The increased incidence and mortality of tumors that do not respond to standard of care or other targeted therapies is a major challenge in clinical management of these cancer patients. In order to provide innovative therapeutic avenues for treatment refractory patients, it is urgent to develop novel mechanisms of anticancer drugs mode of action that will overcome the drawbacks of current therapies. In Cat4CanCenter, we will merge the research fields of metal-based catalysis for drug development and innovative delivery routes with cancer biology and immunology, applied to one of the deadliest cancers, glioblastoma (GBM), a fatal primary brain tumor for which no curing therapy exists, due to its location within the brain parenchyma and complex tumor microenvironment. Many potential drugs failed in the clinic due to their inherent toxicity and off-target side-effects, which add up to the challenges in reaching the protected brain site. Recently, innovative catalyst design enabled synthetic transformations in the presence of biological molecules. In Cat4CanCenter we will develop four innovative approaches to treat GBM. This new methodology requires the design of cage protected catalysts that will be delivered to targeted cell types using advanced lipid nanoparticle technology. Next, the catalysts will convert nontoxic prodrugs into active drugs within the GBM bulk. Our groundbreaking strategy aims for successful therapies to treat glioblastoma, by developing complementary approaches to therapeutically tackle the complexity of this disease. The new strategies, catalysts and prodrIn this project we explore a new avenue to treat glioblastoma, which is the most difficult cancer to target. In a collaborative program we develop biomimetic transition metal catalysts (key expertise 1) that will be delivered using smart strategies such as lipid nanoparticles (key expertise 2) to generate cancer drug in vivo. The glioblastoma biology will be studies in detail (key expertise 3).

UPAT is the third largest university in Greece and widely recognized as an excellent knowledge and research hub. The UPAT Departments of Medicine and Pharmacy reached their high standards by combining efforts of their cell biology, biophysics and structural biology research teams. In fact, their broad set of state-of-the-art equipment was recently combined into a national research infrastructure, also operating -albeit at modest level- in European biomedical and structural biology initiatives. Thus far, the huge research and innovation potential of these UPAT groups are not yet fully exploited. The ESPERANCE project therefore aspires to expand and intensify their concerted actions by adding a part-time ERA Chair holder. This new group for ‘integrative molecular biophysics and structural biology’ will glue together the current research and education environment by boosting collaborative science and providing synergy. He will participate in training and be instrumental in developing UPAT’s national and international visibility by boosting translational research and open access opportunities for the UPAT research facilities. To achieve such ambitious goals, a very talented, respected, internationally operating Greek biophysicist, structural biologist and research facility architect from The Netherlands Cancer Institute has been attracted. Supported by his skilled local staff, he will participate in many activities to optimize local strategies for the UPAT research groups and infrastructure towards future sustainability. ESPERANCE incorporates elaborate programs for training early career scientists, for attracting funding and talent, for collaborative actions with industry and for institutional restructuring. The development and enhanced capacity for the UPAT equipment will form an example for other local and nation-wide research infrastructures, and extent UPAT’s excellence, visibility, and competitiveness to benefit Greek research in the European Research Area.

STRONG-AYA is a new, interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder European network to improve healthcare services, research and outcomes for Adolescents and Young Adults (AYA) with cancer, defined as individuals aged 15-39 years at cancer diagnosis. AYAs with cancer form a unique group; they face age-specific issues (e.g. infertility, unemployment, financial problems) and decreased quality of life due to cancer and its treatment. Unlike dedicated healthcare and trials for pediatric cancer patients, AYA-specific healthcare services are scarce and vary across Europe. AYAs who are at the core of society and economy need access to age-adjusted and high-quality healthcare. AYA-care and research will benefit from collection and pooling of patient-centered data and collaboration among all stakeholders: patients, healthcare professionals, scientists, and policymakers. Our consortium of clinical and scientific leaders in AYA-care, data science and registries, European Cancer Organisation, Youth Cancer Europe and EORTC will build on previous initiatives and EU grants. Within STRONG-AYA we will set up a value-based healthcare research ecosystem to develop data-driven, interactive policy and visualization tools that bring, in co-creation with all stakeholders including patients, novel insights into AYA healthcare. The project objectives, include: 1) Development of a Core Outcome Set (COS) for AYAs with cancer; 2) Implementation of the COS in 5 national healthcare systems (FR, IT, NL, UK, PL) and establish national infrastructures for outcome data management and clinical decision-making and a pan-European ecosystem that also welcomes future European countries; 3) Disseminate outcomes and facilitate interactions between national and pan-European stakeholders to develop data-driven analysis tools to process and present relevant outcomes, establish feedback loops for AYA cancer patients and the healthcare systems, and improve the reporting and assessment of outputs towards policy-makers.

After the primary intervention, most of cancer patients are managed at home, facing long-term treatments or sequelae, making the disease comparable to a chronic condition. Despite their benefit, strong therapeutic regimens often cause toxicity, severely impairing quality of life. This may decrease adherence to treatment, thus compromising therapeutic efficacy. Also due to age-related multimorbidity, patients and their caregivers develop emotional, educational and social needs. CAPABLE will develop a cancer patient coaching system with the objective of facing these needs/issues. The time is right to fully exploit Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data potentialities for cancer care and bring them to patients’ home. CAPABLE will rely on predictive models based on both retrospective and prospective data (clinical data, data from unobtrusive environmental and wearable sensors, data from social media and questionnaires). Models will be integrated with existing clinical practice guidelines and made available to oncologists. Thanks to the mobile coaching system for patients, CAPABLE will allow identifying unexpected needs, and providing patient-specific decision support. This feature, together with the chance of discovering unknown adverse effects of new treatments, makes CAPABLE more than a personalised tool for improving life quality, an advance for the whole research community. Our team includes complementary partners with experience in data- and knowledge-driven AI, data integration, telemedicine, decision support. In addition, the involved patients’ association gives a unique opportunity to access thousands of questionnaires on patients’ needs, which will inform the system design. The project addresses EU priorities such as shifting care from hospitals to home to face scarcity of healthcare resources, facilitating patients’ re-integration in the society and in the labour market, and ensuring all EU citizens to benefit from an effective, novel cancer care model.