The prestigious ERC grant for prof. Magdalena Król, Institute of Biology, SGGW
Professor Magdalena Król, the Institute of Biology, SGGW, was among researchers chosen by The European Research Council (ERC) to receive Proof of Concept Grants for further works on cancer.
The grant enables Professor Król to study changes in the tumor microenvironment after macrophage therapy. Professor Król is a specialist in the field of experimental oncology
The most important directions of research conducted by prof. dr hab. Magdalena Król concerns immuno-oncology, cancer biology, the role of hypoxia in cancer progression, therapy of solid tumors, and the search for prognostic and predilection indicators of triple-negative breast cancer.
One of the main research topics is the development and testing of new cell therapy for solid tumors. The problems of modern therapy most often consist of the difficulties in reaching anticancer drugs to solid tumors, especially to their hypoxic sites. Hypoxic sites attract macrophages, which have the ability to migrate even to places distant from blood vessels, inaccessible to drugs or other immune cells. Thus, macrophages can provide a good delivery system for these regions. The research uses a protein “cage” – ferritin as a carrier of drugs that can be transported by macrophages. The ferritin “cage” is easily absorbed by macrophages, then transported to the tumor and actively transferred to cancer cells. It is the TRAIN (TRAnsfer of Iron-binding protein) mechanism of ferritin transmission to cancer cells, which the team discovered. The TRAIN mechanism was studied under the ERC Starting Grant. TRAIN points to a new way of communication between macrophages and cancer cells, which can be used to “smuggle” anti-cancer drugs directly into a cancer cell, which would constitute an innovative cell therapy for solid tumors.
Professor Król has been appreciated and awarded repeatedly. She received a scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for young scientists, Pfizer Animal Health scholarship, L’Oreal habilitation scholarship, and the Unesco award for women, as well as distinctions of the Polish Society of Veterinary Sciences. In 2016, she was given the first Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) worth EUR 1.4 million.
The ERC’s mission (European Research Council – ERC) is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, based on scientific excellence. The Scientific Council is composed of eminent scientists and scholars. The members are appointed by the European Commission, on the recommendations of an independent Identification Committee. The Scientific Council governs the ERC, and is responsible for setting the ERC’s scientific strategy. It consists of 22 eminent scientists and scholars. On behalf of the scientific community in Europe, the Scientific Council acts to promote creativity and innovative research.