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Biomedical researcher fights cancer cells using genetically modified viruses

Associate Professor David Olagnier from the Department of Biomedicine receives a Lundbeck Foundation Fellowship to conduct research into the treatment of prostate cancer and lung cancer with a genetically modified virus. He receives DKK 10 million over the next five years and will now be able to establish his own research group.

One of the cancer treatments under development focuses on fighting cancer cells with a genetically modified virus, an oncolytic virus, which acts like a 'guided missile'. The genetically modified viral particles target cancer cells, which they penetrate and destroy without damaging the healthy tissue. Once the genetically manipulated virus has entered the cancer cells, it can produce molecules that strengthen the body's own immune system and ultimately kill the cancer cells by forcing them to burst.

With a focus on prostate cancer and lung cancer, David Olagnier will conduct research into oncolytic viral treatment over the next five years. To begin with in cell experiments and subsequently in experiments on mice. It is hoped that the results will be so promising that the treatment can be offered to patients.

This is the fourteenth round of fellowships from the Lundbeck Foundation, and once again they have selected younger but well-established researchers, who now have the opportunity to establish their own research group.

The coverage is based on the Lundbeck Foundation's press material.

Contact

Associate Professor David Olagnier
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Email: olagnier@biomed.au.dk