UO to coordinate cancer control research project

Researchers from the Institute of Health Sciences, the Institute of Chemistry and the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Opole will coordinate a project that will also involve scientists from Italy, Armenia, the United States and Australia. This international team will commence work in November 2024 and will study the effects of disrupting purine biosynthesis on cancer control over the next four years.

Disrupting purine de novo biosynthesis to fight cancer - from molecules to cells to in vivo studies is the title of the international project, whose author and leader is the director of the Institute of Health Sciences, Danuta Witkowska, Phd, Dsc, Assoc.Prof.

The researchers received funding from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme: Staff Exchanges 2023, which is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme, running from 2021 to 2027 with a budget of €95.5 billion.

The international consortium will consist of sixteen researchers from Poland, Italy, Armenia, the United States and Australia. Ten of them are employed at the University of Opole: eight at the Institute of Health Sciences and one person each at the Institute of Chemistry and the Institute of Medical Sciences.

The University of Opole will be the leader of the consortium, which will also include representatives of: Institute of Biostructures and Bioimaging of the Italian National Council for Research in Naples (Italy), Yerevan State University in Yerevan (Armenia), Coastal Carolina University in Conway (United States) and RMIT University in Melbourne (Australia).

In the current edition of the MSCA Staff Exchanges 2023 call, the University of Opole is one of only seven Polish research units to be awarded coordinator status. There were 233 applications, of which 73 were recommended for funding by the European Commission. The grant was awarded to 40 Polish units, which will participate in 25 projects.

The photo above shows representatives of the consortium countries involved in the project. From left: Dr Giovanni Roviello (CNR, Italy), Dr Agnieszka Rombel-Bryzek (INM, UO), Prof. Danuta Witkowska, (INoZ, UO), Prof. Chiara Gamberi (CCU, USA), Prof. Hayarpi Simonyan (YSU, Armenia), Dr Jessica Holien (RMIT, Australia) and Dr Anna Mkrtchyan (YSU, Armenia).