Professor Martin Taylor at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer has been selected for the final stages of the Cancer Grand Challenges selection process as part of team CAUSE. The shortlist of 12 multidisciplinary global teams is now competing for up to £20m each, with the aim of delivering breakthroughs that no single researcher, lab, institute or country could achieve alone. Cancer Grand Challenges is the only initiative of its kind in cancer. By bringing together leading researchers from different disciplines and institutes around the world, global super teams are formed to take on the most complex challenges in cancer research. In March, Cancer Grand Challenges announced seven new challenges. A record 227 bold submissions were received from world-class teams – from turning AI on cancer to rewiring cancer cells. CAUSE is among the 12 shortlisted teams, bringing together unique expertise and uniting researchers from around the world.Each team will now receive £30k in seed funding to allow the team to come together and develop their full research proposal and compete for up to £20m in funding, empowering it to rise above the traditional boundaries of geography and discipline and transform outcomes for people affected by cancer.If successful, CAUSE would seek to tackle the challenge of mutational signatures. The funded teams will be announced in March 2026 at the Cancer Grand Challenges Summit in London. The global scientific community responded with extraordinary enthusiasm to our new challenges, with a record number of proposals that push the boundaries of cancer research, from harnessing AI to reprogramming cancer cells. Congratulations to the 12 finalist teams who now have the opportunity to drive the next major breakthroughs in cancer research, as part of this pioneering global initiative. Dr David Scott Director of Cancer Grand Challenges Cancer Grand Challenges is an exceptional opportunity to bring different strands of research and new technologies together at scale in a coordinated way - with the potential to transform our understanding of how DNA is damaged, and how our cells deal with that challenge. Understanding the missing links between DNA damage and mutations is likely to lead to new ways of preventing cancer, such as policies that reduce exposure to harmful substances, and could also directly lead to improved cancer treatments. Even engaging this far with the Cancer Grand Challenges has sparked new questions and seeded new collaborations. Professor Martin Taylor Personal Chair of Evolutionary Genomics Cancer Grand Challenges finalists Martin Taylor research group Tags 2025 Publication date 24 Sep, 2025
