Neuroblastoma is a cancer forming in certain types of nerve tissue caused by a genetic mutation causing tumours with histology showing tumour cells as small,round and blue, with rosette patterns. The GGF technology has its core concepts founded in geometrical principles of cell growth and in particular on theory involving chromatin and nuclesomes – the winding of DNA around histones which mediate access to genes in DNA which is relevant to apoptosis and abnormal cell growth such as cancer. Epigenetic histone modifications have functional consequences in cellular processes where transcription factors/enzymes play key roles. It is hoped that underlying GGF theory may further contribute to the understanding of the genetic processes driving cancer.

Apart from theory, the GGF Technology may facilitate more practical uses. As background, in early 2021 Medical scientists at the Children’s Cancer Institute in Sydney announced their discovery of an ‘Achilles Heel’ with respect to a driver of Neuroblastoma cancer. They found that a process where two proteins bind to drive the cancer presents a possible target for drug design. Then in May 2021 the Children’s Cancer Institute further announced promising results for a combination of two compounds – curaxin (similar to an anti malarial drug) and panobinostat ( a histone deacetylase inhibitor).

How could the Biophysical Cancer Research Foundation contribute to these valuable advances? The GGF technology to be used by the Foundation might generate candidate analogues of such compounds which might be needed for toxicity testing or aptamer carrier candidates depending on the receptors which need targeting. The fact that this work could lead to cures for the other cancers mentioned underscores the importance of this work.

Importantly, this same binding process is apparent in a number of other major cancers namely breast, prostate, blood, ovarian, brain and kidney cancers and so this project could be a lightning rod for many lines of cancer research.

One of the researchers at the Children’s Cancer Institute referred to the importance of identifying specific drivers of the disease and the TERT oncogene rearrangement to enable design of drugs to combat these drivers.  (  The TERT oncogene is the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene that drives malignant cell growth by shortening/stabilizing telomere length-  this has been shown  in up to 90% of major human cancers.)