Cancer research

Life sciences: Major cancer investment announced by government

NHS cancer patients are set to be among the beneficiaries of a raft of new research deals with the life sciences industry.

The fresh investment includes £9m of government funding for MANIFEST – a project looking at better using immunotherapies to target cancer. The study will be led by the Francis Crick Institute and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.

Also coming as part of the new funding will be a data platform that researchers will train AI models on in order to make cancer detection quicker and more accurate. This project is being led by the NHS Data for Research and Development Programme.

On the data network, NHS England’s transformation director, Dr Vin Diwakar, said: “The NHS is globally unique in holding data for the entire population. This makes the test result information we hold particularly valuable for AI training as we know that it represents the population properly.”

£118m Healthcare Research and Partnership Hubs

The news comes as UK Research and Innovation joins forces with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Council to support the development of five new specialist hubs through a £100m+ funding injection.

The hubs include:

  1. OASIS led by University College London – cancer imaging for surgeons
  2. MAINSTREAM led by the University of Glasgow –  cancer therapies using stem cells
  3. MicroTex led by the University of Edinburgh – speeding up drug trialling through ‘micro-dosing’
  4. VIVO led by the University of Bristol – wearable devices that prevent falls, including ‘robotic clothing’
  5. HALo led by the University of Liverpool – testing the viability of drugs that only require one dose for weeks and months

“The five new hubs bring together a wealth of expertise from across academia, industry and charities to improve population health, transform disease prediction and diagnosis, and accelerate the development of new interventions,” said Professor Charlotte Deane, executive chair at EPSRC.

UK life sciences

Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle, said: “The UK’s scientists, researchers and captains of industry have brilliant ideas that aren’t just going to boost our health – they’ll boost our economy too, helping to build a virtuous circle for more investment in both health and research which will ultimately drive up living standards.”

The life sciences industry drove £800m in foreign investment to the UK during 2023 with overall contributions totalling £108bn, supporting 300,000 jobs.

Comment from Peter Kyle, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology

Health secretary Wes Streeting added: “When we combine the care of the NHS and the genius of our country’s leading scientific minds, we can develop life changing treatments for patients and help get Britain’s economy booming.”

The winners of two other funding calls have also been announced. The £11m National Institute for Health and Care Research call which focused on early cancer diagnosis has been split between six projects, while Innovate UK’s precision medicine call has been split between six projects too.

Image credit: iStock

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