Located at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Vancouver
Williams Lab Research Highlights
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Liquid Biopsy for Cancer
N Salmond, R Moravcova, WS Tam, K Khanna, JC Rogalski, K Lynn, M Brackstone, PH Watson,KC Williams. Circulating Enolase 1 as a Diagnostic Biomarker for Early-Stage Breast Cancer. npj Precision Oncology volume 9, Article number: 326. 2025.
N Salmond, KC Williams.. Isolation and characterization of extracellular vesicles for clinical applications in cancer – time for standardization? Nanoscale Advances. 2021. 3, 1830-1852
K Khanna, N Salmond, KS Lynn, HS Leong, KC Williams. Clinical significance of STEAP1 extracellular vesicles in prostate cancer. 2021 Sep;24(3):802-811.
N Salmond, K Khanna, GR Owen, KC Williams. Nanoscale flow cytometry for immunophenotyping and quantitating extracellular vesicles in blood plasma. Nanoscale. 2021. 13, 2012-2025.
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Mechanisms and Markers of Tumor Cell Metastasis
S Javed, M Emmanuel, X Chen, K Ruzicki, E Afolayan, N Fernandes, S Soukhtehzari, BDG Page, KC Williams. Invadopodia-Mediated Remodeling of the Lymphatic Endothelium Drives Cancer Cell Lymphatic Dissemination and is Regulated by a CCR7-Vav2-Rac3 Signaling axis. 2025. bioRxiv. PREPRINT
E Afolayan, B Zhang, M Han, C White, M Emmanuel, TJ Velenosi, KC Williams. GABA–GABAA Receptor Signaling Orchestrates Invasion and Metastasis in Triple Negative Breast Cancer. 2025. bioRxiv. PREPRINT
O Drummond-Guy, J Daly, A Wu, N Stewart, K Milne, C Duff, BH Nelson, KC Williams, S Wisnovsky. Polysialic acid is upregulated on activated immune cells and negatively regulates anticancer immune activity. Front Oncol. 2025 Mar 20;15:1520948.
S Javed, S Soukhtehzari, N Salmond, N Fernandes, KC Williams. Development of an in vivo system to model breast cancer metastatic organotropism and evaluate treatment response using the chick embryo. 2023. iScience 26 (4).
S Soukhtehzari, RB Berish, L Fazli, PH Watson, KC Williams. The different prognostic significance of polysialic acid and CD56 expression in tumor cells and lymphocytes identified in breast cancer. NPJ Breast Cancer. 2022 Jul 2;8(1):78.
S Javed, S Soukhtehzari, N Fernandes, KC Williams. Longitudinal bioluminescence imaging to monitor breast tumor growth and treatment response using the chick chorioallantoic membrane model. 2022. Scientific reports 12 (1), 17192.
Williams KC, Cepeda MA, Javed S, Searle K, Parkins KM, Makela AV, Hamilton AM, Soukhtehzari S, Kim Y, Tuck AB, Ronald JA, Foster PJ, Chambers AF, Leong HS.. Invadopodia are chemosensing protrusions that guide cancer cell extravasation to promote brain tropism in metastasis. 2019. Oncogene 38 (19), 3598-3615
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Fundamental Research: Biological Properties of Extracellular Vesicles and Technology Development
S Halvaei, N Salmond, KC Williams. Identification of DYRK1b as a novel regulator of small extracellular vesicle release using a high throughput nanoscale flow cytometry screening platform. 2025. Nanoscale. 2025 Mar 28;17(13):8206-8218.
K Khanna, N Salmond, S Halvaei, A Johnson, KC Williams. Separation and isolation of CD9-positive extracellular vesicles from plasma using flow cytometry.2023. Nanoscale Advances, 4435-4446
N Salmond, K Khanna, GR Owen, KC Williams. Nanoscale flow cytometry for immunophenotyping and quantitating extracellular vesicles in blood plasma. 2021. Nanoscale. 13, 2012-2025.