In a paradigm-shifting world first in 2018, a team at UHN announced that they had created a map of the cells in human liver, revealing for the first time differences between individual cells that can have a profound impact on their behaviour in liver tissue, tumours and disease. Looking to the future, UHN’s scientists will use this information to help identify the specific drivers of liver damage. By doing so, they can pursue new ways to use drugs and the body’s own immune system to target, treat and cure liver disease.

Being at the global forefront of organ repair technology, UHN’s scientists will develop innovative strategies that ensure healthy livers for life. These include cell-based therapies to restore function to damaged livers and chemotherapeutics to reprogram cells in the liver to treat autoimmune disease and to eliminate the need for harmful immunosuppression in transplant recipients. They will also strive to use cell-based and targeted drug therapies to stimulate liver regeneration. Taking this research one step forward, they will attempt to build new livers from scratch using a patient’s own stem cells.

Liver cancer is becoming more and more common. It is also very difficult to treat. The team will target cutting-edge basic research in a way that is immediately relevant to patients by:

• Developing new therapies that minimize liver toxicity and complications
• Targeting the liver and the tumour selectively
• Enabling multiple anti-cancer strategies, such as immunotherapy, to be harnessed.

By studying liver cancer in the lab, researchers will also develop tests that predict how individual tumours respond to new treatment strategies. In the future, these tests may be used to identify patients at risk of developing cancer, and to personalize therapy for each individual.