The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and Cancer Research UK, partnered to launch the Cancer Grand Challenges program, which aims to provide multiple rounds of funding for multidisciplinary research teams from around the world whose novel ideas have the greatest potential to advance cancer research and improve outcomes for people affected by cancer, according to a news release.
The research being conducted by the four selected teams includes investigation of 1) a muscle-wasting condition in cancer patients known as cachexia, 2) the biology of extrachromosomal DNA in cancer 3) new therapies for solid tumors in children, and 4) what triggers normal cells harboring cancer-causing mutations to become tumor cells.
“The partnership with Cancer Research UK to develop the projects funded for the Cancer Grand Challenges program will enable a global collaboration on a disease that has touched everyone around the world,” said Douglas R. Lowy, MD, acting Director of NCI. “We’re confident these multidisciplinary teams of scientists — with the flexibility and scale to innovate and carry out cutting-edge research — will be able to address several critical cancer research problems that can advance the understanding of cancer and benefit patients.”
“Cancer is a global issue that demands global collaboration. By investing in team science at this scale, we will bring new thinking to problems that have, for too long, stood in the way of progress,” said David Scott, PhD, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges, Cancer Research UK. “At its core, Cancer Grand Challenges provides multidisciplinary teams the time, space, and freedom to innovate and drive progress against cancer that the world urgently needs. The new teams join a growing global community already making major discoveries, including unlocking new information about the tumor microenvironment and transforming our understanding of the early stages of disease development."
A total of 169 research teams from more than 60 countries submitted preliminary proposals outlining how they would tackle one of the nine challenges posed by the Cancer Grand Challenges program. From those submissions, 11 teams were chosen by an expert group — which included input from a patient committee — to receive seed funding to develop their ideas into full proposals. Four funded teams, representing four of the challenges, were selected from those proposals.
“Through this unique partnership, Cancer Grand Challenges fosters scientific creativity of the highest order, giving priority to innovative ideas that are beyond what can be supported through more traditional mechanisms,” said Dinah S. Singer, PhD, NCI Deputy Director for Scientific Strategy and Development.
