CSM researchers publish game-changing study on cancer and stem cells

13/05/2022

A team at the Scientific Centre of Monaco is behind exciting new research that shows brain cancer stem cells can be reprogrammed to better respond to treatment. It could transform therapies for not only children suffering from the disease, but also a range of cancers in adults.

The Paediatric Oncology and Neurogenesis team at the Scientific Centre of Monaco, led by Dr Vincent Picco, has been studying cellular reprogramming to counter medulloblastomas, or brain tumours, in children.

The work by Dr Doria Filipponi has just been published in the scientific journal Cancers, and could pave the way for the development of a new strategy to thwart the role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) involved in the development of brain cancer, their ability to resist treatment by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and their involvement in the risk of recurrence and metastatic development.

According to the research, CSCs show all the characteristics of embryonic nerve stem cells that support brain development. Their capacity for self-renewal and resistance to therapies are central in the phenomena of relapses, which are fatal in almost all cases. The objective, therefore, is to reprogram these tumour cells to make them more vulnerable to treatment and thus reduce the risk of recurrence of the disease.

“The principle of cellular reprogramming is a very innovative therapeutic approach, so far never implemented in the treatment of paediatric brain cancers,” explains Dr Doria Filipponi. “It consists of characterising the CSCs from the analysis of very fine genetics to differentiate them from embryonic nerve stem cells and then targeting them with specific, appropriate actions.”

Medulloblastomas are rapidly growing brain tumours that mainly effect children aged five to nine. They are responsible for around 20% of paediatric brain and spinal cord cancers. While the treatment is often effective – the average five-year survival rate is 80% – it also has significant, permanent consequences on the health of the child.

That’s why the CSM team is looking to find ways of developing new targeted therapeutic pathways.

This new principle treatment that they propose opens up prospects not only in the fight against medulloblastomas and paediatric brain cancers, but also for possible applications to other types of cancer in both children and adults.

For Dr. Vincent Picco, “…this innovation in diagnosis and treatment opens up very new prospects for treatment by combining genomic analysis and identification of tumour cell informatics and biological research. This procedure can be applied to other forms of cancer. For paediatric brain cancers, validation through preclinical analysis of our results will make it possible to delimit the conditions under which this approach could be implemented in the management strategy for these cancers.”

Dr. Doria Filipponi was the winner of the 2021 Best Researcher Award given by The International Research Awards on Oncology and Cancer Research, an award that honours and encourages researchers and their research organisations for their significant contributions to the advancement of research in their area of expertise. In recent years, the work of Dr. Doria Filipponi led to a paradigm shift in the field of resistance therapy and tumour relapse, and made it possible to offer totally innovative therapies in patient care.

Dr. Filipponi’s study received financial support from the Flavien Foundation, which supports several research programs on paediatric cancers at the Scientific Centre of Monaco, for more than six years.

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Photo of the CSM lab by Monaco Life

AS Monaco unveil “traditional” 2022/23 shirt

by: Luke Entwistle

13/05/2022

For the fourth consecutive year, AS Monaco has partnered with Italian kit manufacturer Kappa to release their new home kit, which will make its debut in Saturday’s match against Brest.

The release was teased on Thursday before being unveiled on Friday morning with a video shot with drones on Tête de Chien. The video featured Wissam Ben Yedder, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Vanderson, Myron Boadu and Benoît Badiashile wearing the new home kit on the rock which overlooks the Principality (see the video below).

Unlike this year’s jersey, it has white sleeves and a white back. However, it stays true to tradition, maintaining Princess Grace’s diagonal design, which has been iconic of Monaco’s kits for over 60 years. That tradition has, however, been adapted with the subtle incorporation of the club’s motto “Rise, Risk, Repeat” on the upper diagonal section. That motto is currently celebrating its one-year anniversary.

Monaco’s main partner eToro is once again inscribed on the shirt, as is the silicone Monégasque crest, as well as a crown on the back collar. The Kappa jersey features Kombat Pro System technology, which is known to be ultra-resistant, elastic and breathable. The kit is complemented by white socks and shorts.

