Panos Galanos
Deciphering Cellular Senescence- The Next Frontier in Cancer Evolution and Therapeutic Resistance
Research on cells that suddenly ‘cheat the system’
“My goal is to investigate how a group of cells with highly specialised properties are capable of both promoting the aggressive growth of malignant tumours and making them resistant to conventional cancer therapies,” says Panos Galanos, biologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Danish Cancer Institute (DCI).
Panos Galanos, 39, is one of the five exceptionally talented young researchers to receive the Lundbeck Foundation Fellowship 2024 worth a total of DKK 10 million (EUR 1.3). The grant will be disbursed over the next five years and enables Galanos to set up his own research team at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark (SDU).
The group of cells Galanos studies are senescent, meaning that the cells have stopped dividing, but are still active. The phenomenon of cellular senescence, related to organismal senescence (biological ageing), provides natural protection against cancer because it prevents damaged cells from dividing. In some cases, however, damaged cells ‘cheat the system’ and in that situation, senescent cells can promote both aggressive tumour growth and resistance to conventional cancer therapies, Galanos explains:
“One of the questions I and my team at SDU will be investigating is how senescent cells are able to evade the non-dividing state they are otherwise in. I will also be studying how they affect cancer progression. In other words: how they work.”
For the study, Galanos and his team will be examining cells from lung cancer patients. This is because cellular senescence occurs frequently and in many contexts in lung cancer. So, if they can determine senescent cell mechanisms in this disease, they may also be able to come up with ideas for developing new treatments.
In order to be able to study senescent cells in the first place, they need to identify them. This is done by looking for certain proteins, for example, which act as biomarkers. Another option is to use a fluorescent reagent called GLF16, which Galanos helped develop in 2023, that isolates all the senescent cells in a sample.
Cancer risk increases with advancing age, as does the risk for neurogenerative diseases, and cellular senescence is seen as a very significant factor behind ageing.
“For this reason, our studies will also have the potential to shed new light on other ageing-associated diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's,” says Galanos.
- Age: 39 years.
- Education: Biologist from the University of Athens (NKUA). PhD, medicine, from NKUA.
- Current employment: Postdoc at the Norwegian Cancer Society's Center for Cancer Research, Copenhagen.
- Establishes own research group at: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) at the University of Southern Denmark, SDU.
- Research project: 'Deciphering Cellular Senescence - The Next Frontier in Cancer Evolution and Therapeutic Resistance'
About the 2024 LF Fellows:
