Welcome to the City of London Centre Newsletter, going forward our newsletter will be combined with RadNet News and Events.
News
CAR-T blood cancer treatment is available to more patient groups with wider range of blood cancer
A clinical trial of a personalised therapy for blood cancer, led by researchers at UCL and University College London Hospitals, has been expanded enabling new groups of patients with a wider range of blood cancers to now receive the treatment. Read more
Congratulations to Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) network!
Funding for the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC) network has been renewed for the next 5 years, following a successful review of the network.
ECMCs are funded by Cancer Research UK, together with the health departments of the devolved nations and new partner the Little Princess Trust, to deliver cutting-edge experimental treatments for children, young people and adults. Read more
Protein that enhances skin cancer aggressiveness identified by CRUK funded researchers
Researchers have identified a protein that makes melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, more aggressive by giving cancer cells the ability to change the shape of their nucleus. This characteristic which allows the cells to migrate and spread around the body.Read more
Date and venue 10th February 2023
Clare College, Cambridge
This is the first meeting of this type organised by the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre Precision Breast Cancer Institute. The programme will cover the clinical and basic science aspects of several topics relevant to breast cancer, including cancer development and diagnosis, cancer cell biology and the micro-environment, drug target discovery and technology. We will discuss the latest developments in laboratory and clinical research, challenges in clinical practice, unanswered questions and directions of future research in these fields.
The symposium will include elements of interest to a mixed audience including clinicians and scientists (including trainees, students and post-docs), nurses, allied health professionals, breast cancer charities and members of the public.
More info: https://crukcambridgecentre.org.uk/news/cambridge-precision-breast-cancer-symposium
Joint CRUK CoL Centre Theme 2/RadNet Meeting
Date and venue
3rd March 2023
Barts Cancer Institute, QMUL _ Joseph Rotblat building Register using this link and email cruk.cityoflondoncentre@ucl.ac.uk for password This event is exclusively for CoL Centre members
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Postdoc futures: empowering women in cancer research
To celebrate International Women’s Day, Cancer Research UK is launching a new event aiming to bring together women from across their postdoctoral network to connect, collaborate and tackle the barriers to progression for women in cancer research.
Postdoc futures: empowering women in cancer research will be held from 12:45PM on 7thMarch at the Royal Society in London and is open to all Cancer Research UK-funded women postdocs.
This event will feature inspiring talks and practical tips from successful women in academia and business. You can also take part in roundtable discussions on career progression and experiences with peers. Registration is now open – don’t miss out on this chance to be part of the conversation about the future for women in cancer research. Find out more about the event and register here.”
Crick Stem Cell Forum
Date and venue 30th January @ 5pm Francis Crick Institute Dr Sally George, Research Scientist, GuiTlemot lab, The Francis Crick Institute.
Title: Aberrant differentiation results from disruption of A TRX function in stem cell and neuroblastoma models.
Dr Florian Siebzehnrubl, Group leader, Cardiff University.
Title: Regulation of stem cell plasticity in adult neurogenesis and brain cancer.
Outreach
Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement Workshop
Date and Venue 16th March 2022, 9.30 - 4.00 pm
James Clerk Maxwell Building, KCL, 57 Waterloo Rd London SE1 8WA
Would you like to learn more about PPIE? Join us for a day full of talks about - Training resources - Funding available - Activities that are happening - How to get involved
This event is exclusively for CRUK CoL Centre Members (UCL, BCI, KCL, Crick) and invited speakers
For more info and registration, click here
CRUK Philanthropy staff engagement training day
On Tuesday 10th January, CRUK held a training day at Barts Cancer Institute for their Philanthropy fundraising staff with the focus to help increase awareness and understanding of early career researcher specifically. The training day began with an introduction from Prof Kebs Hodivala-Dilke, as the Chair of CRUK’s Research Careers Committee, who welcomed the team to Barts and gave her insights into why it’s so important to support early career research. There were a range of other sessions throughout the morning covering a range of topics discussing what CRUK does to support PhD development through to early-stage group leader fellowships.
In the afternoon the team went on a lab tour of Prof Fran Balkwill’s lab, given by post-docs Dr Bella Kotantaki and Dr Florian Laforêts, seeing some of the work that group does to study the tumour microenvironment. They also had time with a group of CRUK City of London Centre PhD students who presented posters about their work in lay terms given the range of background’s our fundraisers have, helping the staf to be inspired by the incredible talent of our PhD cohorts. Nikolaus Muldal, CRUK’s London Research Engagement Manager, said “It was fantastic for our Philanthropy staff to have conversations with active researchers and hear about the experiences of early career research. It all helps to focus conversations with the charity’s supporter to highlight why we need to help fund and develop the next generations of world-class research to beat sooner. The PhD students with their posters and the postdocs giving the lab tours were all excellent, bringing their enthusiasm to every explanation!”
Training
New CRUK & GOSH funding for Paediatric Cancer studentship
We would like to invite you to submit project proposals for a new CRUK GOSH Children and Young People’s cancers (CYP) studentship, for the September 2023 intake of the CRUK CoL Centre PhD Programme.
This studentship is to strengthen our cross-cutting paediatric cancer theme and encourage new collaborations across the Centre. We highly encourage research groups that are not yet working in paediatric cancers but would like to move into this area to apply.
Applications will open on 23 February 2023, shortlisting will be carried out between late March and mid-April, and interviews will be held in mid-May – further details below and in attached files.
If you would like to apply to join the recruitment, please:
Check guidance and forms for the 2023 CRUK CoL Centre training programme application
Identify a CoL Centre faculty member from a different partner institution to yourself to develop a collaborative research project proposal.
I studied theoretical physics at Cambridge before beginning work as a medical physicist in Oxford. I moved to the ICR to model outcomes from their trial of conformal radiotherapy for my PhD, and spent two years in Madison, Wisconsin, implementing the Tomotherapy system built at UW-Madison by Rock Mackie’s group.
Subsequently I’ve worked in Oxford and Liverpool, designing trials of individualized radiotherapy dose-escalation for lung cancer, and analysing results from them. I’ve also worked on the dosimetry of small radiation fields, and on the reconstruction and interpretation of dynamic PET images.
At UCL I want to concentrate on FLASH proton radiotherapy, dose individualization and the possibility of reducing radiation doses in tumour margins, largely as routes to reducing toxicity in combination treatments.
Aside for physics I enjoy music of most kinds, walking, growing plants and trees, and bridge.
New Research Equipment at Barts
A new Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP), has been installed at Barts, Queen Mary university of London which will allow researchers to carry out more advanced, clinically relevant radiation experiments in preclinical models.
£490,000 of funding for the SARRP has been awarded from Queen Mary’s Research Capital Investment Fund, which invests in key infrastructure projects to support areas of research excellence at the University. Barts Charity has awarded £50,000 towards the instrument costs.
Look out for Dr Jamie Dean who will be on uclmedsi Instagram in the week leading up to World Cancer Day on 4th February. Jamie along with another early career researcher Morgan Palton will be sharing their experience as cancer researchers and answering questions on CAR T immunotherapy and radiation research.
RadNet at Kings College London is looking to hire a Research Assistant to assist with the development of assays that address phenotypic changes in cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in response to radiation, and how they influence surrounding immune cells, primarily tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs).
The post-holder will be primarily based in the Shields laboratory at Kings College London and supervised by Drs Jacqueline Shields and Rachel Evans.
This is a full-time post – 100% full time equivalent on a fixed term contract for 1 year
