UC San Diego professor Ludmil Alexandrov will lead an international team of scientists awarded $25 million to research cancer mutations. The award comes from Cancer Grand Challenges, a collaboration of Cancer Research UK and the U.S. National Cancer Institute, which has invested more than $400 milli on in multidisciplinary research teams designed “to solve cancer’s toughest challenges.” Alexandrov, who earned a doctorate in computational biology from Cambridge University in 2014, is no stranger to the organization. He was among a team of five researchers deemed “Team Mutographs” that documented how “unusual patterns of mutation are induced by different cancer-causing events.” That effort, itself funded by a $25 million grant in 2017, generated 38 research publications and, under the leadership of British cancer scientist Sir Michael Stratton, is credited with developing eight tools for recording “mutational signals” in cells. Now it is Alexandrov’s turn to lead, heading up a team dubbed “CAUSE,” an effort said to “reveal where mutations come from” by characterizing “adducts,” chemicals from the environment, or the body’s own processes, that can glom onto DNA molecules, causing them to be misread and, sometimes, leading to cancer-causing mutations during cell replication. Participants on the team include Silvia Balbo of the University of Minnesota, Emily Balskus of Harvard University, Juan Garaycoechea of Hubrecht Institute in the Netherlands, Puck Knipscheer a group leader at Hubrecht and also a member of the Oncode Institute in the Netherlands, Inigo Martincorena at Wellcome Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom and Martin Taylor of the University of Edinburgh. An example of this work from the Team Mutographs effort is a paper in the journal Nature on April 23 that looked for mutational signatures in early-onset colorectal cancer, which is increasing in many countries. An analysis of 981 genomes collected from 11 countries found that exposure to a toxin produced by bacteria, including E. coli, early in childhood increases the likelihood of developing colorectal cancer before age 50. Alexandrov was in Europe to receive the prize and was unable to discuss the matter further. In a university statement, he said: “The ability to decode the origins of mutational signatures has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of cancer. We believe that our research will pave the way for new discoveries and new treatments, ultimately improving outcomes for patients worldwide.” ...read more read less