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 RCSI 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.