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.
Professor Domingos comments, ‘We are entering an era where cancer must be understood as a systems-level disease, integrated with the nervous system. By interrogating sympathetic neuron–tumour communication, we aim to uncover vulnerabilities that conventional oncology has overlooked. Targeting neural signalling could open an entirely new therapeutic frontier. It is a privilege to join this extraordinary international team to explore how the nervous system senses and influences cancer.’
Bringing together a global coalition of the world’s leading scientists, funders and philanthropists, Cancer Grand Challenges enables bold, long-term collaboration to pursue disruptive ideas that could open entirely new routes for cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. This latest investment matches the previous record $125m funding round and brings the total support for the initiative to $624m since 2016.
To make this round possible, Cancer Grand Challenges has received funding from the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK, Cancer Research Institute, Children Cancer Free Foundation (KiKa), KWF Dutch Cancer Society, Torrey Coast Foundation, and Yosemite (oncology-focused venture firm), which are each co-funding one of the new teams. Some teams are supported by more than one partner, reflecting the collaborative nature of this funding round. Team InteroCANCEption is funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute through Cancer Grand Challenges.
For more information on teams, team members and their approach to tackling these challenges, visit https://cancergrandchallenges.org/.