EUROXY

 Starting 1 February 2004, the Laboratory for Stem Cell Research will be co-ordinating the EU Integrated Project ?Targeting newly discovered oxygen-sensing cascades for novel cancer treatments. Biology, equipment, drug candidates? (acronym: Euroxy). The project brings together Europe?s leading groups in the area of low oxygen tension (hypoxic) cell biology. The collaboration includes university research laboratories, small private electronics companies and large drug companies. Research from the last decade has uncovered so far unknown transcriptional and translational regulatory mechanisms operating at certain low oxygen tensions. This opens up for the potential development of drugs targeting the novel regulatory molecules. The Euroxy project aims at improving treatment of solid cancer tumours by developing lead compound interfering with the adaptive processes of hypoxic tumours cells. The Laboratory for Stem Cell Research will concentrate on two tasks: 1. The reversible/irreversible in vitro adaptations of stem and cancer cells to different pathological oxygen tensions and the technology platform needed to do such studies. Participants: Vladimir Zachar, Peter Ebbesen, Trine Fink, Hanne Svindborg Møller, Kirsten Fogd. 2. The development of specific inhibitory compounds (SiRNA) to inhibit selected messenger RNA molecules involved in the hypoxic cell response with particular attention to stem cells, as damage to stem cells is the most important side effect of cancer treatment with drugs. Participants: Uffe Koppelhus, Peter Ebbesen, Vladimir Zachar, Anna Bay Nielsen. Funded by The European Commission?s 6th Framework Programme. (Peter Ebbesen,Vladimir Zachar,Trine Fink; AstraZeneca UK Limited, England; Aventis Pharma, France; A. Kanopka, Institute of Biotechnology, Lithuania; Kai-Uwe Eckardt, Charité ? Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Virchow Klinikum, Germany; Max Gassmann and R. Wenger, University of Zurich, Switzerland; A. Görlach, Deutsches Herzzentrum München, Klinik an der TU München, Germany; Jobst Technologies GmbH, Germany; P. Lambin and B. Wouters, Universiteit Maastricht/Research Institute GROW, Netherlands; LEA Medizintechnik GmbH, Germany; Leo Pharma A/S, Denmark; Patrick Maxwell, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, England; Oxford BioMedica Plc, England; Silvia Pastorekova, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovak Republic; Erik Pettersen, University of Oslo, Norway; Lorenz Poellinger, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden; P. Ratcliffe and A. Harris, University of Oxford, England; RiNA-Netzwerk RNA Technologien GmbH, Germany; A. Scozzafava, University of Florence, Italy; Ian Stratford, Victoria University of Manchester, England;, Germany; Gerald Urban, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany; ViVoX ApS, Denmark)