| Dear Voornaam, Welcome to your May newsletter. I hope you and your families are keeping well during this time. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is significantly changing how we live and work, and we want to hear how it's affecting you. We are publishing a series of stories on how the pandemic is affecting our community. If you're a CRUK-funded researcher, please do share your story by completing our short survey or replying to this email by Friday, 22 May. We can use these stories to help with our fundraising and advocacy work and will be hugely helpful.
Our fundraisers are working hard to mitigate the impact of coronavirus on our activities. So while many of our fundraising events have been moved to later in the year, we've launched virtual fundraising activities including Race for Life at Home. Read below to find out how you can get involved and thanks to everyone who has already got involved.
We will continue to develop our research funding plans as much as possible in these uncertain times.
In the immediate term, Id like to announce that we will be merging our departments of Discovery Research and Clinical, Population and Early Detection Research into one department. Led by Dr Ian Walker, the department will have overarching responsibility for extramural research activity across basic, translational, clinical and population research. Dr David Scott will be taking the new role of Director of Grand Challenges and will be responsible for strategic leadership of this flagship programme.
Lastly, warm congratulations to all newly elected Fellows of the Royal Society, including Professor Kevin Brindle, Professor Xin Lu, Professor Molly Stevens, Dr Sarah Teichmann, and Dr Francois Guillemot, and to all elected Fellows of the AACR Academy Class of 2020 including our Chief Clinician, Professor Charles Swanton, Professor Greg Hannon and Sir Peter Ratcliffe.
Kind regards, Iain Foulkes Executive Director, Research & Innovation Cancer Research UK |
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CALL FOR STORIES: CRUK RESEARCHERS AND COVID-19 How is COVID-19 affecting you as a researcher? How are you adapting to life in lockdown? Have you changed your focus from lab work to analysis? Are you finding innovative ways to collaborate? If youre a CRUK-funded researcher, we want to hear from you. In an upcoming series, we're publishing stories about the challenges of being a researcher right now, and shining a spotlight on the resilience and resourcefulness of our community in the face of a global pandemic. Share your experience by replying to this email or completing our short survey by Friday, 22 May. |
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| AACR VIRTUAL ANNUAL MEETING I: 2728 APRIL 2020 Last month saw the first virtual AACR Annual Meeting. Over 54,000 people around the world registered to join the free 2-day meeting online. CRUK-funded researchers Sergio Quezeda and Samra Turajlic chaired discussions, while Chris Abbosh presented data from the TRACERx lung study, led by our Chief Clinician Charles Swanton. The poster session included the phase I MOv18 study, developed by Kings College London and sponsored by our Centre for Drug Development. If you missed any part of the meeting, videos of the collated sessions are available now. Within the next week, individual session videos will be posted to the platform for on-demand viewing. |
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A RESEARCHER AND ENTREPRENEUR AT HOME IN LOCKDOWN Marcel Gehrung, a PhD student at our Cambirdge Institute, is writing up his thesis whilst also setting up a spin-out company and supporting the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by 3D printing PPE visors and developing a social distancing app. His company supports the implementation of the Cytosponge, a minimally invasive method that aids the early detection of oesophageal cancer.
