enhance understanding of cancer development and progression, informing new strategies for treating diverse cancer types.
Prof. Salmena teaches at both undergraduate and graduate levels and has mentored a wide range of trainees, including postdoctoral fellows, PhD and Master’s students, and undergraduate researchers. His dedication to education has been recognized with the Excellence in Linking Undergraduate Teaching to Research in the Life Sciences award.
Prof. Salmena earned his MSc and PhD from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. His postdoctoral fellowship was split between Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School, working in the lab of Pier Paolo Pandolfi.
RESEARCH FOCUS
The Salmena Lab’s research centers on elucidating the role of phosphoinositide signaling and in various cancers, including leukemia, pancreatic, prostate, and brain cancers. The team investigates disruptions in PI3K signaling pathways resulting from genetic and non-genetic alterations, particularly in genes such as PTEN and INPP4B. Their objective is to identify critical genetic and molecular mechanisms that drive cancer initiation, progression, and resistance to therapy. By exploring these aberrant signaling pathways, the lab aims to uncover potential therapeutic targets to improve treatment outcomes.
Additionally, the lab is committed to developing innovative therapeutic strategies tailored to the unique challenges posed by these cancers, ultimately striving to enhance patient care. Their overarching goal is to deepen the understanding of cancer mechanisms through phosphoinositide signaling, which may lead to the development of novel oncology treatments.
The Salmena Lab also investigates how dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) contributes to cancer development, progression, and chemotherapy resistance. Utilizing cutting-edge tools, advanced cellular models, and innovative bioinformatics approaches, the team analyzes complex miRNA networks and their influence on tumor behavior.
Collaborations with clinical institutions facilitate access to patient samples, expediting the translation of research discoveries into personalized cancer therapies aimed at improving treatment outcomes.
PTEN RESEARCH
With a long-standing focus on PTEN, the Salmena Lab continues to investigate how PTEN contributes to cancer.
The lab has developed various specialized tools to further understand PTEN’s functions and how it is perturbed in cancer.
They have generated cell models with endogenously tagged PTEN, which are currently used to explore how PTEN levels and localization are intrinsic to its biological functions. Furthermore, functional screens have identified PTEN as a target of metabolically triggered post-translational modifications, with significant implications for AML progression.
