Cure Brain Cancer Foundation is thrilled to share the recent progress from the Breast and Brain Collaborative Grant that saw our Foundation and the National Breast Cancer Foundation collaborate for the first time.
Top researchers from the fields of breast and brain cancer are now working together to find better treatment options for both diseases, made possible with the aid of an $890,000 co-investment from National Breast Cancer Foundation and Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, awarded in 2019.The research team, led by A/Prof. Pilar Blancafort and Prof. Anna Nowak at The Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in Perth, aim to use gene-editing technology to ‘turn off’ the genes responsible for developing resistance to chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
“We have chosen to study breast cancer that has spread to the brain as well as brain cancer partly because both are treated with radiotherapy, which aims to damage the DNA of cancer cells…Our approach will hopefully enhance the standard treatment that is used for both cancers,” says Prof. Anna Nowak.
Now at the half-way mark of their research, A/Prof. Blancafort has shared an update:
“We have developed a number of genetic tools that repress genes used by brain cancer cells to resist treatments such as radiotherapy. With these genes repressed across generations, brain cancer cells should become more sensitive to currently available treatments.”
Funding from the Brain and Breast Collaborative Grant has been essential in supporting technicians to grow, engineer and maintain the many human cell lines used in this project, as well as the expensive materials and reagents required to build the genetic tools and transform them into the cell lines.
“This project will impact people living with brain cancer by extending the efficacy of already existing treatments. Brain cancer research will also benefit from new tools to manipulate the expression of important genes without having to alter the DNA of patients, allowing for more robust analysis.”
A/Prof. Pilar Blancafort
Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Perth
We are encouraged by the work of A/Prof. Blancafort and Prof. Nowak so far and look forward to sharing future updates on the progress of this ongoing project.
