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Labex: the TOUCAN project

TOUCAN, Toulouse Cancer is a project of "Integrated Analysis of Resistance in Hematological Cancers", labeled and funded as part of the LABEX 2011 tender procedure.

Understanding resistance and relapse

Despite progress made in recent years, about 50% of patients treated for hematological malignancy present a relapse and die of their disease. It is therefore essential to better understand mechanisms that remain poorly understood, that lead hematopoietic tumors to become resistant to treatment and immune system.

 

 

 TOUCAN: Partners teams from:

  • Inserm
  • CNRS
  • The Institut Claudius Regaud
  • CHU Toulouse
  • Universities of Toulouse (University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier) and Grenoble
  • The Innate Pharma company specializing in the production of monoclonal antibodies and whose expertise is recognized in medicine, biology, applied mathematics and pharmacology.

 

 

  The two components of TOUCAN  

  • Study of intrinsic cellular determinants of hematopoietic cancers resistance. In particular: the genome stability, the mRNA heterogeneity, cell signaling, expression of non-coding RNA.
  • Study of micro-environmental and immunological determinants of chemoresistance. Especially:
    - Search and characterization of immune cells which could colonize chemoresistant tumors,
    - The study of the possible role of cytotoxic lymphocytes,
    - Testing of new molecules capable of stimulating innate immunity,
    - Pre-clinical development of new monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of drug-resistant malignancies.