Biomedical researcher receives grant to study new cancer treatment
Postdoc Frederik Holm Rothemejer from Aarhus University's Department of Biomedicine has received a grant of DKK 2.5 million from the Danish Cancer Society’s pool "Young Talented Cancer Researchers". The grant supports a research stay at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA.
Some cancers have few symptoms and are therefore detected late. And so far, immunotherapy has not had much effect against these types of cancer. Frederik Holm Rothemejer therefore believes that new cell therapies have enormous potential. The new therapies exploit the properties of the immune system by making the cancer cells visible so they can be destroyed.
"I'm going on a three-year research stay in Boston, where I'll be studying a new cell therapy to fight serious cancers such as ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer. I’ll be cutting and pasting different molecules together into artificial receptors that can be inserted into the body's own immune cells. The body's own immune cells can the recognise and kill the cancer cells," says Frederik Holm Rothemejer.
He goes on to explain that the field of gene and cell therapy is developing rapidly, and that more new treatments for serious diseases are emerging every year. However, researchers have not yet cracked the code on how to attack cancers that form tumours without causing serious side effects. Frederik Holm Rothemejer therefore hopes that the research project can lead to effective and safe treatment for affected cancer patients.
The Young Talented Cancer Researchers grant totals DKK 2,558,558 over three years.
Contact
Postdoc, MD and PhD Frederik Holm Rothemejer
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Telephone: +45 61 78 16 82
Mail: frero@biomed.au.dk