Significant funding has been awarded to ICGEB Principal Investigators Dr. Federica Benvenuti, and Prof. Giannino Del Sal for their research into cancer.
Leading international expert and ICGEB Group Leader in Cancer Cell Signalling, Prof. Giannino Del Sal is recipient of an AIRC Investigator Grant 2024 from the the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research, receiving over 1.5 million euros for a five-year study on a project entitled: “Tumor initiation through the lens of Cell Competition: microenvironmental cues and aging in oncogene-driven cell rivalry”.
The Group studies the tumour microenvironment in relation to physical and biochemical cues that result in signalling that determines cell fate.
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Dr. Federica Benvenuti, head of the Cellular Immunology lab at ICGEB Trieste, Italy, recently received an AIRC Investigator Grant, securing funding for the next five years to support research into lung cancer. Her project, entitled “Harnessing the power of type 1 dendritic cells to improve anti-tumoral response in lung cancer (DCgun)” intends to address key knowledge gaps in understanding the orchestration of anti-tumoural immunity to lung tumours and to identify novel therapeutic axes. “Specifically” – explains Benvenuti – “the project will explore the composition of tissue determinants of antitumoral immunity, the impact of systemic factors on the skewing of hematopoiesis in the bone marrow and the potential of a therapy that boost development of type 1 dendritic cells to restore effective anticancer T cells.”
The Cellular Immunology lab has also recently received a three-year research grant from Worldwide Cancer Research (WWCR), for a project that aims to recapitulate the early stages of carcinogenesis in 3D organoids and to reconstitute the system with lung macrophages to precisely define their impact on tumour evolution. Entitled “Dissecting early stages of alveolar macrophage-cancer cell interactions in 3D lung organoids”, using a unique approach to control the activation of oncogenes in a controlled fashion and the group’s long-standing expertise in isolation of diverse myeloid cell subsets from the tumour microenvironment, the project will identify strategies to interrupt detrimental macrophage-cancer cell cross-talk, potentially transforming lung cancer therapy.
Exciting times ahead!