Education

Biography

Myron Szewczuk has completed his PhD 1974 from University of Windsor in Biology and Immunochemistry and his postdoctoral studies from Cornell University Medical College, New York City, U.S.A. in Cellular immunology with Dr. Greg Siskind (1975-1978). His first faculty appointment was Assistant Professor of Pathology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario from 1978-81. He joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1981. In 1986, he became Full Professor of Immunology and Associate Professor of Medicine, Queen’s University. He has published more than 100 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute in the fields of cellular immunology, aging of the immune system, mucosal immunology, gastroenterology, apoptosis, rheumatology, clinical allergy and inflammation, glycobiology, RTK and TOLL-like receptor signaling, cancer and chemical engineering of novel cancer drug delivery systems.

Research Interest

• Oncology and Therapeutics
• Glycosylation
• Drug Delivery of Therapeutics,
• Sialic Acid
• Cellular Sialidases
• Cell Signaling
• Cell Differentiation
• TLR Activation
• RTK Receptor Signaling
• Cellular Immunology

Scientific Activities

Employment History

Professional Activities

Membership in Scientific/Professional Organizations

• Group Chair, Faculty-Student Mentorship Program, Queen's University at Kingston, 2007 - 2016
• Committee Member, Faculty Board Nominating Committee, Queen's University at Kingston, 2009 - 2012
• Committee Member, Student Awards Committee (Medicine), Queen's University at Kingston, 2009-2012
• Committee Member, Counselor, Life Sciences program, Queen's University at Kingston, 2007 - 2012
• Member, Society for Glycobiology, International Glycobiology society, 2008 - 2015

Honors and Awards

• Szewczuk - Keynote speech on smart active tumor targeting drug delivery systems in session "Novel Therapies in Cancer Treatment - 2017
• Bessi Qorri (MSc trainee)- Keynote speech - 2017
• Manpreet Sambi (PhD trainee) - Keynote speech Cancer Research and Targeted Therapy - 2017
• Organizing Committee member - 2017
• Plenary speaker on novel receptor signaling paradigm involved in multistage tumorigenesis in session Cell Signaling, Kinase, and Chemotherapy - 2017
• Chair -session on Clinical Oncology, Chemotherapy and Cancer Screening Tests- 2017
• Chair - Young Research forum - 2017
• Chair and Judge - Poster session International Oncologist & Diagnostics Conference - 2017
• Keynote speaker on metastatic breast cancer Chair - session on breast cancer pathology – 2017
• Chair - Young Investigator forum Judge - poster session - 2017
• Special Keynote Speaker and Session Chair of International Conference on Cancer Research and Targeted Therapy - 2017
• Keynote Speaker of 2nd Biotechnology Transfer & Commercialization - 2015
• Keynote Speaker Society for Glycobiology and Japanese Society of Carbohydrate Research – 2014

