Head, Molecular & Regenerative Medicine Axis
Senior Investigator, Lady Davis Institute
Associate Professor of Oncology, McGill University
Dr. Koren Mann is the head of the Molecular and Regenerative Medicine Axis, an Associate Professor of Oncology at McGill University, and a Senior Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital. She is a member of the Segal Cancer Centre and an associate member of the Goodman Cancer Centre. She is also on the scientific committee for the Banque de cellules leucémiques du Québec and a member of the Society of Toxicology - Metals Specialty Section.
Dr. Mann received her Ph.D. in pathology and immunology in 1999 from Boston University, where she studied how the developing immune system is affected by exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. She moved to Montreal to complete her post-doctoral training at McGill, where she researched the use of arsenic as a potential chemotherapy in cancer treatment. Currently, Dr. Mann’s laboratory investigates the environmental health effects of metals, including arsenic and tungsten. In recent years, she has participated in the Lymphoma Translational Research Group and has projects associated with understanding drug resistance in diffuse large B cell lymphoma.
Major Research Activities
Dr. Mann’s laboratory investigates the mechanisms by which arsenic acts as a pro-atherogen and enhances the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. Using a combination of mouse models and in vitro cell cultures, she has shown that arsenic causes macrophages to accumulate fat by inhibiting the molecular cues of lipid efflux. Currently, she is focusing on the role of arsenic methylation in the pro-atherosclerotic effects of arsenic.
Dr. Mann’s laboratory is also studying the potential toxicities associated with tungsten exposure including effects of developing B lymphocytes, bone, and breast cancer metastases. Exposure to tungsten has been proposed as a possible cause for several leukemia clusters.
As part of the Lymphoma Translational Research Group, Dr. Mann participates in correlative studies in diffuse large B cell lymphoma clinical trials. She has an interest in the molecular changes in tumors from patients that relapse or are refractory to standard chemotherapy.
Recent Publications
Lemaire M, Negro Silva LF, Lemarié CA, Bolt AM, Flores Molina M, Krohn RM, Smits JE, Lehoux S, Mann KK. Arsenic Exposure Increases Monocyte Adhesion to the Vascular Endothelium, a Pro-Atherogenic Mechanism.PLoS One. 2015 Sep 2; 10(9):e0136592. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136592. eCollection 2015.
Bolt AM, Grant MP, Wu TH, Flores Molina M, Plourde D, Kelly AD, Negro Silva LF, Lemaire M, Schlezinger JJ, Mwale F, Mann KK. Tungsten Promotes Sex-Specific Adipogenesis in the Bone by Altering Differentiation of Bone Marrow-Resident Mesenchymal Stromal Cells.Toxicol Sci. 2016 Apr;150(2):333-46. doi: 10.1093/toxsci/kfw008. Epub 2016 Feb 9.
Assouline SE, Nielsen TH, Yu S, Alcaide M, Chong
L, MacDonald D, Tosikyan A, Kukreti V, Kezouh A, Petrogiannis-Haliotis
T, Albuquerque M, Fornika D, Alamouti S, Froment R, Greenwood CM, Oros
KK, Camglioglu E, Sharma A, Christodoulopoulos R, Rousseau C, Johnson N,
Crump M, Morin RD, Mann KK. Phase 2 study of panobinostat +/- rituximab in relapsed diffuse large B cell lymphoma and biomarkers predictive of response..Blood. 2016 May 10. pii: blood-2016-02-699520. [Epub ahead of print]