Team ATLAS
Team ATLAS, an interdisciplinary collaboration including Professor Xin Lu of Oxford University’s Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, and Professor Ruth Travis and Dr Karl Smith-Byrne in the Nuffield Department of Population Health, will investigate the biological basis of cancer avoidance.
Cancer research has traditionally focused on identifying drivers of cancer rather than barriers to its development. Intriguingly, there are sub-sets of individuals with well-established cancer risks who, despite this predisposition, never develop cancer. This challenge seeks to uncover the biological mechanisms underpinning tumour resilience, in order to understand what protects certain individuals from developing cancer.
Team ATLAS plans to explore the role of immune-modulating autoantibodies in cancer resistance by studying unique human cohorts – including centenarians, cancer-free individuals with high-risk exposures, and cancer-discordant twin pairs – building on some of the team’s pioneering work identifying the link between autoantibodies and COVID-19 disease severity.
InteroCANCEption Team
Professor Ana Domingos in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, is part of the InteroCANCEption Team, which will explore how interoception – the body’s ability to sense and regulate the state of the body through the nervous system – may enable the brain to detect tumours and influence how they develop.
By tracing nerve pathways and mapping neuronal activity, the team aims to identify which signals between the nervous system and tumours are associated with cancer progression. The team will also investigate across lung, pancreatic and colorectal tumours whether adapting signalling from neurons to tumours, for example by neuromodulatory drugs or neural implants, could be used as a treatment approach or to manage symptoms.
Read more about the teams and their work on the Cancer Grand Challenges website.