An international team of scientists from the United States, Canada, and Austria has secured a grant by “Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation” to study the mechanisms of metastatic spread of osteosarcoma, a bone cancer that mostly affects children and young adults. The IMP’s Anna Obenauf is one of five scientists whose labs will collaborate on the project.
Like most cancer tumours, bone cancers are not homogeneous, but comprise a variety of different cells. No two bone tumours are the same and within one tumour, it is likely each cell is different from the others. Due to this, treatment of osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, is difficult and has not improved in nearly four decades. A particular challenge represents the spread of osteosarcoma cells to the lung, and how fast tumours become resistant against conventional therapies.
An international consortium of scientists from the U.S., Canada, and Austria now aims to find out how bone tumour cells survive and metastasise in the body as they spread from the tumour of origin to find new entry points for therapies. This ambitious goal is funded by the non-profit organization “Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation” with more than three million Dollars as part of its “Crazy 8 Initiative” that aims at “curing the incurable”.
Link to IMP News article: https://www.imp.ac.at/news/article/anna-obenauf-part-of-international-consortium-to-study-bone-cancer/
Link to ALSF Crazy 8 projects: https://www.alexslemonade.org/crazy-8-initiative-projects