Project description
The link between neural activity and neuroblastoma
Cancer neuroscience is revealing how tumours interact with the nervous system. In high-grade gliomas, particularly in children, tumours use neural networks to grow and spread more effectively. However, our understanding of these interactions in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) is limited. Neuroblastoma (NB), a deadly paediatric cancer that develops in sympathetic ganglia or the adrenal gland, remains poorly understood, especially regarding how neural activity affects its growth. The ERC-funded CANEUTREAT project aims to bridge this knowledge gap. By creating models that replicate the embryonic environment of neuroblastoma, the project will investigate the relationship between neural activity and tumour characteristics. The goal is to identify new treatment strategies.
Objective
Cancer neuroscience has emerged as a major axis of cancer biology, at the crossroad of two biological areas. Multi-layered dialogs between cancer and nervous contingents have started to be unravelled, with pivotal roles of the nervous system in tumor initiation, growth and invasion, in turn amplified by cancer-induced hijacking of nervous functions. Specifically, brain tumors were shown to be integrated in bona fide neuron-to-cancer synaptic networks but also to capture neural-activity dependent released factors that boost their tumor properties. In the last years, this completely rewired the view of high-grade gliomas, especially those arising in the pediatric population, suggesting specific vulnerabilities when neural networks are being shaped. The knowledge regarding neuro-cancer crosstalk in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) is far more fragmented, and is even obscure in malignancies arising within peripheral nervous tissues. Neuroblastoma (NB) is an emblematic, deadly, pediatric cancer of the PNS, with primary tumors that develop in sympathetic ganglia or in the adrenal gland. Despite its occurrence in sites of active central-to-PNS synaptic contacts, whether neural activity impacts on NB tumor features and metastatic progression is fully unknown. We have conceived a model of NB that reproduces the embryonic and nervous microenvironment in which it arises but also the sequence of its metastatic progression. Guided by preliminary data, the objective of the proposal is to decrypt the panel of neuro-cancer functional interplays in NB, at the anatomical, electrophysiological and molecular level. We will deploy multidisciplinary and cutting-edge approaches to provide a comprehensive and dynamic picture of neuro-NB dialogs, in relevant models for this pediatric cancer. Our underlying aims are to identify novel entry points for therapeutic strategies, and to define subtypes of NB that would benefit from neuro-related therapies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG
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75794 PARIS
France
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