Our Research

Project term: 2024-2029

Together with our colleagues at Team PROTECT, we aim to establish a platform to develop and test drugs targeting the undrugged drivers of childhood solid tumours, with the vision to develop the next generation of therapeutic approaches for children with cancers of unmet clinical need. 

Survival rates for children with solid tumours, including brain tumours, have largely stagnated over the past 30 years. Cures for these cancers will require innovative interventions that specifically target the unique biology of childhood solid tumours. With advances in targeted protein degradation and chemical interventions to inhibit protein-protein interactions, it has recently become tractable to target the oncoprotein drivers of childhood cancers that were previously thought to be ‘undruggable’.  

To fuel the next wave of improvements in childhood cancer outcomes, Team PROTECT will utilise innovative approaches involving targeted protein degradation to target the undrugged drivers of childhood cancers of high unmet clinical need, as well as explore ways to improve the efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.  

By developing a sustainable platform that will result in a ‘pipeline’ of paediatric-specific drug development candidates, the team aims to provide a blueprint to apply targeted protein degradation and other novel approaches including multi-modal combinations to target the most challenging childhood cancer targets. 

A total of ten cancer centers from five countries are involved in the international “PROTECT” team, led by the Hopp Children’s Cancer Center in Heidelberg (KiTZ), the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Stanford University in California. It is one of five projects being funded by the “Cancer Grand Challenges” initiative with up to $25 million each.