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The Vienna Cancer Stem Cell Club (VCSCC): First 10 Years and Future Perspectives



Author(s)

Peter Valent, Thomas Grunt, Heidrun Karlic, Harald Herrmann, Brigitte Marian, Axel Schulenburg, Edgar Selzer, Stefan Wöhrer, Hubert Pehamberger, Ulrich Jäger and Christoph C. Zielinski

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DOI:10.17265/1934-7391/2013.06.003

In 2002, the Vienna Cancer Stem Cell Club (VCSCC) was inaugurated by a group of scientists at the Medical University of Vienna, with the primary goal to initiate and promote cancer stem cell (CSC) research in Austria and to exploit knowledge from this new discipline in translational approaches. During the first years following inauguration, the VCSCC-community was small and left without major funding. However, over time the consortium was able to launch several major project-lines, supported in part by the National Science Funds, a Genome Program, and the Ludwig-Boltzmann Society. Today, the VCSCC provides a robust intellectual platform for ongoing research in the field of translational oncology and CSC-research in Austria. In addition, the VCSCC is connected to several major CSC-networks and centers in Europe and in North America, and is a well-recognized group in the field. The VCSCC also organized a series of CSC Meetings and Conferences, and contributed essentially to a recently published classification of CSC. There is also hope that the VCSCC-consortium will further advance the field of CSC research in the future, and will create novel concepts, with the ultimate aim to improve anti-cancer therapy through elimination, suppression, or long-term control of cancer-initiating cells.

Stem cells, cancer stem cells, molecular targets, targeted drug therapies, curative anti-cancer approaches.