FRINGE - Fluorescence and Reactive oxygen Intermediates by Neutron Generated electronic Excitation as a foundation for radically new cancer therapies

FRINGE on twitter
#FRINGE poster presentation at The Girona Seminar! In the poster, Judit from @IQCCUdG displayed some photophysical properties of a few photosensitizers obtained using computational tools. #glioblastoma #neutroncancertherapies #radiosensitisation @univgirona https://t.co/0V890FXroc
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Deep lying tumours like aggressive brain cancer remain very difficult to treat and existing therapies offer only marginal increase in survival rates. In the case of photomedical therapies they are very effective, but mainly limited by their insufficient depth of light penetration into tissue. Current neutron-based therapies have sufficient penetration depth but suffer from lack of cancer specificity.
In FRINGE we propose a genuinely new hybrid-technology. At its heart are chemical agents (photosensitisers – PS) which preferentially accumulate in the tumours especially in brain cancers where the blood brain barrier is compromised. The PSs designed for FRINGE will contain metal centres like Gadolinium (Gd), to enable interaction with incoming neutrons and facilitate the transfer of neutron energy into electron excitation of the PS, confirmed by concomitant fluorescence emission. Interaction with ambient oxygen will generate reactive oxygen species which will kill the tumour cells. The main scientific breakthrough of this project will be to establish experimental proof-of-principle of this novel neutron-activated therapy. FRINGE will combine the advantages of photomedical therapies (no mutagenic radiation) with the advantages of neutron-based therapies (large penetration depth). The externally-applied neutron beam can be energy-tuned to become therapeutic exactly at the depth of the tumour. Exploiting Gd as a contrast agent, FRINGE can also become a theranostic modality by use of magnetic resonance imaging.
FRINGE has the potential of causing immunogenic cell death to cancers which could eliminate occult metastasis and act as a ‘cancer vaccine’. The highly interdisciplinary project team comprises world renowned experts from a unique combination of disciplines: Nuclear physicists, synthetic chemists, photochemists, photobiologists, medical physicists, quantum chemists and radio-oncologists will join forces to lay the foundations for a novel, curative cancer therapy.
News
FRINGE poster presentation at the Girona Seminar
The Girona Seminar took place in the city of Girona from May 31st to June 3rd 2022 and some of...
Read MoreA trip to PSI: 2 days of solution experiments and spectrograph troubleshooting
From 25-26 May 2022, partners from OUS, IFE and NCSRD travelled to PSI in Switzerland for further FRINGE experiments. From...
Read MoreFRINGE consortium meeting in Prague held on 26 March
The FRINGE consortium was happy to be able to meet again in person in Prague, Czech Republic for their annual...
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FRINGE got its acronym after the 2008-13 TV series. It is a concept which borders with science fiction, having, however, the potential of becoming reality and making a difference to deep lying, incurable cancers.
Theodossis Theodossiou
FRINGE Coordinator

FRINGE is an exciting idea to treat cancer with a fascinating chemistry behind it. We want to help making it possible with our simulations.
Lluís Blancafort
Universitat de Girona

FRINGE is a challenging project for cancer treatment bringing together experts from many scientific areas and different European countries. We hopefully expect that our experiments will have a successful outcome and will prove the FRINGE concept.
Konstantinos Stefanopoulos
National Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos"

FRINGE is a great opportunity for accelCH to contribute to the EU`s cancer mission and to continue our collaboration with Theo and others from Lumiblast and other EU-funded projects.
Jeanette Müller
accelopment Schweiz AG
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