VASTox joins European research consortium to target the development of new treatments for cancer
Research will focus on Cancer Stem Cells as target for new therapies
VASTox announced that it has become a partner in a new European consortium that will undertake research towards developing new treatments for cancer. The research programme, called Targeting cancer stem cells for Therapy, will be backed by a EUR2 million grant from the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme.
VASTox will work in partnership with five leading research organisations from across Europe to develop treatments that target cancer stem cells (CSCs). In recent years, CSCs have been identified as being an important factor in cancer due to their ability to both initiate and sustain tumour growth. However, there is currently no specific treatment that targets CSCs. The consortium's research will aim to identify the CSCs that cause tumour growth, and thereby generate new drug targets with the ultimate objective of developing new cancer therapies.
The consortium will be coordinated by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Unit in Italy and includes the University of Lund in Sweden, Cancer Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council, Oxford University and the University of Copenhagen. Initial research will be focused on two types of cancer: leukaemia and breast cancer. The grant is spread over three years and will be split between the consortium members.
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