| Dear Voornaam, Welcome to your September newsletter. I hope you and your family are well. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month, and this year we’ve seen researchers continue to collaborate and drive forward paediatric research. We’re keen to capitalise on this momentum and attract even more talented researchers to this area of cancer research. In our latest blog post, Sally George describes her work on neuroblastoma and why there's a real need for more tailored treatments for paediatric cancers.
Ahead of this autumn’s comprehensive spending review, we're working to influence government decisions in three areas: strengthening the UK's capabilities in life sciences and oncology R&D so that cancer research is properly funded and the UK has a world-leading environment for clinical research, securing long-term funding for the NHS cancer workforce; and calling for measures to support the Smoke Free 2030 target. And finally, congratulations to Dr Serena Nik-Zainal for being awarded the Francis Crick Lecture and Medal 2022. Her brilliant contributions to understanding cancer through the analysis of mutational signatures in the cancer genome will drive new insights into how cancers are treated. Kind regards, Iain Foulkes Executive Director, Research & Innovation Cancer Research UK |
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| | | Application deadline extended 21 September 2021 |
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| | | Applications accepted all-year round |
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| | WHY CHILDHOOD CANCERS NEED SPECIFIC TREATMENTS Almost 30,000 cancer deaths in children and young people have been avoided since the 1970s in the UK*, thanks in part to our work. We spoke to clinician scientist Dr Sally George, who tells us about her work on neuroblastoma and why childhood cancers need specific research to develop the most effective treatments. Sally’s work focuses on a clinically distinct, therapy-resistant group of neuroblastoma patients characterised by loss of function mutations in the ATRX gene. Neuroblastoma with ATRX alterations is more likely to be refractory to chemotherapy and follow a slowly progressive, but ultimately fatal disease course. |
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| | THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX TO TACKLE AN AGGRESSIVE CHILDREN'S CANCER In March, we announced the winners of the Cancer Research UK–Children with Cancer UK Innovation Awards. Six months on, we caught up with Dr Sam Behjati about how the £1M awards are allowing his team to use big data to chart the origins of rhabdomyosarcoma, an often-fatal type of children’s cancer. |
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 APPLY FOR OUR EARLY DETECTION SANDPIT WORKSHOP We’ve extended the application deadline for our next early detection sandpit workshop to 21 September. The workshop theme will be the development of novel early detection and diagnosis technologies or novel test combinations for primary care triage. Applications to attend are welcome from a wide range of disciplines including cancer biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science and technology. Over the course of the workshop, you’ll team up with others to develop pilot study proposals which you will then pitch to receive seed funding up to the value of £230K. |
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|  HOW EARLY DETECTION RESEARCH EMBRACES INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE Detecting cancer earlier requires skills from many scientific disciplines. This is why our Early Detection and Diagnosis Primer Awards are a clarion call to the interdisciplinary minded to turn their talents to cancer research. In our recent blog post, we caught up with two of the latest awardees, Oluwafunmilola Ola and Charlene Greenwood, to find out why forensic and materials science are ideal backgrounds for cancer research. |
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| | LAST CHANCE TO SECURE YOUR PLACE FOR THE EARLY DETECTION OF CANCER CONFERENCE Registration for this year’s Early Detection of Cancer Conference will close on 22 September. Sign up now for the chance to be at the heart of lively debates and discussions and to network with researchers across the globe who are working at the forefront of early detection research. We’ve booked a world-class line up of experts including Irene Ghobrial (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Phil Jones (Wellcome Sanger Institute), Pepper Schedin (OHSU Knight Cancer Institute) and Shan Xiang Wang (Stanford University). Join the ranks of over 350 researchers who have already secured their place. |
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 OPTIMAM: TURNING DATA INTO DIAGNOSTICS When we first funded the OPTIMAM project in 2008, it was designed as a training aide for radiologists. Now, with over 40 academic and commercial collaborators and a growing database of more than 3M breast cancer images, OPTIMAM is helping develop technology that could change the future of cancer diagnostics. Projects like OPTIMAM using well-designed datasets are key to progressing new ideas in diagnostics, devices, and AI that can result in new ways to beat cancer. If you want to increase the reach of your research data, contact [email protected] to find out more about how you can get involved. |
