Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CAN_ORGANISE (Understanding and controlling the spatial organisation of cancer)
Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2024-09-30
The project CAN_ORGANISE seeks to understand the spatial organisation of tumours. This is important because cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality across the world and 1 in 2 people in Europe will have cancer in their lifetime. How tumours are organised is linked to their ability to spread through the body and how they respond to treatment. In this work, we want to change how tumours are organised to make them less dangerous and easier to treat.
We have set up new mathematical ways of measuring patterns in space in tumours. To try to control the patterns in tumours, we have set up a new method for studying cancer patterns in a dish. This is helping us to understand how tumours keep out the body’s defence cells (T-cells). We have now found out how to let these cells in, and are testing if this helps to treat tumours.
Our new methods and tools will enable new ways of changing how tumours are organised to be discovered. In particular, we expect to find new 'gene switches' that change the spatial organisation of tumours. These will be good targets for developing new drugs to improve the treatment of cancer.