Scientists at the University of Liverpool have been awarded a £4 million Horizon 2020 grant as part of a European consortium investigating eye cancer.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a cancer that arises from the pigment cells (melanocytes) in the eye. Currently there is no effective treatment for metastatic uveal melanoma, which occurs in about half of the patients with this cancer.

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme with nearly €80 billion of funding available over seven years. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

Clinical trials

Co-investigator of the consortium, UM Cure 2020, Professor Sarah Coupland, is the lead of the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group (LOORG); Consultant Histopathologist; and the George Holt Chair of Pathology at the University. She is also the Director of the Liverpool Tissue Bank and Director of the University’s North West Cancer Research Centre.

Professor Coupland, said: “The overall goal of the project is to identify and validate novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of metastatic UM at the preclinical level, leading up to the initiation of UM-dedicated clinical trials.”

The consortium brings together the major experts of UM in both patient care and basic translational clinical research, and in particular several European Centres of Excellence in clinical Ocular Oncology, as well as the patient organisation Melanoma Patient Network Europe and two biotech companies.