Institut Curie certified as Integrated cancer research site for the third time
Following a call for applications launched in April 2022, Institut Curie had its integrated cancer research site project certified by France’s Institut national du cancer (Inca). Its goal is to better understand tumor recurrences in order to better prevent, detect and treat them.
Institut Curie’s third Integrated cancer research site (SIRIC) project will focus its efforts on scientific and clinical areas of investigation in which it has broadly recognized expertise, which include non-genetic determinants of tumor recurrence, role of the tumor microenvironment in cancer relapses and early detection and treatment of recurring tumors.
This new SIRIC will help us move further in bringing together researchers and physicians to make medical innovations available more quickly to patients
Explains Prof. Thierry Philip, Chairman of the Executive Board at Institut Curie
Our goal is to strengthen this research-care continuum to find new areas for improving treatment of patients at risk of recurrence or with tumor recurrences”
Observe Elisabeth Hess, manager of SIRIC, and Sergio Roman-Roman, director of SIRIC and head of the department of Translational Research at Institut Curie’s Research Center.
The SIRIC Curie project (6 million euros over 5 years) features three programs coordinated by physician-researcher pairs:
- Intrinsic mechanisms of relapses: Céline Vallot, PhD, head of the Dynamics of Epigenetic Plasticity in Cancer team (CNRS UMR3244 Unit/Sorbonne Université and department of Translational Research) and Prof. Yves Allory, head of the Saint-Cloud department of the Diagnostic and Theranostic Medicine Division and professor at UVSQ-Paris-Saclay, and member of the Molecular Oncology team (CNRS UMR144 Unit).
- Extrinsic mechanisms of relapses: Hélène Salmon, PhD, head of the Stroma and Immunity team (Inserm unit U932) and Dr. Manuel Rodrigues, PhD, department of Medical Oncology, and researcher in the DNA Repair and Uveal Melanoma team (Inserm U830 Unit).
- Detection and treatment of relapses: Elisabetta Marangoni, PhD, deputy manager of the In Vivo Preclinical Experiments platform (department of Translational Research), and Prof. François-Clément Bidard, department of Medical Oncology, manager of the Circulating Cancer Biomarkers group and professor at UVSQ-Paris-Saclay.
The SIRICs plan to “provide translational research in oncology with new operating conditions, to optimize and speed up the production of new knowledge and promote its distribution and application in treating cancer”, explains Inca. “As such, the creation of these SIRICs must significantly change how multidisciplinary and integrated research is conducted”. This goal is reminiscent of the model created by Marie Curie herself, underpinning the creation of Institut Curie, namely to make researchers and physicians work together to quickly bring new treatments to patients.
The resources allocated by the French Ministry of Solidarity and Health - Office for Healthcare, Inserm and Inca will further strengthen our research in the field of cancer relapse and accelerate the development of innovative approaches for their prevention, early diagnosis and treatment
Explains Prof. Alain Puisieux, director of Institut Curie’s Research Center.
This new success demonstrates the strength of our research-care continuum to serve the fight against cancer and promote innovation for sick people
Emphasizes Prof. Steven Le Gouill, Director of the Institut Curie Hospital Group.
The theme of our new SIRIC project was proposed by the group of patients that has supported the SIRIC for five years. Despite increasingly effective treatments, certain cancers relapse and it is urgent for us to better understand the mechanisms at work in relapse so that we can offer new early detection methods and new therapeutic strategies. To understand this phenomenon, we need to re-examine our knowledge of genetics, epigenetics, immunology and cellular biology, but also to understand the role of the tumor environment.
explains Sergio Roman-Roman, director of Institut Curie’s SIRIC.
A challenge for which Institut Curie is perfectly prepared, as proven by this new SIRIC certification.
The SIRIC project will draw on the research fields at Institut Curie with broadly recognized expertise and innovative technological resources, including genetics and epigenetics, immunotherapy and the tumor micro-environment, preclinical models and human and social sciences. Some thirty research teams will benefit from the structural actions of this SIRIC. Patients will play a central role in the overall process with the implementation of ambitious initiatives led by a group devoted to democracy in health, coordinated by Prof. Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet.