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Cancer Research UK and partners award £30 million to six projects

Cancer Research UK is partnering with an Italian and a Spanish cancer research charity to invest approximately £30 million in 6 international collaborations, which aim at accelerating progress in translational research.

The projects investigate the potential of immunotherapies in treating liver cancer; develop manufacturing methods for CAR-T cell production; track cancer cell evolution; investigate drug resistance in blood cancers; devise a blood test for advanced prostate cancer; and find new routes for personalising blood cancer treatment. UK researchers will lead 2 of the programmes.

The funded projects are:

  • HUNTER: Hepatocellular Carcinoma Expediter Network study of the immune environment in hepatocellular carcinoma (UK).
  • Innovative CAR Therapy Platform to improve access CAR T-cell immunotherapy by developing manufacturing methods and providing recommendations for CAR T-cell immunotherapy development.
  • A study to track cancer cell evolution in organoids examine the process of drug resistance.
  • Investigation of the mechanisms of transformation and hidden resistance of incurable haematological malignancies.
  • Development of clinically applicable multimodal clinical testing for prostate cancer.
  • ACRCelerate which is seeking to identify new targets in colorectal cancer (UK).

With Brexit approaching, it is hoped that the 5-year Accelerator Awards projects will help to maintain European (EU)-wide research collaboration in the future.

Dr. Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: "No single organisation or country is going to beat cancer on its own. Research must be prioritised as the United Kingdom builds a new relationship with the EU, as much-needed breakthroughs in treatment are dependent on collective action from the international research community.

"Our Accelerator Award funding will lay the groundwork for a Europe and UK research pipeline, boosting our life sciences industry, and ensuring basic biological research translates into new innovative treatments in future."


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