CDI Labs' Dr Tyler Hulett Ph.D. joins global Cancer Grand Challenges team taking on the cancer avoidance challenge

The team, which is led from Institut Imagine by Paul Bastard, will receive up to $25m over approximately five years to take on the challenge of cancer avoidance.

BALTIMORE, March 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A global, interdisciplinary team of researchers, including CDI Labs's co-investigator Dr Tyler Hulett, has been selected to receive a Cancer Grand Challenges award of up to $25 million over approximately five years to tackle the cancer avoidance challenge. Cancer Grand Challenges is a global research initiative, co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US, that identifies the toughest challenges in cancer research. With awards of up to $25 million, it empowers a global community of world-class, interdisciplinary research teams to come together and take them on. The Cancer Grand Challenges ATLAS team, led by Institut Imagine's Paul Bastard, will take on the cancer avoidance challenge. 

Cancer research has traditionally focused on identifying drivers of cancer rather than barriers to its development. Intriguingly, there are sub-sets of individuals with well-established cancer risks who, despite this predisposition, never develop cancer. This challenge seeks to uncover the biological mechanisms underpinning tumour resilience in the host to understand what protects certain individuals from developing cancer.

Team ATLAS plans to explore the role of immune-modulating autoantibodies in cancer resistance, by utilising unique human cohorts, including centenarians, cancer-free individuals with high-risk exposures, and cancer-discordant twin pairs, building on some of the team's pioneering work identifying the link between autoantibodies and COVID-19 disease severity. 

 "Our past work at CDI has shown that everyone has autoantibodies; they are stable for decades and unique even between identical twins. I am honored to be joining this very special initiative to build a Cancer Antibody ATLAS," said Dr Tyler Hulett, PhD, CSO of CDI Labs. "I believe this team will demonstrate that antibodies are not just protective against cancer – but also create immune-disrupting mistakes, which allow tumors to grow. Understanding both sides of this equation will transform the way cancer is understood and reveal new treatments."

The ATLAS team unites clinicians, advocates and scientists with expertise in ageing, early detection, immunology, infectious disease-cancer interplay, multi-omics, paediatrics, prevention and more, across 8 institutions across 6 countries. This team is funded by Cancer Research UK and the Torrey Coast Foundation through Cancer Grand Challenges. It is one of five new teams that was announced today, representing a total investment of $125m to tackle some of the toughest challenges in cancer research.

"Cancer Grand Challenges research and breakthroughs are made possible through our co-founders and visionary partners. Thanks to their incredible $125 million funding this year, we're able to unite exceptional research teams from across the globe to tackle the most complex problems in cancer today," said Dr. David Scott, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges. "Together, we're creating opportunities for bold team science that could redefine what's possible for people affected by cancer." 

The funded teams span 9 countries, 34 institutions and unite more than 42 investigators and researchers. 

More information at: New Teams Announcement | Cancer Grand Challenges

More information:

About Cancer Grand Challenges 

Co-founded in 2020 by two of the largest funders of cancer research in the world: Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute, Cancer Grand Challenges supports a global community of diverse, world-class research teams to come together, think differently and take on some of cancer's toughest challenges. These are the obstacles that continue to impede progress and no one scientist, institution or country will be able to solve them alone. With awards of up to $25 million, Cancer Grand Challenges teams are empowered to rise above the traditional boundaries of geography and discipline to make progress against cancer we urgently need.

Cancer Grand Challenges now brings together 1,800 researchers and 21 teams from across the world to take on 18 challenges.

About CDI Laboratories, Inc.

CDI Labs is a specialized lab services company powered by cutting-edge synthetic biology platforms enabling novel serum antibody discovery across the autoreactome and immuno-exposome. CDI Labs is best known for HuProt™ human proteome microarrays - the world's largest collection of full-length human proteins - and VirScan®, the comprehensive viral exposure phage display platform that maps an individual's antibody responses against all known viruses. These platforms additionally power discovery beyond immune interactions - including molecular glue screening, novel protein-protein interaction mapping, monoclonal antibody cross-reactivity validation, and epitope mapping. To learn more about the latest services offered by CDI Labs, please visit our website at cdilabs.com.

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