Supporting oncology professionals through education
The content on this site is intended for healthcare professionals only
The content on this site is intended for healthcare professionals only
The results of the 15th SWISS BRIDGE AWARD for Cancer Research were announced on the 3rd November, 2015, in an awards ceremony in Zurich.
The Swiss Bridge Foundation was founded in 1997, with the goal of financially supporting high-quality research projects in the fight against cancer. The annual award began in 2000.
Two research teams of the 48 projects evaluated were awarded with CHF 250,000 (£168,000) each for their outstanding research projects in the field of cancer stem cells.
Stem cells can renew themselves continuously and are more resistant than other cells. That’s why they are gaining importance in cancer research: these cells are often responsible for recurrence of tumours, metastasis and therapy failures.
Dr Andreas Trumpp of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, Germany received the award for his project "Multiomic characterisation and targeting of blood-circulating metastasis stem cells in breast cancer." Dr Trumpp hopes to distinguish tumour cells circulating in the blood as comprehensively as possible, in order to detect what differentiates an ordinary circulating tumour cell from a metastasis-forming stem cell.
Prof Joerg Huelsken of the Swiss Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland was awarded for his project "Mechanism of immune evasion by cancer stem cells." Prof Huelsken's previous work has shown that cancer stem cells inhibit the immune system’s function; his funded project will explore how these cancer stem cells slip through the net of the body's defences.
As chairman of the Swiss Bridge scientific committee, ecancer's chairman Prof Gordon McVie presented the prizes.
"Stem cells are the hottest field in biology," says Prof McVie, "And these projects are absolutely the best I’ve read in a decade of serving on the jury."
Swiss Bridge is a founding partner of ecancer. With the financial support of Swiss Bridge, we are able to disseminate our publications and resources online for free. Currently, Swiss Bridge is supporting our online course on palliative care for healthcare professionals in India.
Source: Swiss Bridge
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