A European consortium comprising leading biomedical research institutions has launched TITAN, an oncology research project funded in 2025 under TRANSCAN-3’s Joint Transnational Call 2024, one of Europe’s leading calls for translational cancer research.
With €1.2 million in funding, the project aims to accelerate the preclinical and translational development of Aurkinas, an innovative, recently patented family of chemotherapeutic compounds with strong potential against hard-to-treat solid tumours, particularly liver cancers.
An international, multidisciplinary consortium of excellence
The project is coordinated by Ikerbasque researchers Jesús Bañales and Pedro Rodrigues, specialists in liver cancer biology at the Biogipuzkoa Health Research Institute of the Basque Government’s Department of Health and CIBERehd. It brings together a leading European consortium in translational oncology with the aim of accelerating the transfer of scientific knowledge into new therapeutic options.
TITAN brings together five institutions of excellence from four European countries, combining complementary capabilities and advanced technologies. Ikerbasque Scientific Director and Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea researcher Fernando Cossío, together with Iván Rivilla, Ikerbasque researcher at the DIPC, contribute their expertise in the design and synthesis of new compounds. In France, Prof. Jean-Charles Nault and Dr Sandra Rebouissou, from the INSERM Cordeliers Research Centre in Paris, contribute their experience in molecular characterisation and tumour genomic profiling. In Italy, the Humanitas Research Hospital IRCCS in Milan, represented by Prof. Ana Lleo and Dr Michela Polidoro, brings in cancer-on-chip technologies to model tumour behaviour in physiological environments. Meanwhile, Dr Elena Palma, from the Foundation for Liver Research in London, United Kingdom, contributes her expertise in precision-cut tumour slice models, a key platform for assessing pharmacological response in living tissue.
The combination of specialised expertise in cancer biology, medicinal and computational chemistry, genomics, and advanced tumour modelling places TITAN in a strong position to drive the development of Aurkinas from the experimental stage towards potential clinical application.
A promising therapeutic candidate
Aurkinas, designed, synthesised, and patented by teams from the Biogipuzkoa Health Research Institute, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, and the Donostia International Physics Center, have demonstrated efficacy in several preclinical cancer models, including tumours resistant to previous chemotherapeutic treatments.
Recent results, published in the Journal of Hepatology and the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, support the potential of this family of compounds as a new strategy against solid tumours. They also suggest their possible application in other high-incidence cancers in which therapeutic resistance remains a key factor in relapse and poorer prognosis.
On this basis, TITAN will assess the antitumour activity of Aurkinas both as monotherapy and in combination with immunotherapy across different tumour types, with the aim of broadening their therapeutic scope. To this end, the project will use advanced and personalised human models (iincluding cancer-on-chip systems, organoids, and precision-cut tumour slices) which make it possible to reproduce tumour biology more accurately and obtain a more robust and clinically relevant assessment of treatment response.
Kick-off meeting
The TITAN project held its kick-off meeting on 30 and 31 March 2026 at the Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan, Italy. The meeting brought together all participating organisations to align the scientific strategy, coordinate the main work packages, and lay the foundations for a three-year international collaboration focused on addressing unmet medical needs in oncology.
With a solid scientific foundation, a promising therapeutic candidate, and a highly integrated consortium, TITAN is embarking on its journey with the goal of advancing the development of new cancer therapies and expanding treatment options for patients with hard-to-treat tumours.
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