Skin cancer research awarded major European grant

13 Oct 2011

University of Manchester researchers looking into skin cancer have been awarded a prestigious European Research Council grant worth €1.5 million.

Adam Hurlstone and his team in the Faculty of Life Sciences use Zebrafish – small tropical fish often kept as pets – to study deadly melanoma.

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that is caused by excessive ultraviolet (UV) rays in sunlight that transform skin cells from helpful cells that produce a tan, known as melanocytes, to malignant cells.

The Hurlstone laboratory is studying this process of transformation so that it might be detected more easily and rapidly, as well as developing therapies designed to prevent, delay or, if necessary, reverse this change in the skin cells.

They use the Zebrafish to study this process in detail since they too have melanocytes (they make up their stripes), are simple to keep, observe and genetically modify and, as their research has already shown, can also develop melanoma.

Hurlstone was among only a handful of applicants from the UK to succeed with his application to the ERC under their ‘Starter Grant’ scheme. The award will support research efforts in his laboratory for the next 5 years, hopefully allowing them to make much needed progress.