Marie Curie IAPP/ITN
29th September 2010, Royal Irish Academy
From Target-Breast to Target-Melanoma
Prof. William M. Gallagher
Vice-Principal of Research and Innovation, UCD College of Life Sciences
Associate Professor of Cancer Biology, UCD School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science
Conway Fellow, UCD Conway Institute
Co-Founder/Chief Scientific Officer, OncoMark Ltd.
william.gallagher@ucd.ie
Tumour Growth and Spread
Intravital Microscopy
HT1080 fibrosarcoma tumour cells
Courtesy of Prof. Robert Hoffman
(Anti-Cancer Inc.)
Biomarkers in Cancer Management
Target-Breast: Marie Curie Industry-Academia
Partnership ToK Programme (FP6)
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3 academic centres
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UCD
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Lund U.
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NKI
2 industrial partners
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SlidePath
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Agendia
Focus on converting
omic datasets into
clinically relevant
assays
www.targetbreast.com
4
Lessons Learned and Comments - I
 Programme was of considerable value to consolidate and strengthen
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pre-existing/new industry-academic interactions
Provided great opportunities for advanced training of researchers in
different sectors
Administration of programme complex, with reporting process difficult in
parts (e.g. ambiguous nature of online versus hard copy submissions,
EC timeline for sign-off of Annual report – delay of funds)
Turnover of contact staff at EC (now REA) appears to be quite high;
therefore, difficult to maintain relationship
Difficult to recruit good candidates for exchanges: ‘best laid plans!’
Support for proposal preparation was key to drive process (Enterprise
Ireland), as well as feedback/advice from Marie Curie/FP contact points
(Dagmar Meyer/Caitriona Creely)
Useful to complement with other large-scale national (HRB Programme
Grant, SFI Cluster Grant) and international (EU IAPP and Collaborative
grant) initiatives
Need to identify key driver in the process for next initiative
Marie Curie Industry Academia Partnership
and Pathways Programme (FP7)
Why TARGET-MELANOMA?
 Acronym: Target-Melanoma
• One of the fastest rising cancers
 Title:
• Poor prognosis for advanced disease
• Current therapeutic strategies modestly successful
Molecular
Dissection
ofofMelanoma
• Insight into
molecular basis
this disease is Progression:
lacking
Integrated Pan-European Approach
 Original Partners: 9 partners (4 SMEs, 5 Academics)
 Current Partners: 7 partners (2 SMEs, 5 academics)
 Funding: 1.73 M euro
An
Academic
Partners
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
OncoMethylome, Belguim
7. Slidepath, DCU, Ireland
8. Cellix, St.James, Ireland
9. OncoMark, UCD, Ireland
6.
SME
UCD, Ireland (Coordinator)
University of Maastricht, Netherlands
University of Leuven, Belgium
IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain:
University of Upsalla, HPR, Sweden
LEUVEN
LEUVEN
ER1(18-36)
Methylation
profiling of
Melanoms
LEUVEN
Time-Line
Dec 07
Initial
contact with
Partners
Feb/Mar 08
1st draft &
feedback
Jan 08
First meeting
July 08
Results: On
reserve list
2nd Life Sci
3rd overall
Mar 25th 08
Submit full
application
19 Dec 08
Invitation to
negotiate
Nov 08
1st Life Sci
2rd overall
Feb 09
Negotiate with
Commission
Jan/Feb 09
Annex1,
Gantt Chart &
GFPs
Aug 09
Start of
Project
June 09
Grant
Agreement
Signed
Oct 09
Kick Off meeting...
Lessons Learned and Comments - II
 Driver was indeed key; in this case, Dr. Mairin Rafferty
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(formerly Senior Research Fellow in UCD; now Chief
Operations Officer in OncoMark)
Need complete buy-in from prospective partners –
interactions need to make sense
Template information forms can facilitate retrieval of
necessary data from prospective partners
Preferable to keep number of partners to a modest level for
this programme; can be complex to arrange secondments
Useful mechanism to progress spin-out activities (e.g.
OncoMark) and create new product opportunities
Face-to-face meetings, preferably as a group, are highly
recommended – people need time to bed down
concepts/format of grant
Current Activities
Dr. Mairin Rafferty
R+D Products
Target
Melanoma
Automated
Analysis
Services
Mr. Stephen Penney
Dr. Dara FitzGerald