Publications

1. Fiona Haxho, Sabah Haq and Myron R. Szewczuk. (2018). Biased G protein-coupled receptor agonism mediates Neu1 sialidase and matrix metalloproteinase-9 cross-talk to induce transactivation of insulin receptor signaling. Cellular Signalling. 43: 71-84.
2. Sabah Haq, Fiona Haxho, Vanessa Samuel, Roman Akasov, Maria Leko, Sergey V. Burov, Elena Markvicheva and Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). Sialylation facilitates self-assembly of 3D multicellular prostaspheres using cyclo-RGDfK(TPP) peptide. OncoTargets and Therapy. 10: 2427–2447.
3. Yara Mouhamed, Andrey Vishnyakov, Bessi Qorri, Manpreet Sambi, Signy Frank, Catherine Nowierski, Anmol Lamba, Umrao Bhatti, and Myron R Szewczuk. (2017). Therapeutic Potential of Medicinal Marijuana: An Educational Primer for Healthcare Professionals. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 8: 1-40
4. Manpreet Sambi, Sabah Haq, Vanessa Samuel, Bessi Qorri, Fiona Haxho, Kelli Hill, William Harless and Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). Alternative therapies for metastatic breast cancer: multimodal approach targeting tumorcell heterogeneity. Breast Cancer - Targets and Therapy. 9: 1-9.
5. Fiona Haxho, Manpreet Sambi & Bessi Qorri, William Harless, Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). Current clinical challenges and emerging multi-modal approaches for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Clin Oncol. 2: 1296-1301.
6. Kurt Wood, Myron R. Szewczuk, Dérick Rousseau and Ronald J. Neufeld. (2017). Oseltamivir phosphate released from injectable Pickering emulsions over extended term disables human pancreatic cancer cell survival.Oncotarget. 8(63): 1-25.
7. Manpreet Sambi, Fiona Haxho, Bessi Qorri, William Harless, Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: Current Therapies and Challenges. Adv Res Gastroentero Hepatol. 4: 1-5.
8. Regina-Veronicka Kalaydina, Bessi Qorri, Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). Preventing Negative Shifts in Gut Microbiota with Cannabis Therapy:Implications for Colorectal Cancer.Adv Res Gastroentero Hepatol. 7(3): 555712.
9. Stephanie N. Allison Logan, Amanda J. Brissenden, Myron R. Szewczuk, and Ronald J. Neufeld. (2017). Combinatorial and sequential delivery of gemcitabine and oseltamivir phosphate from implantable poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) cylinders disables human pancreatic cancer cell survival. Drug Design, Development and Therapy. 11: 2239-2250.
10. Manpreet Sambi, Bessi Qorri, S.M. Signy Frank, Yara Mouhamed, Regina-Veronicka Kalaydina, Nicole Mendonza, and Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). Novel Use of Peptides to Facilitate the Formation of 3D MulticellularTumor Spheroids. Curr Top Pept Protein Res. 18: 25-34.
11. Manpreet Sambi, Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). KRAS mutations: efficacy and sensitivity of early predictive screening of cancer progression require other gene mutations in addition to KRAS. Translational Cancer Research. 6(1): 1-3.
12. Bessi Qorri, Manpreet Sambi, Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). Gut Microbiota and its Implications on the Progression of Gastrointestinal Cancer. Adv Res Gastroentero Hepatol. 6(4): 1-5.
13. Xia Li, Manpreet Sambi, Myron Szewczuk and Cecile Malardier-Jugroot. (2017). Targeted delivery of hydrophobic paclitaxel and fluorouracil by folate functionalized amphiphilic alternating copolymer disables pancreatic cancer cell survival. Molecular Pharmaceutics. 14(12): 1-25.
14. Manpreet Sambi, Bessi Qorri, Cecile Malardier-Jugroot and Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). Advancements in Polymer Science: ‘Smart’ Drug Delivery Systems for the Treatment of Cancer. MOJ Poly Sci. 1(3): 00016-21.
15. Sabah Haq, Manpreet Sambi, Bessi Qorri, Nicole Mendonza & Myron R. Szewczuk. (2017). Aberrant Sialic Acid Expression and its Role in Regulating Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer. Adv Res Gastroentero Hepatol. 7(2): 1-6.
16. Fiona Haxho, Ronald J. Neufeld and Myron R. Szewczuk. (2016). Neuraminidase-1: A Novel Therapeutic Target in Multi-stage of Tumorigenesis. Oncotarget. 7(26): 40860-40881.
17. Xia Li, Myron R. Szewczuk and Cecile Malardier-Jugroot. (2016). Folic acid conjugated amphiphilic alternating copolymer as a new active tumor targeting drug delivery platform. Drug Design, Development and Therapy. 11: 1-21.
18. Akasov, Roman, Haq, Sabah, Haxho, Fiona, Samuel, Vanessa, Burov, Sergey V., Markvicheva, Elena, Neufeld, Ronald J. & Szewczuk, Myron R.(2016). Sialylation transmogrifies human breast and pancreatic cancer cells into 3D multicellular tumor spheroids using cyclic RGD-peptide induced self-assembly. Oncotarget. 7(40): 66119-66134.
