Brief Biography

Dr. Moran completed his PhD in Biochemistry at the National Cancer Institute of Canada’s Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario in 1987. He was an NCIC Fellow at Mount Sinai Hospital (1986-1990), and then joined the University of Toronto in 1990 in the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, and the Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics. He was an NCIC Scientist from 1991-97 and an MRC/Canadian Institutes for Health Research Scientist from 1997-2002.

Dr. Moran has served on various granting agency study sections related to cancer, and consulted and collaborated with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the area of drug discovery. He helped found the companies Ocata Proteomics and MDS Proteomics, and served as Chief Scientific Officer.

Dr. Moran’s research focus, publications, and invited seminars have addressed the intracellular signaling networks that control growth, survival, and spreading of tumours, and how drugs may be designed to target key components in these molecular networks. His group uses proteomics technologies including mass spectrometry and bioinformatics to identify and characterize proteins activated in cancers, and to determine drug mechanisms of action.

External Funding

• Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Canadian Foundation for Innovation
• Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
• Ontario Research Fund
• National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute

Publications

Karisch R, Fernandez M, Taylor P, Virtanen C, St-Germain JR, Jin, LL, Harris IS, Mori J, Mak TW, Senis YA, Ostman A, Moran MF, and BG Neel (2011) Global proteomic assessment of the classical protein-tyrosine phosphatome and “redoxome”.  Cell 146:826-40.    

Organ SL, Tong J, Taylor P, St-Germain JR, Navab R, MF Moran, and MS Tsao (2011) Quantitative phospho-proteomic profiling of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)-Met signaling.  J Proteome Res. 10(7):3200-11.

Mao X, B Cao, T Wood, R Hurren, J Tong, X Wang, P Spagnuolo, N MacLean, MF Moran, A Datti, J Wrana, RA Batey, and AD Schimmer (2011) A small molecule inhibitor of D-cyclin transactivation displays preclinical efficacy in myeloma and leukemia via phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway.  Blood 117(6):1986-97.

Wei Y, Tong J, Taylor P, Strumpf D, Ignatchenko V, Pham NA, Yanagawa N, Liu G, Jurisica I, Shepherd FA, Tsao MS, Kislinger T, MF Moran (2011) Primary tumor xenografts of human lung adeno and squamous cell carcinoma express distinct proteomic signatures. J Proteome Res  10(1):161-74

Jin LL, Tong J, Prakash A, Peterman SM, St-Germain J, Taylor P, Trudel S, Moran MF (2010) Measurement of protein phosphorylation stoichiometry by selected reaction monitoring mass spectrometry.  J Proteome Res  9(5):2752-61

Morozova O, Vojvodic M, Grinshtein N, Hansford LM, Blakely KM, Maslova A, Hirst M, Cezard T, Morin R, Moore R, Smith KM, Miller F, Taylor P, Thiessen N, Varhol R, Zhao Y, Jones S, Moffat J, Kislinger T, Moran MF, Kaplan DR, Marra MA (2010) Systems-level analysis of neuroblastoma tumor-initiating cells implicates AURKB as a novel drug target for neuroblastoma.  Clinical Cancer Research   16(18):4572-82

St-Germain JR, Taylor P, Tong J, Jin LL, Nikolic A, Stewart II, Ewing RM, Dharsee M, Li Z, Trudel S, Moran MF. (2009) Multiple myeloma phosphotyrosine proteomic profile associated with FGFR3 expression, ligand activation, and drug inhibition. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 106(47):20127-32

Micallef J, Taccone M, Mukherjee J, Croul S, Busby J, Moran MF, Guha A. (2009) Epidermal growth factor receptor variant III-induced glioma invasion is mediated through myristoylated alanine-rich protein kinase C substrate overexpression. Cancer Res. 69(19):7548-56

Tong J, Taylor P, Peterman SM, Prakash A, Moran MF. (2009) EGF receptor phosphorylation sites S991 and Y998 are implicated in the regulation of receptor endocytosis, protein-protein interactions, and p38 MAPK-dependent phosphorylation at S1039 and T1041. Mol. Cell. Proteomics, doi: 10.1074

Taylor P, Neilsen PA, Trelle MB, Horning OB, Andersen MB, Vorm O, Moran MF, Kislinger T. (2009) Automated 2D peptide separation on a 1D Nano-LC-MS system. J Prot Res 8(3):1610-1616

Tong J, Taylor P, Jovceva E, St-Germain JR, Jin LL, Nikolic A, Gu X, Li ZH, Trudel S, Moran MF. (2008) Tandem Immunoprecipitation of phosphotyrosine-mass spectrometry (TIPY-MS) indicates C19orf19 becomes tyrosine phosphorylated and associated with activated epidermal growth factor receptor. J. Proteome Research, 7(3):1067-1077

Moran MF, Tong J, Taylor P, Ewing RM. (2006) Emerging applications for phospho-proteomics in cancer molecular therapeutics. Biochim Biophys Acta (Rev. Cancer) 1766(2):230-41

Stover D, Caldwell J, Marto J, Root K, Mestan J, Stumm M, Ornatsky O, Orsi C, Radosevic N, Liao L, Fabbro D, Moran MF. (2004) Differential phosphoprofiles of EGF and EGFR kinase inhibitor treated human tumor cells and mouse xenografts. Clinical Proteomics, 1:69-80 

Toledo-Sherman LM, Desouza L, Hosfield D, Liao L, Botillier K, Taylor P, Climie S, McBroom L, Moran MF. (2004) New targets for an old drug: a chemical proteomics approach to unraveling the molecular mechanism of action of methotrexate. Clinical Proteomics 1:45-68

Ho Y, Gruhler A, Heilbut A, Bader GD, Moore L, Adams SL, Millar A, Taylor P, Bennett K, Boutilier K, Yang L, Wolting C, Donaldson I, Schandorff S, Shewnarane J, Vo M, Taggart J, Goudreault M, Muskat B, Alfarano C, Dewar D, Lin Z, Michalickova K, Willems AR, Sassi H, Nielsen PA, Rasmussen KJ, Andersen JR, Johansen LE, Hansen LH, Jespersen H, Podtelejnikov A, Nielsen E, Crawford J, Poulsen V, Sorensen BD, Matthiesen J, Hendrickson RC, Gleeson F, Pawson T, Moran MF, Durocher D, Mann M, Hogue CW, Figeys D, Tyers M. (2002) Systematic identification of protein complexes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by mass spectrometry. Nature. 415(6868):180-3.