Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Super-enhancer modules controlling plasticity and response to therapy in pancreatic cancer

Project description

Pancreatic cancer characterisation at the single-cell level

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a cancer with dismal prognosis. However, recent evidence indicates that stratification into different subtypes provides a better guide for treatment decision. Despite patient heterogeneity and a lack of robust data, certain transcription factors are believed to act as drivers for these subtypes, and changes in their expression may even facilitate subtype switching. The EU-funded PDASwITch project will explore the role of the tumour microenvironment in this phenomenon. Using powerful high throughput single-cell profiling technologies, scientists will characterise the dynamic crosstalk between cancer cells and how this affects their phenotype. The ultimate goal is to clinically convert non-responder to responder tumours and improve patient outcome.

Objective

"Recently discovered subtypes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) have potential to better guide the choice of therapy. However, this is challenged by the lack of robust data, patient heterogeneity, tumour cell plasticity, dynamic crosstalk with surrounding cells, and post-chemotherapy induced alterations. A few transcription factors may act as drivers of specific PDAC subtypes and changes in there expression through aberrant activation of super-enhancers may lead to ‘’subtype switching’’. However, the effect of the tumour-microenvironment on enhancer-driven gene expression programme to promote ‘’subtype switching’’ in pancreatic tumour cells remains largely unexplored. Hence, with this proposal I aim to provide in-depth characterization of this dynamic crosstalk combining reporter tracing through fluorescent labelling of subtype-specific transcriptional drivers of tumour cell states with powerful high throughput single-cell technologies, and super-enhancer single cell profiling which will translate to a clinical study of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with sequential tumour sample profiling. This work will ultimately provide a platform for the development of methods to precisely determine the ""phenotypic"" state of PDAC cells and aid in designing new agents to target these processes, with the ultimate goal of converting non-responder to responder tumours and improve patient outcome."

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.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

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.

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.

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.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

FUNDACION SECTOR PUBLICO ESTATAL CENTRO NACIONAL INVESTIGACIONES ONCOLOGICAS CARLOS III
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 160 932,48
Address
C MELCHOR FERNANDEZ ALMAGRO 3
28029 Madrid
Spain

See on map

Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

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.

€ 160 932,48
My booklet 0 0