In a recent interview, Marcel tells us how he has kept up his entrepreneurial spirit, resilience and positivity about the future during this time in lockdown. |
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| EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 The pandemic has dramatically changed how CRUK scientists are living and working. From supporting the COVID-19 frontline at an NHS hospital to making hand sanitiser in the lab, 6 early-career cancer researchers shared their insight on what its like to be a scientist during the coronavirus pandemic. Interviews in our Researcher Voices article include Isabel Romero-Camarero, a postdoctoral fellow at CRUK Manchester Institute; James Dickie, whos completing his PhD at CRUK Southampton Centre; and Sean Richards, a CRUK Therapeutic Discover Lab scientist in Cambridge. |
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| | UPDATES TO OUR IMMEDIATE OPEN ACCESS POLICY We are changing our open access policy to require that all Cancer Research UK-funded articles accepted for final publication on or after 1 January 2022 are open access immediately upon publication. This change is in line with our support for the principles of the open access publishing initiative Plan S. |
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EARLY DETECTION OF PANCREATIC CANCER SANDPIT WORKSHOP The application deadline for our next early detection sandpit has been extended to 15 September 2020 and the workshop will now take place from 29 November 2 December 2020. Held in partnership with Pancreatic Cancer UK and EPSRC, we will be exploring novel technological approaches for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. We're welcoming candidates from a wide range of disciplines including cancer biology, healthcare professionals, computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians, engineers, physical scientists, and those working in the digital and technology space. |
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| VIRTUAL EARLY DETECTION OF CANCER CONFERENCE Our Early Detection of Cancer Conference, held in partnership with the Knight Cancer Institute at OHSU and the Canary Center at Stanford, will be moving to a virtual format for 2020. Due to uncertainties with ongoing travel restrictions for our international colleagues, we feel that a virtual conference taking place on 68 October will be the best way to ensure our entire community can participate. Register your interest to hear updates about the agenda and a re-launch of the registration for this exciting meeting. |
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| | FGC ACCEPTING CRISPR SCREENING PROJECT PROPOSALS Our Functional Genomics Centre (FGC) provide CRUK-funded PIs access to genome-wide pooled CRISPR knock-out screening capabilities. Our lab is currently operating at a reduced capacity as we adhere to social distancing guidelines to keep our staff safe. However, we are continuing to review and accept project proposals during this period. Get in touch via email ([email protected]) to find out how we can support your CRISPR screening projects or visit our webpage to find out more. |
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CANCER CARE DURING THE CURRENT GLOBAL PANDEMIC COVID-19 is providing a profound challenge to healthcare services globally. Healthcare professionals are faced with reorganising healthcare systems to handle the pandemic whilst not compromising the safety and care of patients with other diseases - including cancer patients. In the UK, NHS England is adapting by having 'COVID-19 free' centres and hospitals, which would allow cancer patients requiring urgent care to receive treatment quickly. However, this would only be possible with widespread testing of patients and NHS staff.
Professor Carlos Caldas, Group Leader at our Cambridge Institute, co-authored an article in Nature Medicine about how 7 Cancer Centres of Cancer Core Europe have re-organised their healthcare operations, providing a roadmap for offering the best cancer care during the pandemic. |
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| BIOBANK INSIGHTS SUPPORT LUNG CANCER TREATMENT Manchester Institutes Caroline Dive and colleagues recently published new lung cancer research in Nature Cancer. The paper outlines the groups biobank of 38 circulating tumour cell-derived explant (CDX) models from 31 small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients, including 6 CDX pairs generated pre-treatment and at disease progression, revealing complex intra- and intertumoral heterogeneity. Transcriptomic analysis confirmed 3 of 4 previously described subtypes and identified a previously unreported subtype. This research is providing a valuable resource to support personalised medicine for SCLC, helping to meet the need for large panels of models to advance treatment for this aggressive disease. |
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| | GRAND CHALLENGE: NEW CHALLENGES LAUNCH POSTPONED Last year, we held a worldwide consultation with researchers and people affected by cancer to inform the next round of Grand Challenge. We held challenge-setting workshops in Madrid, Milan, Edinburgh, London and Amsterdam, and invited the international community to share their recommendations through our website. We had planned to reveal the new challenges earlier this year. But, due to the strain on the international research community because of the COVID-19 pandemic, weve decided to postpone the launch of the next round. We remain fully committed to Grand Challenge and will keep you updated on the new launch date. Be the first to know when the new challenges are announced by signing up to the Grand Challenge newsletter. |
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OUR CENTRE OF DRUG DEVELOPMENT TO FUND NEW PHASE I TRIAL We've announced a new Clinical Development Partnership with Crescendo Biologics to develop CB213 - a novel bispecific PD-1 x LAG-3 antagonist and next-generation checkpoint inhibitor. This agent has been designed to deliver safer, more effective therapeutic intervention in patients with cancers resistant or refractory to PD-1 blockade alone. Dr Nigel Blackburn, our Director of Drug Development, commented: By combining our expertise, were able to accelerate the development of this promising experimental treatment, bringing it to patients with cancers that are hard to treat. |
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| SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN NABARRO In an interview with PharmaTimes, Stephen Nabarro, Head of Clinical Operations and Data Management at our Centre for Drug Development, shares his biggest professional achievement, the most exciting developments during his 12-year tenure at Cancer Research UK and his hopes for the future of drug development. |
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| | RACE FOR LIFE AT HOME The Race must go on, because cancer doesn't go away during COVID-19. Come up with your own Race for Life at Home challenge and share it with your friends. Choose your activity - whether it's walking, twerking or salsa-ing Share your challenge on social media using #RaceForLifeAtHome Nominate 5 friends to take part Donate Join our community and sign-up for free. |
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