(L-R): Lucienne Thommes, directrice de la Fondation Cancer, Dr Judith Michels, Dr Carlo Bock, président de la Fondation Cancer;

As part of the research support, Dr. Carlo Bock, President of the Fondation Cancer, and Lucienne Thommes, Director, presented a cheque for €150,000 to Dr. Judith Michels.

The postgraduate research grant awarded to the young researcher will allow her to do research work at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York on the immune response induced by the reactivation of p53 in ovarian cancer.

This financial support will allow her to study in the laboratory of Prof. Jedd D. Wolchok, world-renowned medical researcher in medical oncology, department head of melanoma and immunotherapies and director of the immuno-oncology research laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

TP53 is a tumor suppressor gene that encodes the p53 protein, which is involved in important cellular functions such as cell division or programmed death. The TP53 gene is mutated in many cancers and is then the cause of a defective p53 protein. These TP53 mutations are directly involved in the development of many cancers, including high-grade serous ovarian cancer, which accounts for more than 80% of ovarian cancers. New anti-tumor treatments are being developed to restore p53 activity.

The purpose of this project is to define the action of p53 reactivation at the level of the immune system and to evaluate therapeutic combinations with immunotherapy in particular.