Cambridge researchers receive £4m from Cancer Grand Challenges

It has today been announced that 2 new world-class Cancer Grand Challenges teams are to be co-led from the University of Cambridge, seeking to break down 2 of the toughest challenges in cancer research that continue to slow progress against the disease.

Cancer Grand Challenges is a global funding platform, co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US, that supports a community of diverse, global teams to come together, think differently and take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges.

Dr Giulia Biffi, Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, and Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science will be joining the CANCAN team. The CANCAN team will be led from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Weill Cornell Medicine and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and with investigators across the UK and US.

The team will investigate cancer cachexia – a debilitating wasting condition people often experience in the later stages of their cancer that imparts a poor prognosis and quality of life – seeking to develop novel therapies. Anthony Coll, Claire Connell and Fiona Gribble will work closely with the team as collaborators.

“Cachexia increases patient mortality and can prevent access to treatments as the patients are too weak. Identifying valid targets for therapeutic intervention would allow us to treat more people for their cancer,” said Giulia Biffi, co-investigator on the cachexia team. “This is such a fantastic opportunity to work as a highly multidisciplinary team and integrate our different scientific and clinical strategies towards a single common goal.”

“We are delighted to be part of this consortium, aiming to transform the understanding of cancer cachexia and deliver improved outcomes and better quality of life for patients,” said Stephen O’Rahilly, co-investigator on the cachexia team. “The collaborative, transatlantic group of scientists that CanCan has assembled provides enormously exciting opportunities to make real advances in this field and to help build the next generation of cachexia researchers.”

Professor Serena Nik Zainal, Department of Medical Genetics, will be joining the eDyNAmiC team, led from Stanford Medicine. The team, which includes others across the US, UK and Germany, will investigate extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) – a major driver of tumor evolution and why some people’s cancer becomes resistant to treatment – seeking to find new ways to treat some of the hardest-to-treat cancer types.

“The ecDNA challenge caught my eye because it is an observable genomic abnormality, it is not uncommon and it may hold the answers to how to prevent disease progression in some of our most lethal cancers,” said Serena Nik Zainal, co-investigator on the ecDNA team. “It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be part of this extraordinary group of scientific and clinical colleagues. All are experts in their own right and to be surrounded by ideas and discussions coming from the brightest in their field is simply a joy.”

The eDyNAmiC and CANCAN teams are 2 of 4 new teams announced today as part of Cancer Grand Challenges, representing a total investment of $100m to diverse, global teams to come together and think differently in pursuit of driving progress against cancer. The new teams join a growing global community, uniting more than 700 Cancer Grand Challenges researchers and advocates across 10 countries to take on 10 of the toughest challenges in cancer research.

“Cancer is a global issue that needs to be met with global collaboration. This investment in team science encourages diverse thinking to problems that have long hindered research progress,” said Dr David Scott, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges, Cancer Research UK. “Cancer Grand Challenges provides the multidisciplinary teams the time, space and funding to foster innovation and a transformative approach. PROMINENT is one of four newly funded teams joining a scientific community addressing unmet clinical needs across cancer research.”