General Information
Grasshopper is funded by the Horizon Europe / Marie Sklodowska-Curie Staff Exchange under Grant Agreement No. 101182922. The program funds short-term exchanges of staff members. Grasshopper offers an allowance of 2300 euro per month as a top-up allowance for travel, accomodation and subsistence during your secondment.
Grasshopper consortium
- 7 academic partners of European comprehensive childhood cancer centers: The Princess Máxima Center (NL), Institute Curie: (FR), DKFZ-KiTZ (DE, Rigshospitalet (DK), FSJD-CERCA Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona (ES), The Aghia Sophia Childrens Hospital (GR) and the National Institute of Children’s Diseases (SK). These centers have expertise in clinical trial development but also encompass many leading preclinical and translational research groups in Europe.
- 2 associated academic partners leading comprehensive childhood cancer centers outside of the European Union, Great Ormond St. Institute of Child Health UCL (UK) and Children’s Cancer Institute CCI (AU). This assures a global embedding of the GRASSHOPPER staff exchange on the highest possible level.
- 4 non-academic national leading childhood cancer centers: the Western Ukrainian Specialized Children Medical Center (UA), the Childrens Clinical University Hospital BKUS (LV), Emergency Clinical Hospital for Children S. Curie (RO) and the King Hussein Cancer Center (JO). These centers are all connected to improve clinical trial research and to initiate translational research.
- 2 leading pharmaceutical companies, Roche (CH) and Sanofi (FR), and a non for profit drug developer The Indiana Bioscience Research Institute (US), that are all strongly supportive for pediatric cancer drug development. Exchange with these institutes will be on repurposing of therapeutic interventions that are developed for adult cancer and for pediatric cancer specific drug development.
The secondments are structured around four key objectives (Work Packages), aligned with our research areas:
Work Package 3: Identification and preclinical validation of new immune interventions for pediatric cancer.
Oncology therapy development has recently shifted toward immune interventions, particularly in pediatric cancer, spurred by the success of CAR-T cell therapy and checkpoint inhibitors. GRASSHOPPER institutes are collaborating to share expertise in advanced technologies like single-cell RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and both in vitro and in vivo immune modeling. This knowledge exchange, involving institutions like Máxima, DKFZ-KiTZ, Rigs, SJD, CCI, IBRI, and UCL, aims to accelerate translational research and expand immune therapies across diverse pediatric cancer types.
Work Package 4: Identification and preclinical validation of new molecular interventions for pediatric cancer.
The development of new molecular interventions for pediatric cancer is accelerating, thanks to advanced chemistry technologies that enable the creation of compounds targeting the proteome through degradation and autophagy mechanisms. Due to the complexity of generating and analyzing genomic data and validating new therapies, collaboration and personnel exchange among institutions are essential, covering areas such as sequencing, bioinformatics, spatial transcriptomics, organoid modeling, and precision medicine. These shared efforts aim to enhance the discovery and preclinical validation of pediatric cancer-specific treatments through integrated expertise across European and non-European research centers.
Work Package 5: Repurposing of available therapeutic interventions for pediatric cancer
Historically, anticancer drug development has focused on common adult cancers due to commercial interests, resulting in fewer therapies for pediatric cancers. Recent legislation in the US and EU now mandates the development of pediatric cancer therapies alongside adult ones, increasing available treatment options. Collaboration between pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions, such as those involving Roche, IBRI and Sanofi, is essential to identify and repurpose adult cancer therapies for pediatric use, leveraging advanced technologies and genomic data.
Work Package 6: Clinical validation of high potential therapeutic interventions for pediatric cancer.
Work Packages 3, 4, and 5 will introduce new therapeutic interventions for various pediatric cancers, but due to the rarity and specificity of these cancers, European-wide clinical trials are essential. To support this, the GRASSHOPPER project promotes knowledge exchange in clinical trial methodologies between leading Western European centers and emerging centers in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Grasshopper will strengthen the currently limited but urgently needed interaction between the pharma industry and academic (clinical) researchers. And actively supports the exchange “Secondment” of personnel at all levels of training: PhD students, postdocs, technicians, clinical fellows and group leaders. Do you want to be a member of this consortium, and exchange knowledge and expertise to become a highly skilled researcher, trained in pediatric and transferable skills? Hop on and check out the calls.
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