Personalized cancer treatment is one of the defined future goals to improve cancer therapy. One branch of research in this area aims at a retrospecitve fit by identifying responder/non-responder profiles to existing drugs in cancer patients. The strategy of the Lundbeckfonden Center of Excellence NanoCAN (www.nanocan.dk) is to directly implement elements of personalization into the screening strategies, which shall recover new drug targets and starting points for personalized cancer therapy. 

In 2010/2011 we installed and brought to operation one of Northern Europe`s largest robotic platforms for systematic cell screens. We in first instance concentrate on genome-wide siRNA screens to recover starting points for the selective killing of cancer cells with specific molecular signatures, which traces back to the concepts of pathway addiction and synthetic lethality. Efforts will also include the genome-wide identification of modulators in important cancer signaling pathways. We presently focus on breast cancer and melanoma, but are steadily expanding our repertoire. In our efforts, we can greatly profit from new tools for the rapid genetic manipulation of cancer cells, which have been devloped by us in the recent past.