Quest for Cures: Glioblastoma research receives £1.5 million

The Creixell Group has been awarded a £1.5 million ‘Quest for Cures’ grant from The Brain Tumour Charity for research aimed at improving treatments for glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma is the most common high grade primary brain tumour in adults. The standard of care treatment includes surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, there is currently no cure, and the standard of care hasn’t changed in more than 20 years, meaning that more effective tailored treatments are needed.

This new research project, led by Dr Pau Creixell from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, will target protein kinases to develop more effective drugs for glioblastoma.

Protein kinases are crucial for cell growth and multiplication. Blocking their activity can potentially slow or halt the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. While drugs targeting protein kinases have shown success in treating cancers such as lung cancer and leukaemia, their efficacy in brain cancer has been limited due to challenges in reaching the brain.

Recent research from Kevan Shokat and Bill Weiss at the University of California San Francisco has shown that combining elements from three different drugs could result in a new drug capable of slowing cell growth by blocking protein kinases in the brain. In this project, the Creixell, Shokat and Weiss laboratories will be collaborating to screen and develop more of these drugs.

Dr Pau Creixell said “We are looking forward to combining our technologies with the strong foundation laid by the Shokat and Weiss’s laboratories in targeting protein kinases in the brain to find more effective treatments against glioblastoma. By supporting these collaborations and research, The Brain Tumour Charity will allow us to make faster progress towards achieving this goal”

Dr Simon Newman, Chief Scientific Officer at The Brain Tumour Charity, said “Finding new ways to treat glioblastoma is essential if we are to accelerate a cure for this devastating disease. We know that brain tumour treatment is difficult because drugs often cannot get into the brain to target the tumour cells. So, by using new and innovative approaches to ensure that treatments reach the brain we are getting closer to finding more effective treatments.”

The funding will support the hiring of postdoctoral researchers who will work towards screening, identifying, and characterising peptides as seeds for new therapeutic compounds.

For more information about the project or these upcoming research positions, please contact Dr Pau Creixell.