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Grant recipient

Rune Busk Damgaard

Ubiquitin-dependent regulation of mTOR: linking immune signalling, cell growth, and metabolism in inflammation and cancer
Grant amount: DKK 9,999,873

Rune Busk Damgaard says: ‘‘Inflammation is the immune system’s normal response to infection or tissue damage. However, defects in the immune system or diseases that causes chronic inflammation can lead to development of cancer. Cancer cells are characterised by their ability to grow uninhibited. Astonishingly, although 15-20 % of cancers are caused by persistent inflammation, we understand very little about the cellular processes during inflammation that fuel cell growth and cancer development. During my postdoctoral work, I discovered that certain molecular signals used by the immune system to initiate inflammation also have the ability to control cellular metabolism, which determines if cells grow and divide. The research that I will undertake aims at exploring and understanding how the cellular processes that regulate inflammation connect with and control the cellular metabolism and growth signals that cancer cells need to form tumours. This connection may be key to understanding how persistent inflammation causes cancer, and this research could help identify the mechanisms of inflammation-associated cancer development new strategies for treating these cancers.”

Rune Busk Damgaard will relocate from his postdoctoral fellowship at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom, to set up his independent research group at the Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, DTU in the spring of 2020.

Rune Busk Damgaard
Group Leader, Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine
Technical University of Denmark