Team REWIRE-CAN, led by Professor Bart Vanhaesebroeck of the UCL Cancer Institute, will receive up to $25m over approximately five years to take on the rewiring cancer cells challenge.
Scientists from the UK, Netherlands and USA, plan to tackle this challenge by turning cancer’s own survival mechanisms against itself - converting what was a cancer advantage into a disadvantage. They were selected from 12 international groups, shortlisted from more than 220 expressions of interest.
Team REWIRE-CAN aims to transform therapeutic approaches in colorectal cancer by developing precise signalling modulators that push cancer’s growth signalling beyond its natural limit to induce cellular collapse, or to reprogramme previously resistant cells to become sensitive to treatment again. A key goal is to disrupt the cancer cells’ finely tuned ’comfort zone’ - a condition where the cells are balanced in a way that enables malignant cells to survive, adapt and grow.
Announced as winners at the Cancer Grand Challenges Summit this week, REWIRE-CAN brings together clinicians, advocates and scientists with expertise ranging from early-onset cancer to therapeutic development, across 8 institutions and 3 countries.
The UCL contingent includes Professor Vanhaesebroeck and Professor Chris Tape, both from the UCL Cancer Institute. Funding is provided through Cancer Grand Challenges by Cancer Research UK, the National Cancer Institute, the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK and Yosemite, an oncology-focused venture firm.
REWIRE-CAN is one of five new teams to win funding, representing a total investment of $125m aimed at tackling some of the toughest challenges in cancer research. Its work has the potential to transform treatment options and patient outcomes in colorectal cancer and provide a roadmap for rewiring of cancer cells across tumour types.
Cancer Grand Challenges is a global research initiative that focuses on identifying and solving some of the toughest challenges in cancer research. The newly funded teams span 9 countries, 34 institutions and unite more than 42 investigators and researchers.
Dr David Scott, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges, said: "Cancer Grand Challenges research and breakthroughs are made possible through our co-founders and visionary partners. Thanks to their incredible $125 million funding this year, we’re able to unite exceptional research teams from across the globe to tackle the most complex problems in cancer today."
Professor Bart Vanhaesebroeck said: "This Cancer Grand Challenges funding gives REWIRE-CAN the opportunity to pursue a bold new therapeutic strategy in colorectal cancer. Instead of only trying to block cancer-driving pathways, we will endeavour to explore how stimulating them can push tumour cells past a tipping point or (re)sensitize them to cancer drugs.
"The scale of this award allows us to utilise the team’s diverse expertise and move from discovery science to testing new therapeutic concepts in models that closely reflect patients’ disease. Working in this integrated way means accelerating the journey from idea to intervention and lay the foundations for a new class of treatments based on signalling rewiring."
The REWIRE-CAN consortium comprises the following teams:
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