"Reaching the final in competition with top research teams from all over the world is incredibly exciting and a great recognition of the work of my group," says Johanna Olweus.
She is a professor at the Institute of Clinical Medicine, at the University of Oslo. She is also the deputy head of PRIMA - Center for Precision Immunotherapy, a new Center of Excellence at University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital.
"I feel humbled and proud to have been invited to join a team consisting of some of the world's leading experts in structural, molecular, and cellular immunology and artificial intelligence," she says.
Take on some of the toughest challenges in cancer
Approximately 10 million people die of cancer each year, according to WHO.
Cancer Grand Challenges (CGC) is a funding initiative co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the US to take on some of the toughest challenges in cancer.
CGC believes that no one scientist, institution or country will be able to solve them alone. They are therefore bringing together a global community of world-class researchers, across traditional boundaries of geography and disciplines.
CGC supports researchers with ground-breaking ideas and technologies that can improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and ultimately increase the quality of life and survival for people with cancer.
How can T-cell receptors recognize cancer?
In March, the CGC announced nine new global challenges in cancer. One of these challenges seeks to understand more on T-cells and deciphering the T-cell receptor cancer-recognition code.
T-cells are an important part of the immune response against infection and cancer. T-cells have receptors on their surface that recognize antigens that come from pathogens or cancer cells. Cancer antigens are structures on the surface of cancer cells that can send a signal to the body's immune system to attack the cancer.
We do not know which targets in the cancer cells the T cells recognize
With this challenge, CGC wants to improve our understanding of how T-cells interact with cancer antigens.
Although T-cell receptors can be studied in detail, and their gene sequences can be easily identified, the information cannot be used to determine which antigens are recognized by the receptors on a larger scale.
“In T cell-based immunotherapy, the cancer cell targets that are recognized by the T cells and lead to T-cell mediated killing, are generally unknown”, Olweus explains.
“If, based on knowing the gene sequence of a T-cell receptor, you can identify what it will target, completely new possibilities will open up for designing effective immunotherapies,” she says.
Want to be able to predict what the T cells recognize
Professor Johanna Olweus is part of a team called MATCHMAKERS. It is an interdisciplinary, global team consisting of researchers from the US, Germany, the Netherlands as well as Norway.
MATCHMAKERS' overarching goal is to predict what T-cells recognize by using laboratory tests and computational prediction.
“We are participating in a consortium with the aim of using sequence data for T-cell receptors to predict what they react with. If this becomes possible, we can vice versa, also design T-cell receptors based on knowledge of attractive targets on cancer cells”, says the Professor.
To achieve this goal, the MATCHMAKERS team will create large integrated datasets that are used to develop new methods and algorithms.
“My group has great expertise in identifying T-cell receptors that recognize defined targets. That is, T-cell receptors where we know what they react with”, Olweus says.
“Such data will be central input data for generating crystal structures that show 3D folding of T-cell receptor target pairs, and for training AI algorithms that can be used for prediction”, she adds.
The researchers in MATCHMAKERS hope to use the results to generate tumor antigen-specific T-cell receptors for use in personalized immunotherapies.
Tough competition to take on the new challenges
178 world-class multidisciplinary global teams submitted their ideas on how to tackle these nine challenges in cancer medicine. Team MATCHMAKERS that Olweus is part of, is one of 12 shortlisted.
They will now receive seed funding to draft their full research proposal. They will compete for up to 25 million dollars in funding each, to change outcomes for people with cancer.
The teams receiving funding from the CGC will be announced in March 2024.
Proud Supporters
"This is exciting news. It's not surprising that Johanna Olweus is at the forefront. But it's fantastic news that the consortium she is participating in, is a finalist in such a large and important application. The faculty wishes them good luck in the final stretch," says Jan Bjaalie, Dean of research at the Faculty of Medicine.
The Norwegian Cancer Society is also excited on behalf of Olweus and her team.
"The knowledge that will be generated if the team succeeds in decoding T-cell receptor targets will open a large toolbox for cell therapy - one of the most promising and exciting treatment forms under development. This is good news for patients who need new hope," says strategic advisor, Sigrid Bratlie.
"The fact that Norwegian researchers are among the world leading experts in some of the most complex challenges in cancer research, is incredibly exciting and a confirmation that they are conducting research of very high quality. The Norwegian Cancer Society is proud supporters of Johanna Olweus and the rest of the research community in cell therapy in Norway," she adds.
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