We are delighted to announce that a team of UK-based researchers has secured £623,000 in new funding from the Medical Research Council to try to find new ways to tackle CLOVES. The team is spread across three UK Centres – the University of Edinburgh (Professors Robert Semple, Liz Patton and Martin Taylor), the University of Dundee (Dr Ralitsa Madsen) and University College London (Dr Satyamaanasa Polubothu). They will combine studies of tissues from people with CLOVES with studies of fish designed to mimic CLOVES, and blood vessel cells made from genetically engineered human stem cells. The aim is to understand how cells in the body with PIK3CA gene changes disrupt growth, and whether they do this partly by sending signals to surrounding tissue. If these signals are found they will be blocked as potential new treatments in future. Prof Semple said “we are incredibly excited to get going with this work which has only been funded because of the support we received from the CSC to do preliminary work. We believe that combining studies of human tissues with cells and fish in the lab is a really powerful way to answer important questions about exactly how CLOVES develops, and to investigate new ways to block the unhealthy extra growth. All our studies will be very carefully focused on the problems which affect people with CLOVES most.”

This joint funding success comes shortly after Dr Madsen secured a prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) to decode the many faces of PIK3CA activation across a range of human cell systems. Dr Madsen said: “This is an exciting time for all of us in the CLOVES community, and we are incredibly grateful for all prior CSC support. This new MRC-funded project will also inform and be informed by the programme of work supported by my FLF. I am therefore confident that progress for the community will be delivered much faster than what any individual project would have achieved in isolation.” Principal Investigator Ralitsa Madsen