Project description
Understanding cancer evolution
Neoplastic development involves a series of mutations and epigenetic changes in driver genes. However, studying cancer evolution is challenging due to the difficulty in investigating pre-malignant events. Funded by the European Research Council, the Transformation project aims to resolve how human cancer genomes evolve towards malignancy and what triggers this process. For this purpose, researchers will generate unique organoid models from early-stage colon cancers to study genome changes, including mutations and chromosomal alterations. Additionally, examining the role of the environment will provide a more comprehensive understanding of cancer evolution and the progression from benign adenomas to malignant cancers.
Objective
A crucial milestone in tumor progression is the transformation from a benign adenoma to a malignant cancer, which has profound impact on clinical outcome and therapy design. Despite its importance, it is poorly understood why it manifests itself as a bottleneck that can restrain precancerous adenomas for years. While recent sequencing efforts inform ‘static’ insights into the status of cancer genomes, these are incomplete to infer how they evolved, assess functional consequence of mutations, nor how much malignancy is environmentally instructed.
Practical limitations hamper scientific advancement into the dynamic nature of tumor evolution. Foremost, studying human tumor evolution is challenging as sequential sampling is not feasible, and pre-malignant events that may hold the clue for understanding transformation often occur years before cancer diagnosis. Moreover, experimental models that reflect malignant transformation, let alone of human origin, are lacking.
TRANSFORMATION aims to resolve how human cancer genomes evolve towards malignancy, and its role in triggering malignancy.
To gain new insights on this matter, TRANSFORMATION takes a unique approach to produce experimental insights into evolutionary parameters that are inherently dynamic in nature and cannot be obtained from tumor sequencing alone. Using paired biopsies from early-stage colon cancers, I generated unique organoid models from pre- and post-transformation regions. Together with in situ analysis of matched tumors, TRANSFORMATION will reveal the elusive rate and order by which mutations and copy-number alterations are acquired, the patterns by which cancer karyotypes evolve, dissecting functional from non-functional genetic heterogeneity on tumor phenotypes and investigate possible selection pressures imposed by environmental conditions.
TRANSFORMATION will solve how colon tumors evolve pre-malignancy, which properties promote malignancy and why transformation is an evolutionary bottleneck.
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 genetics mutation
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
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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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Topic(s)
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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.
Funding Scheme
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.
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
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3584CS Utrecht
Netherlands
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