Muons and Childhood Cancer

The Swiss federal government uses National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCR) to fund interdisciplinary research projects for up to 12 years on topics that are of strategic importance to Switzerland. Six new NCCRs have now been approved  by the Federal Council. Two of these prestigious long-term projects will be hosted by UZH. Over the next four years, the government will fund the projects Children & Cancer (UZH/University of Lausanne) with CHF 16.99 million and Muoniverse (Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/UZH) with CHF 14.26 million.

“The fact that two of the six new NCCRs have been awarded to UZH is a historic achievement that is built on long-term strategic work,” says UZH Vice President Elisabeth Stark. The NCCR Children & Cancer builds on the strength of precision oncology within the University Medicine Zurich (UMZH) network and elevates it to a new level, continues Stark. In muon research, UZH and PSI are expanding the high-end infrastructure they have been developing successfully for years, now opening up new opportunities for research and applications across a wide range of disciplines, adds the vice president.

Cancer is rarer in children than in adults, but it remains the leading cause of disease-related deaths in childhood and adolescence. The aim of the NCCR Children & Cancer is to improve diagnostics and optimize treatment and care for children with cancer. “The Federal Council’s decision is an absolute game changer for us,” says Jean-Pierre Bourquin, director of the NCCR Children & Cancer and professor of pediatric oncology at UZH and the University Children’s Hospital Zurich. “We have developed a vision for how pediatric oncology in Switzerland can be repositioned, from basic research through to clinical translation – and we can now put that vision into practice.”

One objective is to overcome the fragmented landscape in pediatric oncology in Switzerland and strengthen collaboration across cantons. In addition to the Universities of Zurich and Lausanne, the NCCR brings together the children’s hospitals of both cities as well as several other research groups. Bourquin himself is a leading international expert in pediatric oncology. He conducts research on leukemia and successfully treats young patients with blood cancer at the University Children’s Hospital Zurich.

The individual nature of cancer is one of the major challenges in treating patients. “In children, there is an enormous variety of tumor types, which also differ biologically from those in adults,” says the oncologist. “That is why therapies developed for adults cannot simply be applied to children.” At the new NCCR, researchers will now join forces to investigate the foundations for innovative treatment approaches and tackle fundamental questions of cancer development. This includes exploring how the metabolism of cancer cells can be disrupted – starving tumors, so to speak – as well as how immunotherapies can be used more successfully in children with cancer.

The NCCR will also feature a national platform to enable individualized and precision cancer diagnostics. “Our goal is to offer all patients in Switzerland the highest possible standard for tumor characterization,” says Jean-Pierre Bourquin. A precise diagnosis is the key to effective therapy. The NCCR Children & Cancer is the first of its kind to focus exclusively on the health needs of children. “Over the next 12 years, we want to build a lasting national center of excellence in pediatric oncology that brings together basic research, innovation and clinical excellence,” Bourquin says.

The second new NCCR at UZH will be all about muons. These elementary particles are almost identical to electrons but are around 200 times heavier and, unlike electrons, unstable – meaning they decay rapidly. In laboratory settings, muons can be produced artificially, which is done at Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, for example. “At PSI, Switzerland already has the most intense muon beams in the world,” says Marc Janoschek, co-director of Muoniverse, professor of physics at UZH and head of the Center for Neutron and Muon Sciences at PSI. “Its performance is currently being increased, which will allow us to extend the analytical use of muons to new research fields and applications.”

Muon beams are a powerful scientific tool. They not only play a key role in particle physics research, but also open up new possibilities in materials science and development and create fresh opportunities for industry as well. Focused muon beams make it possible to analyze materials at the level of individual elements. “This allows us, for example, to closely observe charging and discharging processes in batteries and to study how the structure and chemistry of materials changes in the process,” says Marc Janoschek. Such analyses can lay the groundwork for increasing the lifespan of batteries or speeding up charging cycles. Muon beam technology has a wide range of applications, including in the field of heritage science. “For example, it could be used to examine a historic sword without damaging it to learn more about where the metal came from and how it was made,” Janoschek explains.

The physicist also expects progress in his own area of research at UZH, the development of quantum materials. In the future, muon beams could be used to study and improve the functionality of these materials in technical devices in much greater detail. To make this possible, however, the performance of the technology needs to be increased – a goal that can now be pursued with greater momentum thanks to the NCCR. “One of the NCCR’s goals is also to step up collaboration between PSI, UZH and other partners,” says Marc Janoschek. “We also want to train people and build a community of muon experts that will enable this powerful and practical tool to be used more widely.”

Interest in harnessing the useful properties of muons is already strong, with several institutions supporting research efforts in this field. In addition to PSI and UZH, project partners include the Universities of Bern, Fribourg and Geneva, ETH Zurich, EPFL, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the artists-in-labs program at Zurich University of the Arts, Empa, the Swiss National Museum, Augusta Raurica, the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, and CERN. Several leading international institutions are also part of the wider research network.