The Precision Cancer Medicine Group (PCMG) won the RAMI award for best Oncology manuscript in 2022 for their paper ‘Identification, validation and biological characterisation of novel Glioblastoma tumour microenvironment subtypes: implications for precision immunotherapy’.

This paper, published in annals of Oncology, established 3 novel GBM subtypes based on distinct features of the GBM Tumour microenvironment. These subtypes were shown to predict response to immunotherapy and may therefore guide personalised treatment strategies for GBM patients.

This study was led by PCMG members Dr. Kieron White and Dr. Kate Connor. Prof Annette Byrne, Head of the RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine Group, RCSI Department of Physiology and Medical Physics and RCSI Centre for Systems Medicine was Senior author and Lead investigator for this project.

These findings result from a major collaborative initiative which also involved clinical colleagues from the National Centre of Neurosurgery, Beaumont Hospital Dublin (Ireland), members of the GLIOTRAIN brain tumour research consortium (INSERM and the Paris Brain Institute ICM, VIB-KU Leuven Centre for Cancer Biology, The Jackson Laboratory Erasmus MC), and several clinical collaborators from leading US brain tumour research centres.

The study was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSC) ITN initiative (Grant Agreement 766069, ‘GLIOTRAIN’) and the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the MSC Doctoral Networks grant agreement No 101073386 (GLIORESOLVE). The authors also acknowledge funding from Brain Tumour Ireland which established the Beaumont Hospital Brain Tumour Biorepository.

Dr. Kieron White attended the RAMI awards evening, hosted at RCSI. This was a lovely evening and really highlighted the impressive and impactful research taking place in Ireland. We were delighted to receive the prestigious RAMI medal for the ‘Oncology’ category.

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RCSI is leading an international team of scientists on a major research study that aims to train the next generation of brain cancer researchers. The project, ‘GLIORESOLVE’, has received funding of almost €2.7 million from the European Commission's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Framework Programme.

The four-year project which started in September 2022 will focus on glioblastoma, the most frequent and aggressive adult primary brain tumour. Despite recent advances, a definitive cure for the disease remains outstanding. As such, it is vital that new treatments for glioblastoma tumours be developed in order to address limited treatment outcomes.

Resistance of glioblastoma to current treatments is related to the diverse cell types that make up the tumour (the ‘tumour micro-environment’ (TME)). Specifically, the behaviour of TME cells such as blood vessel and immune cells often determines how well the patient will respond to therapy. The GLIORESOLVE consortium aims to identify new TME targets to treat this complex cancer.

GLIORESOLVE will also establish a European biomedical research training programme of excellence. Ten new PhD students will be trained across the fields of tumour biology, multi-omics, drug development, pre-clinical and clinical research, ex-vivo ‘tumour-on-a-chip’ assay development, computational modelling and systems biology.

The project is led by Professor Annette Byrne, Head of the RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine Group, RCSI Department of Physiology and Medical Physics and RCSI Centre for Systems Medicine. Professor Jochen Prehn, Head of Physiology and Medical Physics and the Opens in new windowRCSI Centre for Systems Medicine is also a co-PI on the project.

Prof. Byrne commented: "New treatment options for glioblastoma patients and effective precision medicine therapies are urgently required. Within GLIORESOLVE ten individual research projects will focus on identifying new drugs that might work in the different TME subtypes of glioblastoma, identifying new TME-focused drug targets and making tumours more sensitive to immune therapies. Together the consortium will establish a new precision medicine platform, which we hope will establish novel treatment options. Importantly GLIORESOLVE will train 10 new PhD researchers who will represent a new generation of specialised brain cancer research scientists.”

The RCSI-led consortium brings together leading European and international academics, clinicians, private sector and not-for-profit partners, including collaborators in France (Paris Brain Institute ICM, Carthera, Sorbonne Université), The Netherlands (Erasmus MC, Mimetas BV), Luxembourg (Luxembourg Institute of Health, Laboratoire National de Santé, University of Luxembourg), Belgium (VIB, KU Leuven), Germany (Medical Faculty Mannheim, Ruprecht-Karls-Universitaet Heidlberg, Bayer AG, GeneXplain GmBH, Miltenyo Biotec BV & CO. KG, SB Science Management, Charité Universitätsmedizin), Spain (Arjuna Therapeutics), UK (International Brain Tumour Alliance), Norway (Oslo University Hospital) and USA (Brigham and Women’s Hospital). The project will also work closely with Brain Tumour Ireland and the National Centre of Neurosurgery, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.

GLIORESOLVE has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks grant agreement No 101073386.

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Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD and Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD have awarded €1.3m to seven collaborative research projects led by RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) under the North-South Research Programme. 

