Cancer Research UK invests £100m in research centres
pharmafile | November 25, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Cancer, Cancer Research UK, UK
Cancer Research UK says it will invest over £100 million across 15 cutting-edge research centres to help get new treatments and diagnostics to cancer patients sooner.
The investment marks the latest phase in the development of the Cancer Research UK Centres ‘network of excellence’, which are a chain of research hubs that have been established across the country.
This £100 million of funding will further draw together world class research and medical expertise to provide the best possible results for cancer patients nationwide, the charity said.
The Cancer Research UK Centres are in: Belfast; Cambridge; Cardiff; Edinburgh; Barts, London; Glasgow; Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden, London; Leeds; Leicester; Manchester; Newcastle; Oxford; Southampton; Imperial College, London; and UCL, London.
This initiative brings together researchers and support from local universities, the NHS and Cancer Research UK. Each Centre will focus on specific areas of research and aim to raise standards of care while forging links with local communities.
A big part of the network’s role will involve training the next generation of cancer researchers. Nearly 200 PhDs will be funded through the network, including around 80 PhDs specifically for cancer clinicians, making this is the largest cancer focussed cohort of clinical PhDs in the EU.
Professor Margaret Frame, science director of the Edinburgh Cancer Research UK Centre, said: “This funding will help build closer links between scientists and doctors – and that will increase the pace of research, leading to improved treatments for patients.
“The clinical PhDs are especially important – making sure that clinicians have the opportunity to do research as part of their role opens up many opportunities for discovery and innovation in tackling the biggest challenges in cancer research. We also know that there is a shortage of clinician scientists, so this will greatly help.
“But it’s also incredibly important for us to train the next generation of cancer researchers. The pace of discovery is such that we must ensure we’re offering the brightest scientists the opportunity to be part of a very exciting time in the field of cancer research.”
Professor Sir Bruce Ponder, director of the Cambridge Cancer Research UK Centre, added: “The network is giving us unprecedented opportunities to work effectively across the local hospital and university environment, while also opening up broader avenues for us to work with scientists in other Cancer Research UK centres around the country.
“All of this is especially important when working on rarer cancers or those cancers that are harder to detect and treat. For us, that means more opportunities to collaborate on pancreatic, oesophageal and lung cancers. And that means a better chance of making a discovery that could lead to a new treatment in those cancers.”
Ben Adams
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