Today, Cancer Grand Challenges - the prestigious global research funding initiative co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute - announced the five teams that have been selected to drive team science on a global scale. Oncode Investigator Ton Schumacher (Netherlands Cancer Institute) is not only part of the selected MATCHMAKERS global team but he also helped to define and shape the challenge itself. The interdisciplinary team will receive a Cancer Grand Challenges award of up to $25 million over the next five years.
T cells to tackle cancer
T cells are central players in the immune response, and the development of immunotherapies is transforming the treatment landscape for some cancers. Yet, their effects are not universal across cancer types and patients. Each of the millions of T-cells in each person has a unique T-cell receptor (TCR) that recognizes different antigens. This diversity has limited our understanding of what exactly T-cells recognize in the people who respond to treatment.
Understanding how T cell receptors recognise antigens is critical to help realise the full potential of antigen-specific immunotherapy. This is what Schumacher’s team aims to predict: what do T cells recognise in individual tumours, using simple laboratory tests and computational prediction. Further on, the team aims to develop methods to design novel TCRs against (cancer) antigens of interest.
To achieve this goal of ‘cracking the T cell receptor cancer recognition code’, the team will build systems to match TCRs to their cognate antigens, perform large scale structural characterizations of TCR-peptide-MHC complexes and develop novel computational models.
“Clinically active cancer immunotherapies work by stimulating T-cell receptor recognition of cancer antigens. We can read the sequences of these TCRs, but we can’t interpret, we can’t infer which tumor antigens are being recognized. MATCHMAKERS aims to change this and thereby promote the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, including personalized cancer vaccines and cell therapies” says Schumacher.
The insights gained could not only impact cancer treatment, but also have implications beyond cancer – for example in infectious disease and autoimmunity.
A prestigious award
Every two years, Cancer Grand Challenges invites the global research community, patient advocates and people affected by cancer to submit their views on the greatest obstacles standing in the way of making vital progress against cancer. The Cancer Grand Challenges Scientific Committee, comprising some of the world's most eminent researchers, then meets to discuss and debate the ideas submitted and recommends a set of complex challenges, that it believes can be solved.
“Together with our network of visionary partners and research leaders, Cancer Grand Challenges unites the world's brightest minds across boundaries and disciplines and aims to overcome cancer’s toughest problems,” says Dr. David Scott, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges.
International teams are then invited to apply for funding to support innovative, interdisciplinary research to solve them, with the successful teams announced the following year.
Team MATCHMAKERS unites clinicians, patient advocates and scientists with expertise in cancer immunology, computer science, high-throughput method development and structural biology. This collaboration spans 10 institutions in the United States, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. MATCHMAKERS is funded by Cancer Research UK, the National Cancer Institute and The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research through Cancer Grand Challenges. It is one of five new teams that was announced today, representing a total investment of $125m to tackle some of the toughest challenges in cancer research.