“The current research grant system focuses on milestones and deliverables, making science more predictable,” explains Bernards. “The pressure to produce results every four years to advance your career has made researchers more conservative in their approach, with little room for risk-taking.”

“Talented researchers should be given the trust and funding to try truly innovative ideas and take risks to achieve ground-breaking results,” he says.

This is where the strengths of Oncode Institute come into play. Oncode Investigators like Bernards receive a yearly budget they can freely spend on outside-the-box ideas. Discussing his own work, Bernards highlights one of the most innovative ideas his group was able to progress thanks to funding from the Oncode base fund – activation of oncogenic signalling as a cancer treatment strategy.

Cancer growth depends on a balance between processes that encourage cell division and stress responses that result from stimulation of cell division. Cancer cells must compromise between stimulating cell division and managing the stress responses that are intrinsically linked to it. Bernards’ laboratory discovered that over-activating the cell division processes hyper-activates the associated stress responses, leading to slower cancer cell growth rather than faster. By combining over-activation of tumour cell division with a drug that interferes with the stress responses, they successfully stopped tumour growth in several cancer models. Surprisingly, when cancer cells became resistant to this treatment combination, they became less able to form tumours. This study suggests that over-stimulation of cell division can force cancer cells to evolve to a less cancerous behaviour.

“This example highlights the innovation cycle that Oncode Institute accelerates. It started with a crazy idea that no one believed in, but we could explore thanks to my Oncode base fund. We gathered enough promising preliminary data to secure larger grants and expand our work. We started a collaboration with a pharmaceutical company and are now on the verge of starting clinical trials this year. This example shows that Oncode Institute paves the way for high-risk, high-gain research that promises significant advancements in the field of cancer treatment,” says Bernards.