Neuron–Cancer Synapses

Pancreatic tumours are densely innervated. Synapse-like contacts form between sensory neurons and carcinoma cells — we ask how these connections are built, which signals pass through them, and what they mean for tumour growth and spread.

We combine co-cultures of neurons and tumour cells with electrophysiology, molecular characterisation and the analysis of human tumour tissue from surgery.

We described pseudo-synaptic contacts between sensory neurons and pancreatic cancer cells. Enrichment of the glutamate receptor subunit GluN2D (GRIN2D) amplifies the tumour’s glutamate response.

In the ERC project SYNAPSE-ON-CANCER we map these contacts systematically and test whether blocking them slows tumour growth.