Media release: Medix Prize 2024
Media release 7.10.2024
Minerva Foundation
Medix Prize 2024: KILLER CELLS TO COMBAT BLOOD CANCERS
Natural killer (NK) cells circulate in the body, scan cancerous cells, detect and destroy them. Some cancer cells, however, are able to escape NK cells. This escape mechanism has, until now, been unknown. A research group from the University of Helsinki has studied and identified these mechanisms in their research on blood cancers. The findings allow the development of new cancer treatments.
The article on the findings of the research group has been awarded this year’s Medix prize. The article was published in the prestigious international journal Immunity. The prize is worth €20,000.
The international research group is headed by lead researcher, Professor of Translational Hematology Satu Mustjoki from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Helsinki and the Comprehensive Cancer Centre of Helsinki University Hospital. The main authors of the article were Postdoctoral Researchers Olli Dufva and Sara Gandolfi.
Donated by the Minerva Foundation, awarded by the University of Helsinki
The Medix Prize is an important annual award for internationally high-level Finnish medical research. The Medix Prize is, in a manner of speaking, the Finnish championship for biomedicine. This year’s Medix Prize was awarded for the 37th time.
The Medix Prize is awarded by the University of Helsinki, and it is donated to the university by the Minerva Foundation. Minerva Foundation funds the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research at Biomedicum Helsinki.
The prize is awarded annually for excellent Finnish scientific research published as one article during the previous year. The research is to be in the fields of biomedicine or clinical medicine and performed fully or in its essential parts in Finland.
The awardee is selected by a committee consisting of representatives from the universities of Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Eastern Finland and Oulu, who are appointed for a period of three years.
Genetic scissors in operation
Today, some blood cancers can be treated by means of immunotherapy, in which the T cells of the patient’s immune system are activated to recognise and attack cancer cells. CAR T-cell therapy, for example, has changed the treatment models for certain blood cancers, such as leukaemias and cancers of the lymphoid tissue.
According to Professor Satu Mustjoki, these therapies are not effective in all patients with blood cancer. They can in fact have very severe side effects. Solutions are therefore being sought from amongst other cell types of the immune system.
The use of NK cells does not entail similar side effects. Natural killer cells are already being experimented on in patients in clinical trials. However, up until now we have not known the underlying mechanism of how certain cancer cells manage to evade killer cell activity and how this evasion could be circumvented.
“Our research included genome-scale functional genomic screens using the genetic scissors technology. This means that we deleted the genes of blood cancer cells one by one and studied how the silencing and reactivation of the expression of each gene impacted on the killer cell’s ability to destroy cancer cells,” Professor Mustjoki says.
Using this method, the research group was able to identify new mechanisms for NK cell mediated cancer cell killing. They also discovered with single-cell sequencing method that different blood cancer cell types activate NK cells in different ways and therefore have varying sensitivity to natural killer cells.
According to Professor Mustjoki, the results of the research will help to develop new, better and individualised therapies for blood cancers.
INVITATION:
The research group will receive the Medix Prize and give a lecture on 7 October 2024 at 12.00 at Biomedicum, Helsinki, Finland. The award is given by Vice-Rector Anne Portaankorva of the University of Helsinki.
We kindly invite your reporter to participate in the event.
Address: Lecture hall 2, Biomedicum 1, Haartmaninkatu 8, Helsinki, Finland
FURTHER INFORMATION AND MATERIALS:
Photographs and captions of the award-winning research group: https://minervafoundation.fi/medix-2024/
Photographer Juha Sarkkinen.
The images are free for media use. Reference to the name of the photographer must be made whenever possible.
Further information on the award-winning study:
Article published in the Immunity journal by CellPress:
Single-cell functional genomics reveals determinants of sensitivity and resistance to natural killer cells in blood cancers
Satu Mustjoki, MD, PhD
+358 40 552 1606
satu.mustjoki(at)helsinki.fi
Professor of Translational Hematology
Director of Translational Immunology Research Programme
Website of the research group: www.helsinki.fi/hematology
Further information on the Medix Prize and the Minerva Foundation:
Professor Vesa Olkkonen
+358 (0)50 411 2297, vesa.olkkonen(at)helsinki.fi
https://minervafoundation.fi/
This media release is distributed by PR Officer Martti Ahlstén
Viestintätoimisto Verbi
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martti.ahlsten(at)verbi.fi
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