IonTraC is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network and a special focus will be on pancreatic cancer. The IonTraC group is a European research consortium funded within the Marie Curie Initial Training Network action. It is composed of 11 research units (9 academic and 2 industrial/SME partners) with long-standing, complementary expertise in transport physiology, biophysics, pathology, cell biology, pharmacology, optical imaging, experimental and clinical oncology. The overall aim of the IonTraC project is to comprehensively test the hypotheses that proteins involved in ion transport constitute novel diagnostic/therapeutic targets for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). IonTraC will provide structured PhD program with extensive focus on mobility and collaboration. The three PhD positions (each 3 years of duration) are affiliated with sections of Molecular Integrative Physiology and Cell and Developmental Biology at the Department of Bi-ology, University of Copenhagen, and groups lead by Ivana Novak, Stine F. Pedersen and Else K. Hoffmann.

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The second International meeting of the International Society for Proton Dynamics in Cancer (ISPDC) was held in Nice, November 18-19, 2011. ISPDC is a young and dynamic society that was originally initiated by clinicians (Stefano Fais, Italy and Salvador Harguindey, Spain). The society’s objective is to assemble and integrate international scientists with an interest in the control of intracellular pH (pH_i) as a new clinical approach for the treatment of highly proliferative, aggressive, and invasive cancers. Indeed, a defining characteristic of these types of cancers (triple negative breast cancers, glioblastomas, and pancreatic cancers for example) is the presence of a glycolytic metabolism in hypoxic surroundings that requires a major dependence on mechanisms to regulate intracellular pH.

The objectives of the International Society for Proton Dynamics in Cancer are to improve communication and to foster collaborative activities and research programs between European and non European scientists engaged in acidity, alkalinity, pH changes and proton dynamics in cancer research.