NARILIS research group led by Catherine Michaux is partner of the new European Doctoral Network “PROSTAMET”

PROSTAMET is a new Doctoral Network financed by the European Commission within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme. Coordinated by the KU Leuven, this network aims to be a translational research and training pipeline harnessing lipid metabolism to improve prostate cancer management and educate young researchers in tackling such a complex multifactorial disease.

Prostate cancer is on the rise, and is the most frequent cancer among men in Europe. Due to high inter- and intra-patient heterogeneity, offering a personalized treatment approach to each patient is a continuing challenge.

Through a close collaboration between partners with highly complementary expertise, the PROSTAMET project will focus on the underexplored clinical potential of altered lipid metabolism in cancer. The research will span from spatially-resolved molecular discovery, through validation in gold-standard models, all the way to innovative drug development.

Catherine Michaux is FNRS Research Associate at UNamur and group leader within NARILIS institute. Her research group aims at characterizing the structure and properties of biomolecules for the purpose of designing new therapeutics and biomaterials. Their projects are at the crossroads of biology, physics, and chemistry. As a partner of the PROSTAMET consortium, Catherine Michaux will receive a funding for 4 years to work on the identification of compounds inhibiting the oligomerization of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A3 (ALDH1A3). Overexpressed in prostate cancer, this enzyme promotes resistance to ferroptosis, a form of programmed cell death driven by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation, and is therefore associated to cancer development and progression. In this context, Catherine Michaux will more specifically work in collaboration with Italian partners of the network: Università del Piemonte Orientale and IRBM company.   

The project will start in January 2024.

This project is financed by the European Union: Project ID n° 101120283 — PROSTAMET— HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01