The kit will be worn for the first time on Saturday against Brest. The fixture will be Monaco’s final home game of the season, before they head to Lens for the final matchday.

The jersey is now available to purchase at www.shop.asmonaco.com

Click on the image below to watch the new promotional video by AS Monaco…

Famed trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf coming to Monaco

by: Stephanie Horsman

12/05/2022

French-Lebanese trumpet virtuoso Ibrahim Maalouf will be playing the Espace Léo Ferré one night only alongside guitarist François Delporte for an evening of music that jazz lovers won’t want to miss.

Born in Beruit in 1980, Ibrahim Maalouf has transcended his early years to become one of France’s most popular musicians of the past 15 years.

His career has taken him to over 40 countries around the globe and to some of the most prestigious venues in the world. He performed in Istanbul in front of a sold-out Volkswagen Arena and at the Lincoln Jazz Centre in New York.

In 2016, he made history by becoming the first jazzman to fill the largest concert hall in France. He performed on 14^th December at the Accor Arena in Paris Bercy for an historic show that sold out more than eight months in advance. In the same year, he was described as a “virtuoso” by the New York Times.

In all, Maalouf has composed and produced 19 albums for himself and other artists, winning scores of awards along the way.

The Monaco concert will feature music from the album he composed for his 40^th birthday, entitled 40 Melodies, taking the audience on the artist’s journey through his past work.

The concert will be held on 23^rd May at 8:30pm. For tickets and information, visit www.espaceleoferre.mc or call +377 93 10 12 10.

ASM preview: “We are still the hunters”

by: Luke Entwistle

12/05/2022

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the final home game of the season, AS Monaco manager Philippe Clement said that his team still assumes the role of the “hunter” in the Champions League race.

During the press conference, Clement sought to dismiss the notion that Monaco’s role in the race for the Champions League places had changed. Rennes’ loss on Wednesday night against recently crowned Coupe de France winners Nantes saw Clement’s men take a step onto the Ligue 1 podium for the first time all season.

However, he told Monaco Life: “I haven’t seen a difference in mentality because you stay in the role of hunter whilst there are still teams ahead of you. We’re ambitious, we want to win every match, and more and more I see this mentality in the dressing room.”

Pushing Monaco towards their goal is a positive mentality that Clement himself has engendered, and which permeates the entire squad, not just the starting 11. “It’s easy to have this positivity, to have this positive atmosphere with players who have played a lot, but I also see it in the players who have played less the last couple of months. There is really a beautiful harmony between the players and also an atmosphere with a lot of competitiveness during the training sessions.”

That “harmony” and “positive atmosphere” naturally gives rise to a group of players that sacrifice themselves for the collective, and that is what Clement is now beginning to see, the manager citing Ruben Aguilar and Wissam Ben Yedder as embodiments of that mindset.

“Aguilar is a survivor,” Clement began. “When there is a wall on the pitch, you can ask him to run through it and he will. He has an exceptional desire to play, but to run as well. He is someone who is always there for the team and does things to help others.”

Clement has also noted a change in Ben Yedder’s play since arriving. “He has become very versatile. When I arrived, he was very focused on scoring goals, but on little else. Now, he does a lot more work off the ball than when I arrived and he is more focused on doing that. Because of that, we’re stronger as a team.”

But for long-term absentees Krepin Diatta and Cesc Fabregas, Clement has a full squad to pick from; neither will feature again this season, whilst the latter’s contract expiry means he may not pull on the red and white of Monaco again.

In this hunt, Brest play the role of the prey. Monaco lost 2-0 when they visited the Stade France le Blé earlier in the season, but on their best run since 2017, the Principality side are now a different beast and are hungry for Champions League football next season.

Photo by Monaco Life

Prince of Monaco honoured with conservation award in Sweden

by: Cassandra Tanti

11/05/2022

Prince Albert has been presented with The Perfect World Foundation Award by Sarah, Duchess of York during the organisation’s 2022 Arctic Ocean Gala in Sweden.

