Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have been awarded $25 million for a project that seeks to determine how certain microbes inside the body can lead to colorectal cancer and influence a patient’s response to treatment.
The team of doctors beat out more than 130 teams from all over the world to win the Grand Challenge, a competition funded by a cancer treatment and awareness charity in the United Kingdom.
Matthew Meyerson, MD, Ph.D., and Wendy Garrett, MD, Ph.D., are co-principal investigators of the OPTIMISTICC project which seeks to understand the difference between a healthy microbiome and a microbiome associated with cancer.
Ultimately, the team hopes to find ways to manipulate this collection of microorganisms to better prevent and treat cancer.
“The colon is the most densely populated microbial environment on the planet,” said Garrett in a statement. “We’ve assembled a global team with a lifelong interest in the microbiome and its huge impact on human health.
Colorectal cancer is estimated to be the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the U.S. in 2018 and in recent years there has been a rise in the number of cases seen in younger adults.
“This is an enormous undertaking. It is indeed a grand challenge and we as a team have been given a fantastic gift, and with that great gift comes an enormous responsibility to make a difference for colorectal cancer patients,” Garrett said.
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