| Dear Voornaam, Welcome to your latest edition of Cancer Research UK’s Research Update.
I would like to open with warm congratulations to the exceptional members of our research community who were elected as new fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society in May. My congratulations also to Ruth Plummer and Rebecca Fitzgerald whose outstanding contribution to research was recognised in the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours.
In this email, we continue to mark our anniversary year, with episode 3 of our Cancer Research Matters podcast featuring Sara Zanivan from the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute. If you get the chance, I encourage you to visit our Cancer Revolution: Science, Innovation and Hope exhibition. It opened at the Science Museum in London on 25 May, following a successful run in Manchester. It is a powerful and uplifting demonstration of the impact cancer researchers have made over many years.
Following the launch of Cancer Research Horizons, it is exciting to have the Oncode Institute join us in our efforts to beat cancer. The partnership will focus on early-stage oncology, allowing us to jointly pursue some of the tougher and relatively unexplored areas of cancer research that hold great promise for innovation in patient treatment.
Over the next few months, we are trying out some new things with your monthly email. For a start, in June this email will come out weekly. This will allow us to bring you interesting and relevant news sooner. Do let us know what you find useful, what you would like more of, and equally what you are not as keen on, so we can continue to improve.
Kind regards, Iain Foulkes Executive Director Research & Innovation CEO Cancer Research Horizons Cancer Research UK |
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| | | Applications are accepted all-year round |
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| | | Applications accepted all-year round |
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| | CANCER RESEARCH MATTERS WITH SARA ZANIVAN Cancer Research Matters is our new podcast, featuring leading cancer researchers. In this series we focus on Cancer Research UK’s 20th anniversary, talking to researchers about the progress they’ve seen in the last 20 years and predicting where they think we’ll be in another 20 years.
In episode 3 we speak to Professor Sara Zanivan about microenvironments, early detection, and proteomics in cancer research.
Sara is based at the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute where she uses proteomics to explore the tumour microenvironment. Her lab also applies their proteomics expertise to develop early detection approaches, specifically utilising mass-spectrometry to examine how large proteomic changes could be used in the clinic. She also has an important question to pose to the cancer research community... have we got the balance right between proteomics and genomics? |
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 WEBINAR: WHAT MAKES A GOOD ANTIBODY TARGET? Our technical webinar can help you take the next steps in antibody discovery.
Hear from leading scientists at the Cancer Research Horizons – AstraZeneca Antibody Alliance Laboratory on their lab’s capabilities and join in the discussion on what makes a good target.
Join us online on 5 July, 1:30–3:30 PM. |
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|  STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH THE ONCODE INSTITUTE We’ve partnered with the Stichting Oncode Institute in the Netherlands to foster greater international innovation and collaboration between our researchers.
Together we’ll provide joint training programmes and workshops for researchers, create new industry alliances and ventures to translate novel discovery science, co-fund research programmes, and share drug discovery capabilities. |
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ACCELERATOR FOR COMPANIES USING DATA TO TACKLE CANCER We’re sponsoring a promising cancer-focused startup to take part in the KQ Labs’ accelerator programme. The programme offers tailored weekly sessions on topics including fundraising, pitch training, business models and market access.
Applications are now open.
Join the programme to receive £40K funding in the form of a convertible loan, specialised investor introductions, introductions to major corporates and access to the Cancer Research UK network and expertise. |
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| | TOOTHBRUSHES AND ctDNA Congratulations to four new multidisciplinary teams (made-up of GPs, clinicians, cancer biologists, engineers, chemists, and computational scientists) who have been awarded funding for their novel approaches to triaging primary care patients at risk of receiving a cancer diagnosis.
The teams formed at a sandpit workshop in November last year. Each will each receive up to £230,000 seed-funding for feasibility work on areas including: a multimodal sampling and imaging capsule for colorectal cancer detection, a toothbrush-style sensor for oral biomarker monitoring, an improved method for ctDNA detection for pancreatic cancer and a multimodal risk stratification method for GI cancer. |
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 FINAL CALL FOR ABSTRACTS AT OUR BRAIN TUMOUR CONFERENCE Adrienne Boire (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center), Neil Carragher (University of Edinburgh) and Valerie Weaver (UCSF) are the latest speakers to join the line-up for the Brain Tumour Conference. Join them on 5–7 September in London.
Want to join the line up? We welcome abstracts on any of the conference themes. Students and postdocs can showcase their work to an international audience, with presenting authors selected to give short talks in a Future Leaders session. |
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|  NEW IN NATURE CANCER: γδ T CELLS LINKED TO BETTER LUNG CANCER SURVIVAL Published in Nature Cancer last week (30 May), Yin Wu, Adrian Hayday, Charles Swanton, and colleagues add to the growing body of work defining the role of gamma delta (γδ) T cells in cancer.
As part of the Cancer Research UK-funded TRACERx study, the authors analysed T cells from non-small cell lung cancer and non-cancerous lung tissue. They found that a subtype of γδ T cells, Vδ1 cells, were present in both tumours and non-cancerous lung tissue.
The presence of Vδ1 cells within the tumour was associated with remaining cancer-free after surgery. And their presence in normal tissue correlated with ongoing remission, suggesting that these cells continue to protect against cancer even after removal of the tumour. |
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| | NEW POLICY ON CONFLICTS OF INTEREST We encourage researchers to engage with commercial organisations to translate scientific discoveries into innovations that will improve the lives of people affected by cancer. And we also want to make sure these activities don’t compromise the scientific integrity and delivery of the research we fund.
Our new policy for CRUK-funded researchers defines what we consider to be a potential conflict of interest, our requirements, and actions we might take if potential conflicts are identified. |
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 IMPROVING RESEARCH WITH REGISTERED REPORTS What is a registered report? What’s the benefit of pre-registering a study? And why is it important to involve funders?
We put our questions to Marcus Munafò of the University of Bristol to get his take on how funders and journals can encourage researchers to give them a try. |
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|  OPT INTO OUR REGISTERED REPORTS PILOT We’re collaborating with researchers at the University of Bristol and a consortium of 13 journals to make it easier for researchers to publish the results of their research, irrespective of the findings, by providing a streamlined pathway to submitting a Registered Report.
The pilot is accessible to anyone applying for our Early Detection and Diagnosis or Prevention and Population Research Project Awards – opt in as part of your grant application. |
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| | | CRUK early diagnosis research virtual spotlight on developing a target product profile relevant to gynaecological cancer, with Larry Kessler, University of Washington 2:00 PM 14 June 2022 |
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| | | CRUK early diagnosis research virtual spotlight presenting International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership research, chaired by Yoryos Lyratzopoulos, UCL 2:00 PM 27 June 2022 |
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| | | Empowering the next generation Registration opening soon 10 October 2022 |
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