The CCRI is happy to publish the following announcement from the Animal Cancer Foundation (ACF, http://acfoundation.org/), granting an award to our PI Dr. Sabine Taschner-Mandl together with her Partner Dr. Cordula Gabriel from the University of Veterinary Medicine:

Upon a competitive selection process and the recommendation of the ACF Scientific Advisory Council, ACF awarded a 2019 Comparative Oncology Grant Award to Dr. Cordula Gabriel, University of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr. Sabine Taschner-Mandl, St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute, both of Vienna, Austria, to collaborate to investigate a new therapeutic strategy for bone cancer (osteosarcoma). The team is using an anti-rheumatic agent combined with proteasome inhibitors to reinforce the beneficial impact. The team will use three-dimensional dog and human microtumor models in vitro to mimic the effects of the novel drug combination in both pets and people.

A recent study published in the journal Nature conducted by ACF Scientific Advisory Council member Dr. Cheryl London of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and Dr. Jeffrey Trent, president and research director of Translational Genomics (Dr. Gabriel did not participate in this study), demonstrated that bone cancer is genetically similar in people and in dogs, opening this new avenue of research for more effective treatments.

We are excited to follow the work of all of these prominent researchers and look forward to promising results that contribute to a growing understanding of bone cancer.

Photos (f. l. t. r.):
Dr. Cordula Gabriel, copyright: Dr. Michael Bernkopf, Veterinary University of Vienna
Dr. Sabine Taschner-Mandl, copyright: St. Anna Children´s Cancer Research Institute