In December, Momo received the AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research in San Antonio. This award recognizes investigators below the age of 50 with significant work in their field. We are extremely proud and glad of this prize. Congratulations Momo !!

FMI Press release

In recent years, Mohamed Bentires-Alj has made significant contributions to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling normal and neoplastic breast stem cells, metastasis and resistance. He and his group found that mutant PI3K induces multipotency and multi-lineage mammary tumors, and that SHP2 promotes breast cancer progression and maintains tumor-initiating cells. Notably, his research revealed that co-targeting PI3K/mTOR and JAK2 in triple-negative breast cancer models decreases tumor volume, seeding and metastasis, and increases overall survival. He also discovered that cessation of CCL2 inhibition accelerates breast cancer metastasis by promoting angiogenesis. The AACR recognizes these noteworthy achievements but also cites in particular “his relentless efforts in building bridges between basic research and the clinic.”

The AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research, funded by Susan G. Komen®, recognizes an investigator of no more than 50 years of age whose novel and significant work has had or may have a far reaching impact on the etiology, detection, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of breast cancer.

 

Nice read about how academia and industry can work together.

Novartis Press Release

We don’t just develop medicines here at Novartis Pharmaceuticals – we also form partnerships with people and organizations that enhance our ability to help people live longer and healthier lives. Our collaboration with the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), a leader in researching the mechanisms of cancer, neurobiology, and epigenetics, is a great example of one such partnership.

The FMI and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) are currently engaged in more than 50 collaborative research projects, with an aim to translate research findings into biomedical applications. Other ongoing joint activities include lecture series and post-doctoral research positions.

Pushing the Boundaries of Biomedical Science

Researchers at both the FMI and NIBR are committed to working together to share their knowledge and push the boundaries of biomedical science. FMI senior staff scientist Mohamed (“Momo”) Bentires-Alj and NIBR Oncology senior investigator Thomas Radimerski have collaborated on several projects over the years.

“It was through shared curiosity and dialogue that things started taking shape,” says Thomas.

In a recent collaboration, they examined how to tackle different aspects of aggressive metastatic breast cancer by combining different drugs. Their goal: To learn how and why cancers become resistant to certain commonly-used drugs that inhibit an important signaling pathway, which is strongly activated in about 70% of breast cancers.

“This was a synergistic collaboration in which the whole was greater than the sum of its parts,” says Momo. “Thomas has a great expertise in drug discovery. And moreover, he has a very good feeling for important questions in cancer biology.”

Momo and Thomas discovered a drug combination that not only circumvented therapy resistance, but also decreased the spread of cancer to new areas of the body, and improved overall survival in preclinical models. Findings such as these are essential to Novartis because they contribute to our understanding of medications already approved or being tested in clinical trials.

How Collaboration Led to Unexpected Success

When Momo and Thomas initially discussed the science they wanted to explore together, they had no idea what impact the project would eventually have.

“I strongly believe that collaboration between academia and industry is critical to advance the science,” says Thomas. “No matter how clever you are, you can never have all the good ideas yourself.”

Both agree they would not have been able to make these scientific discoveries working alone. This collaboration gave them the different but complementary perspectives and expertise necessary to successfully push forward a project of this scale and deliver results.

 

 

The Swiss Cancer League has awarded today the Robert Wenner Prize 2014 to Momo Bentires-Alj. The Robert Wenner Prize is one of the most prestigious scientific awards in cancer research in Switzerland. Bentires-Alj’s innovative research into the mechanism controlling the formation and progression of breast cancer was cited by the award jury, as were his relentless efforts to ensure that basic discoveries find application in clinical settings. Similarly exceptional is his dedication to create functional networks within the breast cancer community.

FMI Press Release

Mohamed (Momo) Bentires-Alj and his research group at the FMI aim at a better understanding of the basic biochemical and cell biological mechanisms of breast cancer initiation and progression. He studies normal and neoplastic breast cell fate, metastases and resistance mechanisms to targeted therapies. Through Bentires-Alj’s work several new therapeutic approaches have been identified, and he helped raise awareness about potential dangers of some treatments. He identified SHP2 as a critical factor in breast cancers with poor prognosis, and has described how this phosphatase maintains tumor initiating cells and thus sustains the growth of the tumor and induces metastasis. In collaboration with scientists from the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) the Bentires-Alj group identified resistance mechanisms in metastatic breast cancer and suggested strategies to circumvent these by a combination therapy. Most recently, he showed how cessation of a potential breast cancer treatment (inhibition of CCL2) actually aggravates the disease.

The jury of the Robert Wenner Prize not only noted the outstanding quality of Bentires-Alj’s research, but they were equally impressed by his relentless efforts in building bridges between basic research and the clinic. Bentires-Alj interacts in a strong international network of cancer researchers, and is the founder and president of the European Network for Breast Development and Cancer (ENBDC) that fosters global interactions between labs working in these areas. He is also co-founder of the Basel Breast Consortium (BBC), which is committed to promoting basic, clinical, and translational interdisciplinary research projects locally.

Bentires-Alj studied pharmacy at the University of Liege in Belgium, and subsequently carried out his PhD thesis at the University of Liege, a thesis honored with two awards. He subsequently joined the laboratory of Prof. Benjamin Neel at Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, to investigate the role of phosphatases in cancer. He joined the FMI in late 2006 as a Junior group leader. His scientific career has been distinguished with numerous research awards, among them the Dora-Seif-Prize for Cancer Research (2012), the Susan G. Komen for the Cure EACR award (2014), the Proffered Paper award, EACR23 and the Novartis Select Award. In 2009, Bentires-Alj also secured a highly competitive European Research Council (ERC) grant.

The Robert Wenner Prize was created in 1973 by the Basler gynecologist Robert Wenner to honor outstanding young scientists in cancer research. It is one of the most highly regarded prizes in cancer research and is awarded annually by the Swiss Cancer League. The award is endowed with 100’000 CHF: 80’000 for a research project and 20’000 for the awardee’s free disposal.

FMI Press Release

Two FMI group leaders honored by scientific community

Rainer Friedrich, neurobiologist and senior group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, has been honored by the Jean-Marie Delwart Foundation in Belgium for his high-impact work in the field of higher olfactory signal processing. The prize amounts to USD 10’000 and is awarded every other year.

Rainer Friedrich is an expert in the neuronal circuitry that mediates zebrafish olfaction. He uses the zebrafish system as a model to study the function and development of neuronal circuits under intact and pathophysiological conditions. In his laboratory he tracks neuronal activity in vivo by electrophysiological recordings, voltage-sensitive dye imaging, and 2-photon calcium imaging of activity patterns across thousands of individual neurons. Experimental results are integrated into models in order to extract principal computational properties and constraints on neuronal circuits. His recent work on the topology and dynamics of odor-evoked activity patterns at different stages of sensory processing provide insights into computations performed by the olfactory bulb.

In the summer, Mohamed Bentires-Alj was awarded the Dora-Seif-Prize from the University Hospital Basel for his outstanding research on metastatic breast cancer. Bentires-Alj focuses his research in three areas: cell fate in the normal and neoplastic breast, metastasis, and resistance to targeted therapy. His recent findings bridge signaling to epigenetics and provide interesting insights into the roles of the phosphatase SHP2 in breast tumor initiating cells, the so-called TICs.
The Dora-Seif-Prize has been installed by the Basel physician Dora Seif, who died of cancer. The prize is awarded every other year and comprises the temporary ownership of the golden Dora-Seif-Ring.