The event was held at the historical Bourse in Gothenburg on May 5th. Prince Albert is the ninth recipient of The Perfect World Award, a recognition of his life-long commitment, dedication, and actions to preserve our oceans. As global ambassador, Sarah Ferguson has presented the award since 2016. It is a Rhino-shaped crystal statue from Kosta Boda and its other recipients include Sir David Attenborough, Dr Sylvia Earle and Dr Jane Goodall.

Earlier in the day, the Prince and Sarah, Duchess of York, braved the chilly Swedish spring weather to inaugurate the foundation’s Project Ocean which focuses on locating, salvaging, recycling and reusing abundant fishing nets, so called “ghost nets”, and other fishing equipment left in our oceans. Also present at the inauguration event where Hollywood actor Billy Zane and The Perfect World Foundation’s Scientific Leader Jan Westin. Alongside the coast, huge piles of ghost nets had been placed, representing the equivalent amount of plastic entering the Swedish West Coast on a daily basis. As part of the inauguration, Prince Albert released a rescued and rehabilitated duck back to the wild, found injured with a fishing hook in its beak.

Prince Albert II of Monaco took part in a tree planting ceremony as part of his support for The Perfect World Foundation. Photo source: Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation

The Prince also visited the Gothenburg Botanical Garden for a tree planting ceremony as a part of The Perfect World Foundation’s global tree planting project ‘Attenborough Forest’, named after Sir David Attenborough as he planted the forest’s first tree in 2018. The Sovereign Prince planted an American smoketree, described by the Botanical Garden’s botanist as a tree of the future. It was explained that as the climate is warming, the fauna of the cooler north has to be replaced by vegetation more resilient to a warmer climate, just like the American smoketree.

The Perfect World Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Sweden that works with wildlife and nature in crisis around the world. By increasing knowledge and spreading awareness, the foundation’s grand mission is to save the world.

Photo by Petra Bjorstad, source Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation

Monaco makes the most of new Riviera to New York flight

by: Stephanie Horsman

11/05/2022

A much-delayed and highly anticipated direct route between Nice Côte d’Azur airport and Newark Airport has opened, and Monaco tourism delegates have been in the Big Apple to capitalise on the new link.

As the dark days of the pandemic start to fade into the rear-view mirror, new options for travel, long-delayed due to restrictions, are now re-emerging, presenting airline travellers with new opportunities.

America, for example, had been off-limits for Europeans for a seriously long stretch, and now, just in time for summer, those limits have been repealed. As such, United Airlines has opened a new route from Nice to New York’s Newark Airport, originally planned to launch back in 2020.

The flights run daily from now through to 6^th September, leaving Nice at 12:10pm and arriving in New York at 3:45pm, local time. This super-convenient flight means travellers will be able to hit the city in time for happy hour without breaking a sweat.

The return is equally good, leaving New York at a civilised 7.55pm to arrive the next day in Nice at 10am.

This link “will not only bring Nice closer to New York” but also “connect Nice to more than 85 destinations on the American continent,” said Grégoire Dutoit, Commercial Director of United Airlines in France.

For now, the flight is only seasonal, but if it proves a success, there is every chance, Dutoit says, that it will become a permanent fixture on the flight schedule.

Monaco tourism delegates selling the merits of Monaco in New York to tourism professionals. Photo source: Government Communication Department

With the Nice airport a short distance from the Principality, and not one to miss an opportunity, Monaco’s Tourist and Convention Authority (DTC) headed to New York for a promotion operation on American soil.

The Monegasque delegation, which included Director of Tourism Guy Antognelli and the general managers of the Principality’s main hotels, met with travel agents and journalists specialising in tourism, to discuss topics such as the “spectacular recovery of luxury tourism in the North American market”, the government revealed in a press release.

Guy Antognelli was also involved in the inauguration of the new flight at the airport boarding gate, surrounded by the United Airlines crew.

United Airlines is now the third operator between the two cities. The same route is offered by Delta Airlines from New York JFK and La Compagnie flying to Newark on a 100% business flight.

Photo source: Nice Côte d’Azur Airport