CRUK Research Update: Welcome 5 new Cancer Grand Challenges teams

Dear Voornaam,

Today, I’m delighted to announce the five new Cancer Grand Challenges teams each awarded up to £20m to take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges.
Cancer Grand Challenges is a global funding initiative which we co-founded with the National Cancer Institute in the US. With the five new teams, the initiative has funded 16 teams of world-leading researchers to date to tackle 13 cancer challenges.
The new global teams will drive progress against four challenges: developing novel therapeutics for solid tumours in children, unlocking the T-cell receptor cancer-recognition code, identifying the reasons behind the rise in early-onset cancers and tackling cancer inequities: together this represents a transformational investment of £100m.
For the first time, Cancer Research UK has partnered with France’s Institut National Du Cancer and KiKa (Children Cancer Free Foundation), which are each contributing to the funding of two teams. This funding round was also made possible with the support of the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer, the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK and The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.
Join us in welcoming the teams to the Cancer Grand Challenges community, which brings together more than 1200 investigators and collaborators across the world.
Together with our network of international partners and research leaders, we are empowering the global research community to think differently and transform outcomes for people affected by cancer.
Explore the newest Cancer Grand Challenges teams in more detail below.
Kind regards,
Iain Foulkes
Executive Director Research & Innovation
CEO Cancer Research Horizons
Cancer Research UK

Team: KOODAC, co-led by Professor Yaël Mossé (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, US) and Professor Martin Eilers (University of Würzburg, Germany)

Challenge: Solid tumours in children
Team KOODAC will harness the technologies of targeted protein degradation to target the oncoproteins that drive high-risk childhood solid tumours. They aim to develop orally bioavailable drugs that will dramatically improve cure rates for children affected by these cancers.
The team will focus on developing degraders for five key oncoproteins that have been implicated in the development and/or spread of neuroblastoma, fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, medulloblastoma, Ewings sarcoma and fusion-positive rhabdomyosarcoma.

Team: MATCHMAKERS, led by Dr Michael Birnbaum (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US)

Challenge: T-cell receptors

By harnessing advances in high-throughput approaches and computational prediction, team MATCHMAKERS will take an integrated approach to understand and predict how T cells recognise tumours.
The team will develop novel methods and new algorithms, and create large, integrated datasets of T-cell receptors (TCRs) and peptide-major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) to improve the understanding of the interactions between MHC-bound antigens and TCRs.
The overarching goal is to predict what T cells recognise in individual tumours using simple lab tests and computational prediction and develop the tools that can be used to design TCRs for personalised immunotherapies.

Team: PROSPECT, co-led by Professor Andrew Chan (Massachusetts General Hospital, US) and Dr Yin Cao (Washington University in St. Louis, US)

Challenge: Early-onset cancers

Team PROSPECT aims to address the global rise in the incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) by understanding the pathways, risk factors and molecules involved in its development.
The team’s collective vision is to understand and reverse the network of causal factors throughout the life course that disrupts biological homeostasis to promote EOCRC.
They will employ a transdisciplinary approach spanning cells, individuals and populations to uncover the mechanisms linking lifetime exposures to EOCRC, and test new strategies to combat this cancer type.

Team: PROTECT, led by Professor Stefan Pfister (Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ), Germany)

Challenge: Solid tumours in children

Team PROTECT aims to establish a platform to develop and test drugs targeting the undrugged drivers of childhood solid tumours, with the vision to develop the next generation of therapeutic approaches for children with cancers of unmet clinical need.
The team will use innovative approaches involving targeted protein degradation to target the undrugged drivers of Ewings sarcoma, neuroblastoma, synovial cell sarcoma, high grade glioma, ependymoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumours. They will also explore ways to improve the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapy.

Team: SAMBAI, led by Professor Melissa Davis (Morehouse School of Medicine, US)

Challenge: Cancer inequities

SAMBAI will generate a comprehensive database - the SAMBAI Biobank and Data Repository for Cancer Equity Research - with measurements of social, environmental, genetic and immunological factors that cause and influence disparate cancer outcomes in underserved populations of African descent.
The team will focus on breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers – three cancer types that have a disproportionately higher rate of aggressive tumour grade and early onset in Black people.
SAMBAI hopes its findings will inform policies and generate opportunities for intervention specific to populations of African descent.