Cancer Research ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
| | | | Recent findings have revealed the heterogeneous nature of glioblastoma, and many researchers are looking at ways to navigate the incredible complexity to find a genomic route to develop effective treatments. But could a developmental approach lead to a common target?
Steve Pollard is co-director of our Glioma Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence. Steve and colleagues are trying to understand how to stimulate the immune system for more effective and durable responses.
Hear what Steve has to say about the most promising therapeutic approaches, applying new ideas from computational biology and AI, and the major obstacles standing in the way of effective glioblastoma treatments. |
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Funding & Research Opportunities |
| Get in touch with our office for confidential advice on eligibility, remit and funding options prior to applying. |
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| | £24m to enable innovative radiation research |
| We’re renewing our investment in radiobiology and radiation oncology research with a further £24m over five years to support a network of seven specialised Radiation Research Centres of Excellence.
Radiobiology is one of the UK’s research strengths and has been elevated by our network since 2019. Our City of London, Manchester, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital, Leeds, Glasgow and Cambridge centres will maintain their research infrastructure and RadNet Centre status, whilst Birmingham will be the newest centre to join them in enabling innovative internationally leading radiation research. |
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| | | I hope to pioneer novel sensitisation strategies that address tumour heterogeneity and plasticity with the ultimate goal of transforming glioblastoma from an incurable to a curable disease.” |
| | - Lucy Brooks, Senior Research Fellow at University College London.
We spoke with Lucy about her research on glioblastoma and the role the microenvironment plays in its development, also understanding the interplay between cell fate and current therapies to nudge cells towards more treatment-sensitive states. Beyond this, Lucy explores the ways subpopulations of cells resist therapies and investigates their vulnerability to develop more effective cancer therapies.
Discover Lucy’s academic journey, her research and why being a part of RadNet has been so valuable. |
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| | | | We’re delighted to welcome Simon Boulton as our first Chief Translation Advisor.
Simon is a leader in DNA damage sensing, repair and telomere maintenance. He’s a Principal Group Leader and Assistant Research Director for Translation at the Francis Crick Institute. He’s also co-founder and Vice President of Science Strategy of the spin-out Artios Pharma.
Simon will help shape our approach to academic translation and innovation across Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Horizons' portfolios. | | |
| | | | | | Congratulations to Soly Ismail for receiving the Crick’s 2024 Translation Prize for his work on a high throughput system for drug screening.
Soly further developed the NanoBiT Biochemical Assay to use only parts of a cell rather than live cells to investigate protein-protein interactions, allowing it to be scaled up to undertake many tests at once.
These protein-protein interactions are often difficult to visualise but could be potential new drug targets. Soly used the assay to detect and block weak interactions between RAS and PI3K.
Soly is working to industrially scale the platform, which could be transformative for identifying new cancer drugs.
The prize was jointly awarded this year to Soly and to Jean Langhorne and Robert Wilkinson, for their work developing the Crick Africa Network. | | |
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| | C-Further: expression of interest deadline tomorrow |
| If you have an early-stage therapeutic or validation target for children’s and young people’s cancers, C-Further wants to hear from you.
Submit your proposal for the opportunity to partner with C-Further and gain access to cutting-edge drug discovery facilities, expert support, funding and resources to advance your therapeutic asset into novel medicines.
There is a rolling call for expressions of interest to collaborate with C-Further. The first deadline is on 1 November 2024. |
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| | | | Our Centre for Drug Development has dosed the first patient in a first-in-human trial of a new monoclonal antibody, UCB4594, as part of its multi-project collaboration with UCB.
The new treatment targets HLA-G molecules, which usually prevent a foetus from being attacked by its mother’s immune system, but can be exploited by cancers to evade the body’s natural defences.
If successful, the trial could pave the way for new treatment options for a wide range of solid tumours that have high levels of HLA-G.
Fiona Thistlethwaite is leading the trial, with the first trial site open at the Christie in Manchester. “Targeting immune processes involving HLA-G could show promise as an approach for beating certain cancers,” she said. | | |
| | | | | | This month our Centre for Drug Development (CDD) signed agreements with the biotech companies NovalGen and KisoJi to deliver clinical trials of their lead assets, which both aim to reduce toxicity without sacrificing efficacy.
NovalGen’s NVG-222 is a bispecific T-cell engager that could be used to treat both blood cancers and solid tumours. It is the first agent to use NovalGen’s AutoRegulation technology, designed to mitigate toxicity and improve the therapeutic index of T-cell engagers.
KisoJi’s KJ-103 is the first naked anti-TROP2 antibody, which, unlike ADCs, does not require a cytotoxic payload but instead recruits immune cells to kill tumour cells.
Lars Erwig, Director of the CDD, said, “We are always searching for promising new therapies that offer patients effective treatment while lowering the risks of toxicity.” | | |
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