Projects
TI Pharma's strategic research program exists of therapeutic areas and enabling technologies. Each TI Pharma project falls within a therapeutic area and matches one of the enabling technologies that are used in the drug discovery and development process. For more information about the TI Pharma projects click on a therapeutic area or enabling technology.
Cancer
In the Netherlands, 70,000 patients are diagnosed yearly with cancer, of which 35,000 die of the disease. These numbers illustrate the urgency and relevance of translating our extensive knowledge of the molecular basis of cancer into new and more effective anticancer drugs. The extensive expertise in the emerging technologies that are required for novel drug development strategies is already present, but these activities must be accompanied by methods to determine which patient will profit from which treatment strategy (individualized treatment).
Objectives:
"Finding the right medicine for the right patient"
Effective cancer treatment requires a focus on three dimensions in cancer research:
- Target identification: Increased understanding of the molecular alterations associated with human cancer
- Molecular diagnostics: The genetic diversity of cancer has turned out to be the major factor determining failure or success of available therapies.
- Molecular imaging: The effect of a drug on tumor cell functions, which may be crucial in drug development, can be studied in this way.