19. Vitaliy Kapishon, Stephanie Allison, Ralph A. Whitney, Michael F. Cunningham, Myron Szewczuk and Ronald J. Neufeld. (2016). Oseltamivir-conjugated polymeric micelles prepared by RAFT living radical polymerization as a new active tumor targeting drug delivery platform. Biomaterials Science. 4: 511-521.
20. Michael Hrynyk, Jordon P Ellis, Fiona Haxho, Stephanie Allison, Joseph AM Steele, Samar Abdulkhalek, Ronald J Neufeld, Myron R Szewczuk. (2015). Therapeutic designed poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) cylindrical oseltamivir phosphate-loaded implants impede tumor neovascularization, growth and metastasis in mouse model of human pancreatic carcinoma. Drug Design, Development and Therapy. 9: 4573–4586.
21. Fiona Haxho, Stephanie Allison, Farah Alghamdi, Lacey Brodhagen, Victoria E.L. Kuta, Samar Abdulkhalek, Ronald J Neufeld, and Myron R Szewczuk. (2014). Oseltamivir phosphate monotherapy ablates tumor neovascularization, growth and metastasis in mouse model of human triple-negative breast adenocarcinoma. Breast Cancer: Targets and Therapy. 6: 191-203.
22. O’Shea, Leah K and Abdulkhalek, Samar and Allison, Stephanie and Neufeld, Ronald J and Szewczuk, Myron R. (2014). Therapeutic targeting of Neu1 sialidase with oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu) disables cancer cell survival in human pancreatic cancer with acquired chemoresistance. OncoTargets and therapy. 7: 117.
23. Alghamdi, Farah and Guo, Merry and Abdulkhalek, Samar and Crawford, Nicola and Amith,Schammim Ray and Szewczuk, Myron R. (2014). A novel insulin receptor-signaling platform and its link to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Cellular signalling. 26(6): 1355-1368.
24. Fiona Haxho, Farah Alghamdi, Ronald J Neufeld, and Myron R Szewczuk. (2014). Novel insulin receptor-signaling platform. International Journal of Diabetes and Clinical Research. 1(1): 1-10.
25. Alghamdi, Farah G and Szewczuk, Myron. (2014). Neu1 sialidase and matrix metalloproteinase-9 cross-talk in alliance with insulin receptors is an essential molecular signaling platform for insulininduced receptor activation. BMC Genomics. 15(Suppl 2): P22.
26. Samar Abdulkhalek, Olivia Geen, Lacey Brodhagen, Fiona Haxho, Farah Alghamdi, Stephanie Allison, Duncan Simmons, Leah O’Shea, Ronald J Neufeld, and Myron R Szewczuk. (2014). Transcriptional factor Snail controls tumor neovascularization, growth and metastasis in mouse model of human ovarian carcinoma. Clinical and Translational Medicine. 3: 28.
27. Abdulkhalek, Samar and Szewczuk, Myron R. (2013). Neu1 sialidase and matrix metalloproteinase-9 cross-talk regulates nucleic acid-induced endosomal TOLL-like receptor-7 and-9 activation, cellular signaling and pro-inflammatory responses. Cellular signalling. 25(11): 2093 -2105.
28. Samar Abdulkhalek, Michael Hrynyk and Myron R Szewczuk. (2013). A novel G-protein-coupled receptor-signaling platform and its targeted translation in human disease. Research and Reports in Biochemistry. 3: 17-30.
29. Alanna M. Gilmour, Samar Abdulkhalek, Timothy S.W. Cheng, Farah Alghamdi, Preethi Jayanth, Leah K. O’Shea, Olivia Geen, Luis A. Arvizu, and Myron R. Szewczuk. (2013). A novel epidermal growth factor receptor-signaling platform and its targeted translation in pancreatic cancer. Cellular Signalling. 25(12): 2587-2603.
30. Gambhir, Vandana and Yildiz, Christopher and Mulder, Rylend and Siddiqui, Sarah and Guzzo, Christina and Szewczuk, Myron and Gee, Katrina and Basta, Sameh. (2012). The TLR2 agonists lipoteichoic acid and Pam3CSK4 induce greater pro-inflammatory responses than inactivated Mycobacterium butyricum. Cellular immunology. 280(1): 101-107.
31. Abdulkhalek, Samar and Guo, Merry and Amith, Schammim Ray and Jayanth, Preethi and Szewczuk, Myron R. (2012). G-protein coupled receptor agonists mediate Neu1 sialidase and matrix metalloproteinase-9 cross-talk to induce transactivation of TOLL-like receptors and cellular signaling. Cellular signalling. 24(11): 2035 -2042.
32. Abdulkhalek, Samar and Amith, Schammim Ray and Franchuk, Susan L and Jayanth, Preethi and Guo, Merry and Finlay, Trisha and Gilmour, Alanna and Guzzo, Christina and Gee, Katrina and Beyaert, Rudi and Szewczuk, M.R.(2011). Neu1 sialidase and matrix metalloproteinase-9 cross-talk is essential for Toll-like receptor activation and cellular signaling. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 286(42): 36532-36549
    

Book Chapter

Bessi Qorri, Manpreet Sambi, and Myron R Szewczuk. (2017). Current Applications for Overcoming Resistance to Targeted Therapies. Bessi Qorri, Manpreet Sambi, and Myron R Szewczuk. In Press, Springer Publisher.