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Dr Parinaz Mehdipour is a member in one of the 12 teams shortlisted for funding from Cancer Grand Challenges, seeking to understand retrotransposable elements in cancer.

Ludwig Oxford’s Parinaz Mehdipour has been selected for the final stages of Cancer Grand Challenges as part of team decrypTEd. This interdisciplinary, global team is now in with a chance of receiving up to $25m to make radical progress against some of cancer’s toughest challenges.

In March, Cancer Grand Challenges announced nine new challenges, with 178 interdisciplinary, world-class global teams submitting bold ideas to take them on. Three teams involving University of Oxford researchers (decrypTEd (Parinaz Mehdipour) RESCuE (David Bennett - Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences) and PROTECT (Frank von Delft - Centre for Medicines Discovery)) are amongst the 12 that have been shortlisted. Each team draws together a unique set of expertise and unites researchers from multiple countries.

Each team will now receive seed funding to draft their full research proposal and compete for up to $25m in funding, empowering them to rise above the traditional boundaries of geography and discipline to ultimately change outcomes for people with cancer.

If successful, Dr Mehdipour would seek to tackle the challenge of understanding retrotransposable elements in cancer alongside her team. The funded teams will be announced in March 2024.

"We had a fantastic response from the global research community who rose to the task and submitted bold and innovative ideas to take on our new challenges. We are pleased to have a shortlist of 12 teams whose proposed research approaches we believe hold the greatest potential to make the progress against these cancer challenges that we urgently need. I'm looking forward to seeing how the teams develop their approaches further in their full applications," says Dr David Scott, Director, Cancer Grand Challenges.

We are delighted to see Dr Mehdipour and her team being recognised for their innovative ideas and wish them luck for the next stage of funding application!

Find out more at Cancer Grand Challenges page.

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