| Dear Voornaam, Welcome to your October newsletter. I hope you and your family are well. As the UK enters a period of stricter restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re hit with another set of gloomy statistics. Last week, the UK’s National Cancer Research Institute released figures projecting a devastating 24% drop in the UK’s overall cancer research spending this year, driven by a 46% fall in charity sector funding. The urgent case for government support becomes clearer by the day. These figures show how medical research charities are facing a substantial funding gap. Medical research charities are a vital part of the country's ecosystem. For example, charities provide 66% of UK public investment into cancer and cardiovascular research. To risk disrupting the UK's intricate network of universities, charities and small and large companies would be incredibly short-sighted. This network has an outstanding track record of developing innovations that prevent, diagnose and treat cancer around the world. We need the UK's research ecosystem to be healthy as well as wealthy and need urgent action from the Government to provide a temporary bridge – or the progress that we need to see in cancer, and other diseases, will be at risk.
Last month, we announced a partnership with the National Cancer Institute in the US to launch Cancer Grand Challenges, an initiative that enables global and multidisciplinary collaboration at an increased scale. We're due to announce the new set of challenges to the international community on 14 October, and you can stay up-to-date by signing up for our Cancer Grand Challenges newsletter.
October is also Black History Month in the UK. This year, Cambridge Institute PhD student, Sigourney Bell, along with an international committee team, co-founded Black in Cancer Week. Between 11 and 17 October, there will be a week's worth of events for the research community to understand more about how cancer affects Black people and spotlight Black cancer researchers and their work. I encourage you to follow and engage with the Twitter campaign and attend the planned events.
Kind regards, Iain Foulkes Executive Director, Research & Innovation Cancer Research UK |
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CRUK TRIAL ALLOWS QUICK ACCESS TO NEW TREATMENTS Children and young people in the UK who have cancers that relapsed can now access new personalised treatments quicker than ever before. This is possible thanks to a national tumour biopsy sequencing platform and a new European clinical trial being rolled out in the UK. The genetic code of tumours is sequenced through the Stratified Medicine Paediatrics programme run by the Institute of Cancer Research, and the molecular information is used to match patients to treatments on the ESMART trial. The trial, currently open at two UK trial centres, is testing several new targeted drugs and treatment combinations not previously available for children and young people. |
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| HOW WE KEPT CHILDREN'S CANCER TRIALS GOING This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Tracey Crowe, lead nurse for paediatric oncology research at the Oak Paediatric and Adolescent Drug Development Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital, reflects on her experience in caring for children with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tracey shares the strategies her team developed to keep clinical trials ongoing and patients safe. She highlights the importance of effective communication across health teams involved in caring for a child with cancer and restarting patient recruitment into trials as she looks to the future of paediatric cancer research. |
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| | RESEARCH IS AT RISK – BUT THERE'S STILL TIME TO ACT Last month, we joined forces with over 100 medical research charities to ask the government to protect charity-funded research from devastating funding cuts that could slow our life-saving work. The #ResearchAtRisk campaign, which trended number 21 on Twitter in the UK and achieved 33,000+ impressions, highlighted the impact of COVID-19 on cancer research and the amazing return on investment offered by medical research charities. These statistics are a testament to the strength and unity of our online research community. Thanks to your support on Twitter, the importance of investing in a Life Sciences–Charity Fund is being recognised by key decision makers ahead of the Spending Review. However, there are more more ways to support our campaign. The Association of Medical Research Charities launched an early-career survey to better understand concerns around funding and potential job insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings will be used to further demonstrate the importance of supporting the #ResearchAtRisk campaign. We want to hear your views. |
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NEW ONLINE HUB TO SUPPORT EARLY-CAREER RESEARCHERS The COVID-19 pandemic has brought great uncertainty to early-career researchers. If you’re a student or Fellow funded by us, make sure you check our regularly updated information about grant funding and grant management to learn about your options.
