Personalizing cancer therapy through imaging: A look inside the Andrews lab

Many cancer treatments have historically taken a “one-size-fits-all” approach. However, every patient’s cancer is different and being able to better understand differences in drug response can improve treatment success rates and reduce side effects.

“In our lab, we’ve developed imaged-based screening techniques that enable us to monitor how cancer cells respond to various treatment combinations at scale,” says Dr. David Andrews, director of Biological Sciences at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. “Starting with cancer cells from patients with leukemia, we test over 700 drug combinations and monitor how the samples respond,” says Dr. Andrews. “With this information we can guide drug development and clinical trials, and eventually identify optimal drug combinations for individual cancer patients.”

Above, have a look inside the Andrews lab to see how scientists are using advanced imaging, robots and artificial intelligence to bring precision medicine to patients with leukemia.