L-R Drs. Isebelle Riviere and Michel Sadelain at screening of Living Drugs in Toronto, part of Gairdner Science Week 2024
Michel Sadelain is the 2024 Gairdner International Award laureate, along with Dr. Zelig Eshhar, for his “seminal contributions to the conception, development and application of CD19-CAR T cell therapy for cancer.” It’s been a good year for Dr. Sadelain, who also won the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. See the full list of his awards here.
In addition to those honours, there is a documentary – Living Drugs – that chronicles how he went from being a student growing up in Paris interested in science and medicine, to overcoming skepticism and roadblocks in his pursuit of genetically engineering T cells to attack cancer cells in the body. Watch Dr. Sadelain explain his work in this video, produced by Research2Reality, a group that creates content for the general public about Canadian researchers and their discoveries/innovations.
I had the pleasure of watching Living Drugs at the MaRS Discovery District – Toronto’s innovation hub – as part of Gairdner Science Week 2024. After the documentary was a Q&A session with Drs. Sadelain, Isabelle Riviere, his collaborator and wife, Jonas Mattsson and CAR T patient Camille Leahy, from Toronto. The panel was moderated by Carly Weeks, former health reporter with The Globe and Mail. Despite the free viewing and convenient location, the auditorium at MaRS was mostly empty.
“If my treatment works, it must be the truth” – Michel Sadelain
Dr. Sadelain is a thoughtful man, well-versed in the arts and literature. He quotes great scientists, writers, painters and iconoclasts, and counts Descartes among his heroes. Inspiring quotes are peppered throughout the documentary, such as “If you want a thing done well, do it yourself,” by Napoleon Bonaparte, and “I do not seek, I find,” by Pablo Picasso. Dr. Sadelain says these people “define what a scientist is” and that the practice of science is based on observation and analysis, not speculation or imagination, and he credits “creativity” for the emergence of CAR T cells.
Dr. Sadelain’s mother, who is interviewed in the documentary, states that her son developed perseverance from his father and grandfather, a word used often to describe him. The documentary is somewhat of a family affair, with commentary from his daughter, collaborator-wife and son (playing with cars and describing CAR T therapy using a driving analogy). There are photographs of the young Michel, and we see him in settings like the lab and on campus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he did his postdoctoral fellowship, but also on a train, admiring art and displaying some of his favourite literature.
Michel was 11 years old in 1971 when cancer was having a moment. Love Story was nominated for seven Academy Awards and President Nixon declared his crusade against cancer. Later, he was accepted into all the “grandes écoles” in France but took an interest in medicine when his father became ill. He later moved to Canada and the University of Alberta to study immunology, and started his research into T cells as a way to fight cancer. He was interested in engineering immunity in the body.
Dr. Riviere’s move from France to the U.S. proved crucial. They met at the Whitehead Institute and started working together. Dr. Riviere developed the infrastructure to manufacture the cells. She was process and Dr. Sadelain was theory. They made a great team.
As you would expect, the documentary also features patients who have received CAR T-cell therapy. Sonya Dolaberidze, from Serbia, was five when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in 2011. The chemo was exhausting for her and her mother begged the doctors to give her CAR T-cell therapy. Sonya’s mother describes the event with surprise. The doctors came into the hospital room and injected Sonya with a syringe. They watched her for 10 minutes and then they left. She was struck by how low-key the event was. There was no “ribbon cutting,” no “ceremony.” But Sonya was cured and has been in remission since 2019.
The “stars” of the documentary Living Drugs, including Dr. Jonas Mattsson and Camille Leahy, and moderator Carly Weeks (right), with the producer (left)
After the documentary viewing and Q&A panel, a patient came up to Camille Leahy to describe his own journey with cancer. He sympathized with the painful ordeal she experienced to treat her ALL – many rounds of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant – before she was treated at The Ottawa Hospital in the first made-in-Canada CAR T-cell therapy clinical trial, funded by BioCanRx. She responded to the man by saying that this treatment was the easiest and least painful one she endured. And, as we know, it worked.
Now, she is speaking publicly and advocating to make CAR T-cell therapy available to others who need it and to assuage her “survivor’s guilt.” (This sounds like Tom and Kari Whitehead, who were so grateful for the life-saving treatment their daughter Emily received that they created the Emily Whitehead Foundation to help other pediatric patients access less toxic, life-saving cancer treatments.) During the Q&A, Leahy said that the people on the panel fought for this treatment and she is living proof that it works. She praised Dr. Mattsson for his efforts. As she stated, “An idea can turn out to be so much more and your will to survive can get you through.”
Leahy, Drs. Sadelain, Riviere and Mattsson, all want to see increased access so more patients can benefit. As Dr. Mattsson said, CAR T cells are challenging the standard of therapy but they worry about how patients outside large Canadian cities will get these treatments.
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” – Albert Einstein
As Dr. Riviere explains, success has ignited the interest of researchers. Researchers are looking at other cell types of the immune system and they are seeking to identify cheaper, more efficient sources of cells, such as induced pluripotent stem cells. A goal is to produce many doses from one patient, not the current paradigm of one dose from one patient. And manufacturers are introducing software and digital technology to automate the process and bring down costs.
Dr. Carl June and other CAR T pioneers also make appearances in the documentary. Dr. June shared that when he was working with T cells, the research was considered “boutique therapy” and you could count on one hand the number of researchers working with them.
Asked in the Q&A why he was so tenacious, Dr. Sadelain said he had a great idea that he wanted to pursue. If you believe in your idea, you might find ways to carry on. You might be digging your own grave or you might succeed. He never “knew” it was going to work, but he thought it could. He couldn’t get a grant because his research was not viewed as serious science. Philanthropy kept this work alive until it gained enough respect.
It’s been forty years since young Michel started thinking about cancer and since then US$100 billion has been spent on cancer research and “we are winning this war.” But the trio of doctors speaking to the Toronto audience aren’t resting on their laurels. They are working on CARs for autoimmune disorders and solid tumours, and they are seeking solutions for the patient access issues that trouble them.
Watch the trailer for Living Drugs and visit www.livingdrugsmovie.com to host a screening.
Stacey Johnson
Latest posts by Stacey Johnson (see all)
- Right Turn: #pinksocks, diabetes news and other ramblings - June 24, 2025
- Right Turn: Some takeaways from Advanced Therapies Week 2025 - January 31, 2025
- Right Turn: The top 10 most-read blog posts in 2024 - January 2, 2025
Comments