The Insulin-like Growth Factor I Receptor (IGF-IR) is widely expressed on human tissues and has been shown to promote the growth and invasiveness of cancer cells. It is a potentially important therapeutic target for several major cancers including breast, lung and colon, and has attracted major interest from pharmaceutical companies and clinicians. Currently, at least 70 clinical trials are underway to test several different IGF-IR kinase inhibitors and blocking antibodies. However, unlike some other growth factor receptors the IGF-IR is not amplified or over-expressed in cancer. One of the major challenges to targeting the IGF-IR in cancer is the lack of suitable biomarkers that will a) assess IGF-IR activity in tumours, b) facilitate selection of patients and subsets of tumours that are most likely to respond to inhibitors, and c) monitor responses to IGF-IR inhibition. This programme aims to address this problem by identifying and validating biomarkers for the IGF-IR signalling pathway in cancer. This programme involves a collaboration between researchers at University College Cork who are experts in IGF-I signalling and researchers at Almac Diagnostics who are experts in pharmacogenomic approaches to biomarker discovery in cancer. The research plan will take two complementary approaches: 1) explore the potential of a list of candidate genes that have already been identified in a screen for IGF-IR activity in cancer; and 2) carry out an unbiased genomic screen using a combination of cell models selected as models for IGF-I signalling and proprietary databases that have been collated from different sources, including patient data. The research programme is highly collaborative and includes extensive transfer of knowledge and experience, and exchanges of researchers between the University and Almac. It is anticipated that the results will generate significant interest from scientists, clinicians and the pharmaceutical industry, and have a major impact on an impo