ERC Starting Grant · 2017
Stromal stress networks underlying phenotypic plasticity and tumor fitness
The contribution of genetic and epigenetic changes to rewiring of cancer cells into their malignant state has been much studied. But tumors are more than cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME) is a key player in tumor progression. We lack an overarching view of how, despite being genomically stable, the TME is heterogeneously reprogrammed across time and space to promote evolution of aggressive disease. Recently I discovered that Heat-Shock Factor 1 (HSF1), a cytoprotective transcription factor (TF), is vital to this reprogramming, promoting malignancy in patients and mice upon activation in the stroma. Other stress TFs have also been implicated. This leads me to hypothesize that…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.