Objective
The incidence of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) has been constantly increasing over last decades. Owing one of the highest mortality rates among cancers the HCC is resistant to the conventional cancer treatments. Therefore new approaches to treat this disease are vitally needed. The Hedgehog (HH) pathway has been recently implicated in the pathogenesis of several human cancers including those of the gastrointestinal tract. There is evidence that the HH pathway might be important in regulating the homeostasis of the liver and its deregulation might contribute to the development of the liver cancer. In the current project the involvement of the HH pathway in the liver cancer will be investigated in more detail taking advantage of transgenic animal models. The following tasks will be fulfilled: 1. Characterization of the involvement of hedgehog signaling in regulation of liver stem/progenitor pool and liver carcionogenesis. 2. The description of expression of GPR49 in normal liver and liver cancer. The effect of deletion or overexpression of this gene in liver development. 3. Investigate the possible existence of liver cancer stem cells. Characterization of GPR49 as possible marker of liver cancer stem cells. 4. Verification of the activity of known HH inhibitors on hepatic progenitor cells and possible liver cancer stem cells. The methodology involves monitoring the cellular composition of liver by means of flow cytometry and advanced imaging, evaluating the stem-cell and oncogenic potential of sorted cells by in vitro growth assays and in vivo transplantation experiments combined with lineage tracing using genetic markers. The gene expression signatures will be analyzed in the potential stem cell populations and based on these the pathways of interest will be studied in detail. This project will provide new insights into the process of cancer formation in the liver and provide new targets for therapy of one of the deadliest cancer forms.
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.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology liver cancer
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology cells technologies stem cells
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine transplantation
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology homeostasis
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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.
Topic(s)
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.
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.
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.
FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-2-ERG
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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.
Coordinator
51005 TARTU
Estonia
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.