If you’re applying for funding and your research was disrupted as a result of the pandemic, you can submit an update to your application that will be taken into account by our committees and panels. We can also help you connect with your colleagues through two new online hubs, one for students and one for Fellows, and continue to develop your career through coaching and mentorship schemes such as the Meyler Campbell’s programme and the Women of Influence initiative. |
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| TOP TIPS FOR INVOLVING PATIENTS IN YOUR RESEARCH When done well, patient involvement can improve the quality and relevance of research. It’s also increasingly becoming a requirement on funding applications. Often, the hardest part of patient involvement is knowing where to begin. We’ve asked researchers and people affected by cancer for their top tips on getting patient involvement right in scientific research. These top tips will help set you on the right track, from effectively planning patient involvement at the start of your research project through to sharing feedback at the end. |
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| | RESEARCH TEAM’S EXPERIENCE WITH THE CRUK OPEN LAB The Open Lab Initiative, which launched in April, is a digital tool that connects research groups with shared interests to generate new collaborations and spark discussions. In a viewpoint article, Francesca Ciccarelli, professor of cancer genomics at King’s College London and group leader at the Francis Crick Institute, shares her team’s experience of participating in this initiative during lockdown. Her research group was matched with Florian Markowetz’s team at the CRUK Cambridge Institute and they organised journal clubs to discuss papers from each team. Francesca reflects on how the initiative helped her group stay connected during a challenging period while highlighting its value beyond lockdown. |
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| | JOIN US AT ELRIG'S DRUG DISCOVERY MEETING To ensure our world-leading discovery research is rapidly and effectively translated into new treatments for patients, we support expert groups and networks involved in drug discovery and development, with a focus on progressing high risk but potentially high gain projects. In our track at the ELRIG Drug Discovery meeting on 15 October, you will hear about several drug discovery projects that take novel approaches to treat disease. These projects are built on leading scientific research which have the potential to have a substantial impact on cancer therapy. |
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PARP INHIBITORS: HALTING CANCER BY HALTING DNA REPAIR Do you wonder how the ideas you have in your lab can benefit patients? We spoke to professors Ruth Plummer and Steve Jackson about their personal experience of developing PARP inhibitors, from ideas to treatment. Ruth wrote the first-ever prescription for a patient to receive rucaparib, and Steve founded the spinout company KuDOS to develop drugs, such as olaparib. Both Ruth and Steve are pivotal to the success of PARP inhibitor drugs, but their journey involved many important collaborations and influences. Learn more about their experiences in bringing drugs to patients over the last few decades, collaborating with other academic groups and working with industry. |
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| FRAMEWORK RECOGNISES TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH EFFORT Our Competency Framework for Fellowship applicants has been updated to reflect the skills and experience relevant to doing translational research. This will ensure translational efforts are recognised and valued on par with other scientific outputs, such as publications, in line with our implementation of DORA principles.
This update follows a meeting we organised earlier this year for all CRUK-funded early-career to mid-career Fellows. Our Fellows told us that we, as a funder, need to do more to recognise and incentivise researchers to engage with industry and to adopt a translational and entrepreneurial mindset. We’ve listened to our researchers and we’re pleased to share our updated Competency Framework to continue to support our community to start their translational research journey. |
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| | LAUNCH OF CELLINTA, A NEW CANCER SPINOUT COMPANY Cellinta is a new spinout company focused on targeting stem cells with highly selective gene therapy. The company builds on the foundational research of professor Steven Pollard, University of Edinburgh, on neural stem cells and brain cancers. Cellinta was formed following a successful seed fundraise led by SV Health Investors and joined by CRUK. The investment will be used to build a pipeline of gene therapies for several cancer indications. Cellinta is backed by a world-class scientific leadership team. Steven will serve as senior adviser and Dr Soraya Bekkali will lead the team as chief executive officer and board director. Soraya brings over 20 years of industry experience in the field of gene therapy. |
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SECURE YOUR PLACE: VIRTUAL EARLY DETECTION CONFERENCE There are just a few days left to register for this year’s virtual Early Detection of Cancer Conference on 6–8 October. Over three days, we will bring you engaging live talks on the latest early detection research, Q&A panels, poster sessions and a series of Great Debates on early detection challenges. |
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| REGISTER TODAY FOR THE VIRTUAL MAP CONGRESS Secure your place at Molecular Analysis for Precision Oncology Congress (MAP) 2020, which is taking place online on 9–10 October. Join experts in precision medicine oncology to learn more about how to interpret molecular alterations in tumours to deliver targeted treatments. A joint initiative between CRUK, ESMO and Unicancer, MAP is a leading congress in precision medicine in oncology, established by Jean-Charles Soria, Fabrice André and Charles Swanton. |
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