Major investment in fundamental research
Why does one body cell become malignant and the other does not? Why is one cancer cell sensitive to treatment and the other not? Why do some cancer cells metastasize and others don’t? KWF Cancer Control is investing a total of 14.7 million euros in 23 new studies that focus on these types of fundamental cancer issues. The aim is to find out how cancer cells work, what their weak spots are and how we can use them to contain cancer. Three of these studies take place at the UMCG.
Bart Cornelissen: Local treatment with radiation-sensitive drugs
Cancer drugs often travel throughout the body on their way to their target (the tumour). This can damage healthy tissue. This can cause unpleasant side effects. Dr. Bart Cornelissen is working with Wiktor Szymanski from the RUG on a new way of allowing medicines to do their job exclusively in the tumour. To do this, he links the medicine to a substance that makes it ineffective and harmless. This link breaks through radioactive radiation, so that the drug can be released locally by irradiating the tumor (often already part of the treatment). Cornelissen is looking for the most effective compounds and expects to develop at least one radiation-sensitive drug.
Vincent van den Boom: Unraveling the role of BCOR/L1 mutations in leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a serious form of blood cancer caused by changes (mutations) in DNA. Mutations in the BCOR and BCORL1 genes are associated with a poor prognosis for AML patients. Dr. Vincent van den Boom will use very specific changes in the DNA (CRISPR-Cas technology) to investigate how these mutations cause healthy blood cells to change into leukemia cells. He wants to use this to discover new starting points for the treatment of AML patients.
Carolien Woolthuis: Biological processes in nucleophosmin-mutated acute myeloid leukemia
To develop a more targeted and effective treatment for AML patients, it is essential that we learn more about the underlying biology of this serious disease. A mutation in the nucleophosmin gene is found in the leukemia cells in a large proportion of AML patients. These mutations lead to an altered localization of the nucleophosmin protein in the cell. Dr. Carolien Woolthuis studies the cell biological changes caused by the nucleophosmin mutation and how this can lead to leukemia. The obtained Young Investigator Grant is financed from the Alpe d’HuZes/KWF fund (Bas Mulder award) and offers Carolien the opportunity to set up her own line of research within the Hematology department.
You can read more about all the studies on the KWF website.
2023-07-13 13:53:13
#million #euros #KWF #UMCG #cancer #studies
