Sarcoma UK has approved a Grant Application by UCL

Sarcoma UK has approved a Grant Application by UCL to extend the research programme on Clear Cell Sarcoma

A grant application by UCL, to extend the research work into Clear Cell Sarcoma being funded by the Foundation, has recently been approved by Sarcoma UK.

The grant will provide a further £120,000 to fund ground breaking research into Clear Cell Sarcoma and builds upon the £550,000 research project that the Foundation is currently funding with UCL and an additional £35,000 that the Foundation has committed to this further project.

It is now known that Clear Cell Sarcoma is caused by a specific type of mistake in the DNA code whereby a gene called EWSR1 is fused to another called ATF1, which causes the cell to become cancerous.

The project will involve further research by UCL, working in collaboration with Oxford University scientists, using cutting edge single cell sequencing techniques to understand in detail how Clear Cell Sarcoma cells differ from the normal cells around them.

This information will then be used to undertake a pioneering pre-clinical drug discovery programme, designing novel drugs from an exciting new class, known as PROTACs. PROTACS can degrade cancer associated proteins, specifically targeting the differences within tumour cells to minimise toxic side effects, and have shown promise in other cancers and could provide a model for treating more common fusion driven sarcomas such as synovial sarcoma or Ewing’s sarcoma.

The funding will also provide a PhD studentship for Christie Davies, a researcher currently working on the UCL project and thereby making an investment in increasing the size of the pool of Sarcoma scientists so that more qualified researchers are available to advance our understanding of this awful disease.

We wanted to thank Dr Nischalan Pillay and his team at UCL for formulating such a well considered and focused project that could make a real difference to Clear Cell Sarcoma patients and potentially to patients with other fusion’s driven cancers.

We would also like to thank Sarcoma UK for their generous support for the project and for their recognition of the work being funded by the Foundation.