Researchers from the public and private sectors of nine European countries have partnered up for the LUCIA project (Understanding Lung Cancer-Related Risk Factors and their Impact), which seeks to improve the outcome of lung cancer by providing in-depth knowledge of the risk factors and facilitating prevention and early diagnosis.
The project has turned to researchers from the Genome Data Science laboratory, led by ICREA researcher Dr. Fran Supek, to conduct the genomic analyses. They will work on a risk prediction factor, namely the polygenic risk score, based on the genomic sequences obtained from blood samples. The researchers will sequence and analyse the genomes of thousands of healthy individuals and cancer patients to build predictive algorithms.
With a budget of €14M over the next four years, 22 partners across Europe, and led by the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion), the LUCIA project intends to develop a toolbox to promote the early diagnosis of lung cancer across the general population.
The detection of early-stage lung cancer—the stage for which more treatment options are available—improves the management of the disease and reduces the healthcare burden.
For more information: https://www.irbbarcelona.org/en/news/institutional/ambitious-european-project-elucidate-genomics-and-epigenomics-lung-cancer
