Professor Niels Ødum receives DKK 9.9 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Major grant allows SIC researchers to investigate novel skin-directed therapies to block cancer progression induced by bacteria.
Professor Niels Ødum and clinical collaborator at Aarhus University Hospital, Professor Lars Iversen, have received a DKK 9.9 million Tandem Programme grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Over the next four years, the translational research project will elucidate if staphylococcus aureus and skin barrier defects can be utilized as therapeutic targets in cutaneous T cell lymphoma.
The project builds on the collaborators’ recent groundbreaking discovery that aggressive i.v. antibiotics treatment inhibits not only staphylococcal bacteria, but also cancer cells in lesional skin in patients with advanced cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
However, as long-term aggressive antibiotic therapy is not feasible due to side-effects and eventual resistance to antibiotics, the goal of this next-level project is to find new sustainable ways to block the cancer-promoting effect of bacteria. The project especially focuses on utilizing novel non-antibiotic compounds that selectively target staphylococcus aureus and new drugs that heal the skin barrier and increase the anti-bacterial defense.