Cancer Grand Challenges, a global initiative co-founded by the National Cancer Institute in the US and Cancer Research UK, today announced a major $125m commitment to propel cancer research into uncharted territory. Five pioneering international teams will each receive up to $25m over approximately five years to tackle some of the most ambitious and unanswered questions in cancer.
The five new teams will take on bold, ambitious challenges in cancer research — from harnessing natural immunity to cancer and triggering cancer cells to self-destruct, to revealing hidden proteins in cancer cells, uncovering unknown causes of DNA damage and exploring how manipulating the brain’s own signals might be used to fight tumours.
DPAG’s Professor Ana Domingos is part of the InteroCANCEption Team, which will explore how interoception – the body’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. By tracing nerve pathways and mapping neuronal activity, the team aims to identify which signals between the nervous system and tumours are associated with cancer progression. The team will also investigate across lung, pancreatic and colorectal tumours whether adapting signalling from neurons to tumours, for example by neuromodulatory drugs or neural implants, could be used as a treatment approach or to manage symptoms.
Read the full story on the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics website.