We believe that CanCell has delivered very well in terms of ground-breaking science, acquisition of prestigious national and international grants, career development and public science dissemination, and therefore we have dedicated parts of this annual report to highlights from CanCell´s first five years.
CanCell Director and Co-Director - Harald Stenmark (right) and Anne Simonsen (left)
CanCell at Midterm
Norwegian Centres of Excellence are normally reviewed at midterm (5 years) by an external panel appointed by the Research Council of Norway (RCN) as a condition for receiving continued funding. The midterm review of the generation IV of Norwegian Centres of Excellence was cancelled because of financial constraints in the RCN, and the upshot is that CanCell is granted funding until 31.12.2028. Although this is good news, the cancelled midterm review also came as a bit of a disappointment for us in CanCell since the midterm review would have been a good occasion to showcase the accomplishments of CanCell´s scientists so far.
We have included a section of 10 selected papers with CanCell scientists as lead authors, published in top journals such as Nature, Cell and Nature Cell Biology. We have also included a list of the most prestigious grants obtained by CanCell scientists since the opening of the centre in 2018, including two ERC grants, two EU ITN grants, three EEA Norway grants, two RCN “Toppforsk” grants, an RCN Large Interdisciplinary Project, three UiO Convergence Environment Grants from UiO Life Science, three RCN Young Talents grants and two HSØ career grants. CanCell’s success in promoting the careers of young researchers is demonstrated by the graduation of 20 PhDs so far, the award of 5 large-scale career grants, and the fact that eight of CanCell’s junior scientists have obtained positions as associate professor. CanCell continues to disseminate its research results for wide audiences, and last year’s “CanCell communicator of the year”, Pilar Ayuda-Duran, is a good example of a young scientist who communicates science in multiple channels.
SAB Visit in 2022
The CanCell scientific advisory board (SAB) meeting was arranged in Oslo on Sept 29-30, 2022. The following four SAB members were present: Professor Johanna Ivaska from the University of Turku, Finland; Professor Marja Jäättelä from the Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Denmark; Professor Stephan Beck from University College London, UK and Professor Michael Boutros from the German Cancer Research Center, Germany).
The SAB was highly impressed by CanCell’s great progress over the past two years. The project has not only managed to stay on track but has also made several scientific breakthroughs despite the many restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic. This success is well documented through the large amount of new articles (41 publications including papers in Nature and Cell) and the award of 55.5 MNOK new research funding. As a Center of Excellence (CoE), CanCell has also excelled in its responsibility to foster young scientists. Among the many successes are the establishment of a process enabling young scientists to obtain their own funding and develop their own line of research and the delegation of various scientific and social activities to CanCell young scientists (CYS).
Collaborative Research
CanCell’s researchers have published in total 50 articles in 2022 with several important breakthroughs resulting from collaborations between CanCell’s groups. Degradation of cytoplasm in lysosomes, known as autophagy, plays an important role in cancer progression. PhD student Matthew Ng and co-workers in Anne Simonsen’s group showed that the cholesterol transport protein GRAMD1C transports cholesterol between mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum and in this way functions as a negative regulator of autophagy (published in Nature Communications). This was a CanCell collaboration with contributions from bioinformatician Sigve Nakken in Eivind Hovig’s group and electron microscopist Sebastian Schultz in Harald Stenmark’s group.
Lysosomes contain compounds that are toxic to cells and can represent Achilles’ heels of cancer cells. Postdoc Maja Radulovic in Harald Stenmark’s group showed that damaged lysosomes are repaired by generation of a phosphorylated lipid on their surface, leading to contacts with the endoplasmic reticulum and followed by cholesterol transfer from the endoplasmic reticulum to the damage lysosome (published in EMBO Journal). This study was a CanCell collaboration with the group of Anne Simonsen.
Researcher Viola Lobert in Tor Erik Rusten’s goup found that the phosphatase PHLPP1 regulates the activity of the ion transporter CFTR in epithelial cells, which regulates mucus production. This is relevant for cystic fibrosis, but also for sarcomas with hyperaccumulation of mucus (published in Development). This study was a CanCell collaboration with the group of Harald Stenmark.
Postdocs Elisia Fiorito and Patrycja Szybowska in Jørgen Wesche’s group demonstrated new strategies for treating rhabdomyosarcoma with a particular mutation in fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4), including a specific inhibitor of FGFR4 and an inhibitor of HSP90. These results are important for precision medicine of this cancer form, which most often affects children (published in British Journal of Cancer). This study was a CanCell collaboration with bioinformatician Sigve Nakken in Eivind Hovig’s group and researcher Antoni Wiedlocha in Harald Stenmark’s group.
We are very proud of the enthusiasm and excellence of the CanCell young scientists. Four graduate students defended their PhD theses in 2022, and seven MSc degrees were obtained. CanCell project leaders Helene Knævelsrud and Marina Vietri received the very prestigious ERC Starting grant and RCN Young Research Talent grant, respectively. The CanCell Young Scientist (CYS) board organized a CV workshop and a workshop on mental health that were very well attended.
As always, we are very grateful for the support from our Board of Directors, our Scientific Advisory Board, and our host institutions, the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital. We would also like to thank our funding bodies for invaluable financial support, including the Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian Cancer Society, the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, the EU Horizon-2020 research programme, and EEA Norway Grants.