Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

Catching the killerIf science is to prevent breast cancer, it must fi rst be ableto predict its occurrence. For the Target-Breast consortium,the strategy was initially to identify novel marker systems forpredicting the progression and therapeutic response of humanbreast tumours. The team would then be able to detect newpathways for preventing disease progression and treatmentresistance. A major component focused on refi ning the existingcomplex datasets that have been generated from screeninghuman breast tumour tissues.‘Knowledge of the gene or protein expression profi le of aparticular patient’s tumour can, for example, either be usedto predict the ability of an individual tumour to spread orto predict its response to anti-cancer drugs. In addition toproviding new insight into patient stratifi cation, the researchperformed under the Target-Breast project has shed somelight on possible targets for therapeutic intervention totreat individuals with breast cancer,’ says project coordinatorWilliam Gallagher.Knowledge was shared throughout Target-Breast with thetraining of nine researchers by academic and industrialpartners. The project enabled close collaboration between threeacademic centres (University College Dublin, Lund Universityand Netherlands Cancer Institute) and two industrial partners(SlidePath and Agendia). This made possible secondments ofkey staff from both sectors, enabling them to acquire valuablenew technological skills in the biotechnology and biomedicaldiagnostics sphere. The academic partners benefi ted by takingtheir work closer to commercial application, while for theindustrial partners, the arrangement facilitated access to keyclinical and other experimental resources, advancing internalresearch activities.The project’s achievements are numerous. Agendia, a cuttingedgemolecular diagnostics company, further extended itsexamination of breast tumours via the identifi cation of a geneexpression signature that could predict response to tamoxifen,a standard hormonal therapy used in breast cancer treatment. Abioinformatics researcher from University College Dublin visitedAgendia for nine months to acquire experience of molecularA panoramic view of the breast cancer proteome. Abstracted representation of two-dimensional gel showing a spectrum of proteins (represented by peaks)that present in a human breast cancer cell line.© Thomas Lau (PhD researcher in Prof. William Gallagher’s laboratory)137