The Elias Tillandz Prize for the Best Scientific Publication of 2024 was presented for two groundbreaking cancer studies from Jukka Westermarck’s research group and Johanna Ivaska‘s research group.

The lead authors of the Westermarck research group’s study were Majid Momeny and Mari Tienhaara. The study investigated why HER2-positive breast cancer can recur after long symptom-free periods and identified a key mechanism in the development of drug resistance.

The lead authors of the Ivaska research group’s study were Johanna Lilja and Jasmin Kaivola, and it discovered a possible way to treat difficult-to-treat cancers caused by mutations in the KRAS cancer gene when it was found that a protein called SHANK3 acts as a modulator of KRAS-driven cancer signalling.

Articles:

Majid Momeny, Mari Tienhaara et al. DUSP6 inhibition overcomes neuregulin/HER3-driven therapy tolerance in HER2+ breast cancer. EMBO Mol Med (2024)16: 1603 – 1629. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44321-024-00088-0

Johanna Lilja, Jasmin Kaivola. et al. SHANK3 depletion leads to ERK signalling overdose and cell death in KRAS-mutant cancers. Nat Commun 15, 8002 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52326-1

Both award-winning research groups represent the Turku Bioscience Centre – researchers from Turku Bioscience Centre have received the award 15 times in the 21 years that it has been presented.

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