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|  NEW FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: DATA INNOVATION AWARDS The Data Innovation Awards will provide financial (up to £75K per project) and strategic support for researchers engaged in projects with data that could be of use to commercial organisations in the cancer space. Selection criteria include unique and interesting datasets that are large (>100 subjects), link together several different data types on the same subject or generate multidimensional data (longitudinal sampling or multiple samples from the same individual). To discuss how your data might unlock new approaches to preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer, contact Joe Day at [email protected]. |
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 VENTURE BUILDER INCUBATOR: TURN YOUR RESEARCH INTO A DATA-DRIVEN BUSINESS Are you a UK-based cancer researcher wanting to make a greater impact on people with cancer? We’ve partnered with The University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University and Edinburgh Innovations to bring you the Venture Builder Incubator – a new initiative within our Entrepreneurial Programmes for cancer researchers looking to develop entrepreneurial skills, build a team and turn their research into a business. Applications are now open. By joining the programme, you will receive a £2K grant, opportunities to attend workshops and networking events, mentoring, access to investors alongside the University of Edinburgh's wider entrepreneurial ecosystem, and more. Deadline: 1 October |
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|  THREE VENTURES RECEIVE PRE-SEED CAPITAL TO ADVANCE THEIR PROJECTS Three of the latest companies to come out of our Entrepreneurial Programmes have successfully received pre-seed capital to generate proof-of-concept data. Founded by cancer researchers, these ventures each focus on harnessing opportunities of cross-disciplinary research to solve complex scientific problems.
We spoke to the researchers-turned-entrepreneurs behind the new organisations to learn about their experience of being part of our Entrepreneurial Programmes and turning an idea to a reality by starting a company based on their research. |
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 FREE REGISTRATION FOR THE MAP VIRTUAL CONGRESS 2021 Registration is open for the Molecular Analysis for Precision Oncology (MAP) Virtual Congress, taking place online 7–9 October. International experts will discuss a full range of topics in the field of molecular analysis for precision oncology, including molecular characterisation, clonal evolution, metastases and new technologies for therapeutic targeting. |
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|  REGISTER FOR THE UPCOMING NCRI FESTIVAL BY 30 SEPTEMBER The NCRI Festival: Making cancer research better together, on 8–12 November, will feature several topical sessions, panel discussions, debates and co-creation sessions, as well as paper presentations highlighting the latest cancer research updates. Designed for oncology professionals, the event will run throughout the week, so you can join sessions at your leisure or watch recordings on-demand. Don't miss out on the standard registration rate and register by 30 September. |
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| | THE POWER OF PRECLINICAL MODELS AND LEARNINGS FROM GLOBAL HEALTH Cindy Sears in the Cancer Grand Challenges OPTIMISTICC team is a clinician scientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an expert in infectious disease and colorectal cancer. In July, Cindy and the team shared a new mouse model which mimics human biology with impressive accuracy and sheds light on immunotherapy resistance. In a recent Cancer Grand Challenges blog post, she discusses the significance of the findings and what drew her to work in the microbiome field. |
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| | ASH NICHOLLS: A FOOTBALLER-TURNED-CANCER RESEARCHER The journey to become a professional cancer researcher can be different for everyone. Ash Nicholls started out as a professional footballer, playing for teams such as Darlington FC and Cambridge United after representing England against Hungary in the Under-18's league. Now, he's a molecular biologist at the CRUK Cambridge Institute, where he works on developing better treatment for children and young people with leukaemia. |
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| * Calculated by the Cancer Intelligence Team at Cancer Research UK, 2020. Estimated number of deaths avoided in children aged 0-14 and young people aged 15-24, based on number of deaths which would have been observed had mortality rates remained at their early-1970s peak, compared with number of deaths actually observed. Based on method set out in Siegel R, Ward E, Brawley O, Jemal A., Cancer statistics, 2011: the impact of eliminating socioeconomic and racial disparities on premature cancer deaths. CA Cancer J Clin. 2011 Jul-Aug;61(4):212-36. |
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