EU projects

CancerDegradome

Finsen Laboratory is a partner in the Framework Programme 6 project "CancerDegradome".

The project is focused on genes that encode enzymes known as proteases, whose job is to cut or destroy other proteins. There has long been a connection between proteases and cancer biology, since these enzymes can endow tumour cells with the ability to invade and metastasize, or spread through the body. However, we now know that proteases are involved in a host of subtle regulatory mechanisms that determine the extracellular environment, and how cells respond to their environments, and in so doing they can control cancer cell growth and death, the formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) that supply the growing tumour with nutrients, and also the ability of the immune system to detect cancers. It is this set of protease genes, together with their natural inhibitors, and the proteins with which they interact, that is called the DEGRADOME.

The Project is funded by the European Commission to coordinate efforts in the study of the degradome and to work towards the discovery of innovative therapies for cancer. It involves 41 scientists in 13 countries.

Read more at www.cancerdegradome.org.

MicroEnvimet

Finsen Laboratory also participate in the Framework Programme 7 project "MicroEnvimet".

The project focuses on understanding and fighting metastasis by modulating the tumour microenvironment through interference with the protease network.


PRESS RELEASE

A new European research network MICROENVIMET: understanding and fighting metastasis by modulating the tumour microenvironment.

The aggressive character of a tumour is related to the capacity of the cancer cells to form metastases from a primary tumour. Metastasis is the most serious challenge for cancer treatment. The tumour cells can disseminate into the organism by using the blood or lymphatic stream. Recent data suggest that the site of implantation of secondary foci or metastases is preset by the elaboration of an appropriate microenvironment. These novel information led to the emerging concept of “premetastatic niche”. In addition, cancer cells must acquire new properties ensuring their mobility and the invasion of various tissues. Cancer stem cells are thought to constitute the proliferative potential of the tumoral mass and could represent the source of cells metastasizing. The tumour cell-centrered view of the metastatic process is now revisited taking into account the important contribution of the tumor microenvironment consisting of both cellular and non cellular components, in primary tumors as well as in secondary foci.

A new European network, entitled MICROENVIMET, developed within the 7th EU framework is coordinated by Professor A. NOEL (Laboratory of Tumour and the Development Biology, GIGA-Cancer research center of the University of Liege). This European scientific network entitled “Microenvimet: Understanding and fighting metastasis by modulating the tumour microenvironment through interference with the protease network” (http://www.microenvimet.eu) gathers 8 international partners. It is funded to the amount of 2.999.689 euro for 4 years by the European commission.

The purpose of the project “microenvimet” is to elucidate and understand the early mechanisms of the metastatic dissemination by studying the contribution of tumour microenvironnement during various stages of epithelial cancer evolution: the primary tumour growth, the premetastatic phase preceding the dissemination of the cancer cells and the metastatic phase during which the secondary foci develop. It aims at identifying molecular targets contributing to early steps of the tumour progression. The project is focused on the mechanisms underlying the elaboration of a favorable « soil » for the establishment of metastases (“premetastatic niche”).

Its original approach consists in modifying the tumoral microenvironnement, interfering with proteases which constitute important regulators of the interactions which are established between tumoral cells and their cellular and molecular microenvironnement. This project is based on the exploitation of innovating technological platforms: genomic platform for the analysis of the RNA messengers and the recently identified microRNA, phage library for the development of blocking antibodies against the identified targets, platform of computer-assisted image analysis and transgenesis platform.

The partners we collaborate with in the MICROENVIMET project; University of Liège, LBTD, GIGA-Cancer, Belgium (Pr. A. Noel, Coordinator), University of Helsinki, Finland (Prof Kari Alitalo & Dr Pirjo Laakanen), University of Torino, Italy (Prof Paolo Comoglio et Prof Carla Boccaccio), Technical University of Munchen, Germany (Prof Achim Krüger), University of Oviedo, Spain (Prof Carlos Lopez-Otín), CNRS – University of Sophia Antipolis, France (Prof Pascal Barbry & Dr Bernard Mari), Freiburg University Hospital, Germany (Prof Thomas Reinheckel), Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia (Prof Boris Turk & Dr Olga Vasiljeva).