Five projects share £100m UK-US Cancer Grand Challenges fund
Five scientific teams from around the world will receive up to £20 million each in a new round of funding under the UK and US Cancer Grand Challenges initiative.
The latest phase of the long-running scheme – run by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the US – will provide funding for the teams over the next five years. The £100 million pot brings the total support for the Challenges to £465 million since the competition launched in 2016. The NCI came on board in 2020.
As with previous rounds, the recipients of the awards will attempt to find answers to elusive problems in oncology, such as how to harness natural immunity to trigger cancer cells to self-destruct, exposing hidden proteins in cancer cells that could be targeted by treatments, pinpointing unknown drivers of DNA damage that could reveal new causes of cancer, and discovering whether manipulating the brain's own signals can be used to fight tumours.
The five teams, which span 34 institutions in nine countries, are as follows:
- ATLAS, led by Dr Paul Bastard of INSERM and the University of Paris, which will examine what can be learned from people who don't get cancer, even if they have risky habits like heavy smoking, excessive alcohol use, or a genetic profile that would predispose them to diseases. The team aims to uncover whether these groups carry distinctive autoantibodies that can help the immune system to spot early signs of tumours.
- REWIRE-CAN, led by Prof Bart Vanhaesebroeck at the UCL Cancer Institute, which will explore whether the traditional approach of treating cancer by blocking cancer growth and survival signals can be turned on its head by instead hyperactivating them, pushing cells into overdrive, and forcing them to become stressed and activate suicide pathways.
- ILLUMINE, led by Prof Reuven Agami at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, which will attempt to solve the mysteries of the 'dark proteome', a group of proteins whose functions are currently unknown, but which might drive cancer. The team hopes to develop immunotherapies against proteins that act as antigenic markers on tumour cells.
- CAUSE, led by Prof Ludmil Alexandrov at the University of California San Diego, which will combine new tools and innovative chemistry to uncover unknown causes of DNA damage, without which cancer couldn't start at all. The team will search for tiny, transient chemical alterations on DNA caused by exposure to chemicals in the environment or normal processes inside the body, which can lead to mutations.
- InteroCANCEption, led by Dr Leanne Li at the Francis Crick Institute, which will explore how interoception – the brain's ability to sense and regulate the state of the body through the nervous system – may enable the brain to detect tumours and influence how they develop; for example, by slowing their growth, reducing symptoms, and guiding the immune system to target cancer cells more effectively.
"Cancer is a deeply complex and constantly evolving set of challenges – each with profound consequences for people and families worldwide," said Prof Charles Swanton, chair of the Cancer Grand Challenges scientific committee, which led the interview process for the new teams.
"Addressing challenges of this scale demands bold, interdisciplinary science, and it is this approach that has the potential to fundamentally change how we understand and treat cancer."
