Dr.
Ilkow research experience has been shaped by her graduate work at the
University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Tom Hobman, where she
identified novel interactions of pathogenic RNA viruses with their host cells.
In order to expand her research experience repertoire, as a postdoctoral fellow
in Dr. John Bell laboratory at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Dr. Ilkow
research focused shifted to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how
viruses can be used as targeted bio-weapons to treat cancer. These naturally
occurring or engineer cancer-fighting viruses are known as oncolytic viruses. Using tumour samples derived from patients
with cancer and models of pancreatic and ovarian cancers, Dr. Ilkow
demonstrated for the first time that responses of cancer cells to oncolytic
virus infection are not exclusively determined by their intrinsic
characteristics, but are also controlled by signals derived from the tumour
microenvironment. These
recent discoveries were recently published in Nature Medicine, and led Dr.
Ilkow to win the 2015 Worton Researcher in Training Award.
Dr. Ilkow is also
firmly committed to the education of new scientists in the areas of virology, tumor
biology, and biotherapeutics. Based on her student’s recommendation, Dr. Ilkow was
awarded as the 2014 University of Ottawa CO-OP employer of the year.
1. Jennings VA, Rumbold-Hall R, Migneco G, Barr T, Reilly K, Ingram N, St Hilare I, Heaton S, Alzamel N, Jackson D, Ralph C, Banerjee S, McNeish I, Bell JC, Melcher AA,
Ilkow C, Cook GP, Errington-Mais F. “Enhancing oncolytic virotherapy by extracellular vesicle mediated microRNA reprograming of the tumour microenvironment.”
Frontiers in immunology vol. 15 1500570. 23 Dec. 2024.
2. Rezaei R, Boulton S, Ahmadi M, Petryk J, Da Silva M, Kooshki Zamani N, Singaravelu R, St-Laurent G, Daniel L, Sadeghipour A, Pelin A, Poutou J, Munoz Zuniga AI, Choy C, Gilchrist VH, Khalid Z, Austin B, Onsu KA, Marius R, Ameli Z, Mohammadi F, Mancinelli V, Wang E, Nik-Akhtar A, Alwithenani A, Panahi Arasi F, Ferguson SSG, Hobman TC, Alain T, Tai LH,
Ilkow CS, Diallo JS, Bell JC, Azad T. “Antibiotic-mediated selection of randomly mutagenized and cytokine-expressing oncolytic viruses.”
Nature biomedical engineering, 10.1038/s41551-024-01259-7. 28 Nov. 2024.
3. Wong B, Birtch R, Bergeron A, Ng K, Maznyi G, Spinelli M, Chen A, Landry A, Crupi MJF, Arulanandam R,
Ilkow CS, Diallo JS. “High throughput screen identifies lysosomal acid phosphatase 2 (ACP2) to regulate IFN-1 responses to potentiate oncolytic VSV?51 activity.”
Scientific reports vol. 14,1 28284. 16 Nov. 2024.
4. Taha, Z., Crupi, M. J. F., Alluqmani, N., MacKenzie, D., Vallati, S., Whelan, J. T., Fareez, F., Alwithenani, A., Petryk, J., Chen, A., Spinelli, M. M., Ng, K., Sobh, J., Tanese de Souza, C., Bharadwa, P. R., Lee, T. K. H., Thomas, D. A., Huang, B. Z., Kassas, O., Poutou, J., Gilchrist, V. H., Boulton, S., Thomson, M., Marius, R., Hooshyar, M., McComb, S., Arulanandam, R.,
Ilkow, C. S., Bell, J. C., & Diallo, J-S. "Complementary dual-virus strategy drives synthetic target and cognate T-cell engager expression for endogenous-antigen agnostic immunotherapy."
Nature Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, 2024, p. 7267. 23 Aug. 2024.
5. Antonova L, Paramanthan P, Falls T, Wedge ME, Mayer J, Sekhon HS, McPherson J, Denroche RE, Gallinger S, Bell JC,
Ilkow CS, Chatterjee A. Molecular Characterization and Xenotransplantation of Pancreatic Cancer Using Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration (EUS-FNA).
Cancers (Basel). 2024;16(15):2721.
6. Hodgins JJ, Abou-Hamad J, O'Dwyer CE, Hagerman A, Yakubovich E, Tanese de Souza C, Marotel M, Buchler A, Fadel S, Park MM, Fong-McMaster C, Crupi MF, Makinson OJ, Kurdieh R, Rezaei R, Dhillon HS, Ilkow CS, Bell JC, Harper ME, Rotstein BH, Auer RC, Vanderhyden BC, Sabourin LA, Bourgeois-Daigneault MC, Cook DP, Ardolino M. "PD-L1 promotes oncolytic virus infection via a metabolic shift that inhibits the type I IFN pathway." Journal of Experimental Medicine. 221(7), 2024.
7.
Ilkow CS, Bell JC. Optimizing oncolytic virus design: a "Swiss army knife" approach to create a systemically delivered therapeutic.
Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2024 Apr 2;9(1):82.
8. Wong B, Birtch R, Rezaei R, Jamieson T, Crupi MJF, Diallo JS,
Ilkow CS. Optimal delivery of RNA interference by viral vectors for cancer therapy.
Molecular Therapy. 2023 Nov 1;31(11):3127-3145.
9. Jennings VA,
Ilkow CS. Generation and Quantification of Cytotoxic Lymphocytes Following Oncolytic Virus Infection of Multi-cellular Tumor Spheroids.
Methods Mol Biol. 2023;2614:139-149.
10. Whelan JT, Singaravelu R, Wang F, Pelin A, Tamming LA, Pugliese G, Martin NT, Crupi MJF, Petryk J, Austin B, He X, Marius R, Duong J, Jones C, Fekete EEF, Alluqmani N, Chen A, Boulton S, Huh MS, Tang MY, Taha Z, Scut E, Diallo JS, Azad T, Lichty BD,
Ilkow CS, Bell JC. CRISPR-mediated rapid arming of poxvirus vectors enables facile generation of the novel immunotherapeutic STINGPOX.
Front Immunol. 2023 Jan 13;13:1050250.
11. Moulin C, Crupi MJF,
Ilkow CS, Bell JC, Boulton S. Extracellular Vesicles and Viruses: Two Intertwined Entities.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jan 5;24(2):1036.
12. Lalu MM, Presseau J, Foster MK, Hunniford VT, Cobey KD, Brehaut JC,
Ilkow CS, Montroy J,Cardenas A, Sharif A, Jeffers MS, Fergusson DA. Identifying barriers and enablers to rigorous conduct and reporting of preclinical laboratory studies.
PLoS Biol. 2023 Jan 5;21(1).
13. Crupi MJF, Taha Z, Janssen TJA, Petryk J, Boulton S, Alluqmani N, Jirovec A, Kassas O, Khan ST, Vallati S, Lee E, Huang BZ, Huh M, Pikor L, He X, Marius R, Austin B, Duong J, Pelin A, Neault S, Azad T, Breitbach CJ, Stojdl DF, Burgess MF, McComb S, Auer R, Diallo J-S,
Ilkow CS, Bell JC. Oncolytic virus driven T-cell-based combination immunotherapy platform for colorectal cancer.
Front Immunol. 2022 Nov 3;13:1029269.
14. Taha Z, Arulanandam R, Maznyi G, Godbout E, Carter-Timofte ME, Kurmasheva N, Reinert LS, Chen A, Crupi MJF, Boulton S, Laroche G, Phan A, Rezaei R, Alluqmani N, Jirovec A, Acal A, Brown EEF, Singaravelu R, Petryk J, Idorn M, Potts KG, Todesco H, John JC, Mahoney DJ,
Ilkow CS, Giguère P, Alain T, Côté M, Paludan SR, Olagnier D, Azad T, Diallo J-S. Identification of FDA-approved bifonazole as a SARS-CoV-2 blocking agent following a bioreporter drug screen.
Molecular Therapy. 2022 May 6:S1525-0016(22)00296-9.
15. Wedge ME, Jennings VA, Pugliese G, Poutou J, Crupi MJF, Jamieson TR, Laight BJ, Boileau M, Khan ST, McKay HE, Pikor L, Pelin A, Rose E, Brown E, Crawford N, Tanese de Souza C, Alkayyal A, Surendran A, Singaravelu R, Roy D, Petryk J, Migneco G, McSweeney B, Cottee ML, Jacobus EJ, Keller B, Chatterjee A, Auer RA, Diallo J-S, Gibbings D, tenOever BR, Melcher A, Bell JC,
Ilkow CS. “Virally programmed extracellular vesicles sensitize cancer cells to oncolytic virus and small molecule therapy”.
Nature Communications, April 2022.
16. Rangsitratkul C, Lawson C, Bernier-Godon F, Niavarani SR, Boudaud M, Rouleau S, Gladu-Corbin AO, Surendran A, Ekindi-Ndongo N, Koti M,
Ilkow CS, Richard PO, Tai LH. Intravesical immunotherapy with a GM-CSF armed oncolytic vesicular stomatitis virus improves outcome in bladder cancer.
Molecular Therapy Oncolytics. 2022 Feb 1;24:507-521.
17. Boulton S, Poutou J, Martin NT, Azad T, Singaravelu R, Crupi MJF, Jamieson T, He X, Marius R, Petryk J, Tanese de Souza C, Austin B, Khan ST, Pelin A, Rezaei R, Surendran A, Tucker S, Brown EMF, Dave J, Diallo J-S, Auer R, Angel JB, Cameron W, Cailhier JF, Lapointe R, Potts K, Mahoney DJ, Bell JC,
Ilkow CS. “Single dose replicating poxvirus vector-based RBD vaccine drives robust humoral and T cell immune response against SARS-CoV-2 infection”.
Mol Ther. 2022 May 4;30(5):1885-1896.
