ILLUMINATE officially kicks-off in Petten, the Netherlands

The kick-off meeting took place on 7 and 8 November at the premises of ILLUMINATE’s lead NRG PALLAS in Petten, the Netherlands. During the kick-off, consortium members presented their work plans, got to know each other and discussed the way forward for the first stage of the project.

NRG PALLAS organised visits to their nuclear reactor facilities and some of the laboratories where the Lutetium-177 is produced. The nuclear reactor is of great importance for the ILLUMINATE project because it produces the Lutetium-177 isotopes which form the basis of the radioligand therapy for prostate cancer that ILLUMINATE focuses on. During the tour, NRG PALLAS representatives demonstrated the complexity of Lutetium-177 production and gave consortium members an insight into the production process.

Patient and Public involvement

ILLUMINATE strives to ensure meaningful involvement of people with lived experience of cancer in its activities. To that end, the consortium has set up a Stakeholder Involvement Community (STIC) led by the project coordinator UMC Utrecht. The STIC that will play an active role in ILLUMINATE by engaging patients and clinicians and making sure that the decisions taken in the project benefit patients' lives. Several members of ILLUMINATE’s STIC attended the kick-off meeting and shared their experiences with cancer and cancer therapy.  

Learn more about the STIC and its activities here.

We would like to thank NRG PALLAS for their hospitality and for organising interesting tours of their facilities in Petten! The ILLUMINATE consortium looks forward to the coming years of collaboration with its partners and interactions with external stakeholders!