The projects were among 62 successful applications for research collaborations between academics and institutions in Ireland and in Northern Ireland which have been awarded a total of €37.3 million under the first funding call for the programme.

The North-South Research Programme is a collaborative scheme funded through the Government’s Shared Island Fund. It is being administered by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

The RCSI and QUB-led projects were funded under Strand I: Bilateral researcher-researcher projects. The research spans fields including obesity, cancer, epilepsy, medical education, respiratory research and regenerative medicine:

The PCMG award will see Professor Annette Byrne collaborate with Dr Karl Butterworth (QUB) to develop and validate CT based radiomic signatures for the early detection of colorectal cancer liver metastasis and post-treatment disease recurrence

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RCSI, UCD and NUI Galway awarded €3.4m SFI Research Infrastructure grant

A new National Preclinical Imaging Centre (NPIC) which will provide enhanced research data to inform new clinical trials that aim to improve patient outcomes, has been awarded funding of €3.4 million under the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Infrastructure Programme.

The Centre, which is the first of its kind in Ireland, is being established and co-funded by RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, University College Dublin (UCD), and CÚRAM, the SFI Research Centre for Medical Devices, based at National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway).

The Centre’s imaging infrastructure will support the development of new therapeutics and diagnostics in human disease areas including cancer, neurology, dementia, psychiatry, cardiology, medical devices, diabetes, tissue engineering, nanomedicine and inflammatory disease.

The Centre will provide a national pre-clinical imaging resource open to all academic, industry and not-for-profit researchers, and will have locations in Dublin (RCSI, UCD) and Galway (NUI Galway). NPIC establishes a national pre-clinical magnetic resonance (MR) facility, a national high-field preclinical MR / chemical imaging platform and incorporates a high-resolution micro-computed tomography (CT) and Optical Imaging laboratory.

“The National Preclinical Imaging Centre’s high resolution imaging technologies will allow the research community in Ireland to respond to future international research challenges and will provide important support infrastructure for SFI Research Centres, Irish academic institutes and industry collaborators,” commented Director of NPIC, Professor Annette Byrne, Head of the RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine Group, Department of Physiology and Medical Physics and Centre for Systems Medicine at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences.

“The Centre’s resources will allow us to work more collaboratively on research projects with clinicians and on training initiatives in radiology, which are critical elements of translating laboratory research finding to improvements in patient care in clinical settings,” Prof. Byrne said.

“This infrastructural funding provided by SFI, which is complemented by financial support from each of our partner institutions, along with in-kind contributions from industry, will provide an unparalleled national resource for advancing in vivo imaging. Our research in the area of precision oncology will benefit considerably from being able to image non-invasively tumour growth and spread, leading to improved understanding of disease and associated therapeutic options,” said Professor William Gallagher, Associate Director of NPIC, Director, UCD Conway Institute and Deputy Director, Precision Oncology Ireland.

“I am delighted to see the establishment of NPIC as it will provide a significant boost to our existing capabilities across academic, industry and clinical networks allowing us to further progress medical device research and its clinical application in each of our disease target areas,” commented Professor Abhay Pandit, Associate Director of NPIC and Scientific Director at CÚRAM, the SFI Research Centre for Medical Devices at NUI Galway.

“RCSI is very pleased to co-fund the establishment of this National Preclinical Imaging Centre.  We look forward to working with our partners to maximise outputs from this facility for the betterment of human health.  I would like to thank SFI for their support and congratulate all involved with the proposal,” commented Professor Fergal O’Brien, Director of Research and Innovation at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The SFI Award is co-funded by all three Universities (RCSI, UCD and NUI Galway) and the application was supported by a diverse number of academic, not-for-profit and industry collaborators across the island of Ireland including Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, Technical University Dublin, Cancer Trials Ireland, Queens University Belfast, Pfizer, Roche, M2i Ltd and Boston Scientific.

The funding allocated to the PCM group will all the purchase of 2 new scanners, an IVIS Spectrum and a Quantum GX uCT (Perkin Elmar). These new machines will enhance the ability of the group to perform more clinically relevant pre-clinical models.

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Today the PCM group held their first every virtual journal club. COVID-19 has had a huge impact on all parts of life in Ireland, including research. However, the science doesn’t stop just because we can’t access the lab! Thanks to Kieron for a very interesting presentation.

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Today marks the launch of the RCSI Precision Cancer Medicine (PCM) groups website. This website aims to provide information about the groups activities and research interests to patients and their families looking for information on research being conducted on Colorectal cancer and Glioblastoma, as well as encouraging collaborations with other research groups (both nationally and internationally)