Welcome to New Graduate Students

03 October 2011

The Department welcomed 11 new graduate students at the beginning of Micahaelmas Term 2011:

• Anna Brown (MPhil - Dr. John Griffiths)
• Derek Chan (MB/PhD - Prof. Dave Tuveson)
• Shayanti Chattopadhyay Mukherjee (PhD - Dr. Andrew Lynch/Prof. David Neal)
• Kamila Jozwik (PhD - Dr. Jason Carroll)
• Sarah Jurmeister (PhD - Prof. David Neal)
• Laura McCracken (PhD - Dr. Anna Philpott)
• Hinal Tanna (PhD - Dr. Doug Winton)
• Anne Trinh (PhD - Dr. Florian Markowetz)
• Alexander Tunnicliffe (PhD - Prof. Simon Tavaré)
• Elke Van Oudenhove (PhD - Dr. James Brenton)
• Ruiling Xu (PhD - Prof. Duncan Jodrell)

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Dr. Lucy Gossage wins the 2011 Ireland Ironman competition

September 2011

Congratulations to Dr. Lucy Gossage, a Hales Clinical Research Training Fellow with the Department of Oncology and a top class triathlete, who has won the 2011 Ireland Ironman competition. For further details click here.

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Dr. Ferdinandos Skoulidis awarded 2011 EoE Deanery Researh paper of the year

July 2011

Congratulations to Dr.Ferdinandos Skoulidis, who was named as the winner of the Research Paper of the Year Award 2011 at the recent East of England Multi-Professional Deanery 'Celebration of Success' event held on 25th July.

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Official Launch of the Cambridge Pancreatic Cancer Centre

28 March 2011

Prof. David Tuveson headed the official launch of the new Cambridge Pancreatic Cancer Centre on 28 March 2011.

Prof. Tuveson, Director of the new centre said:

"Our goal is to use laboratory discoveries to rapidly develop effective new treatments and monitoring methods for pancreatic cancer patients."

This multi-disciplinary centre of excellence, which is based at the Cambridge Research Institute on the Addenbrooke’s Hospital site, aims to:

• Provide treatment and diagnostic options to local and international pancreatic cancer patients seeking novel treatments.
• Design and implement ways to increase patient participation in pancreatic cancer trials locally, nationally, and internationally.
• Establish a multi-disciplinary research community within the University of Cambridge that coordinates and sponsors research projects to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for pancreatic cancer.
• Contribute to publications in pancreatic cancer medicine for broad dissemination to government, academia, and industry.
• Translate research findings in pancreatic cancer to clinics.
• Pursue private and public sector funding to ensure success of objectives.

Each year, pancreatic cancer strikes more than 7500 people in the United Kingdom and over 43,000 in the United States. Because cancer of the pancreas is often not diagnosed until after it has spread, it has one of the lowest survival rates: the one-year survival rate is approximately 20%, and the five-year survival rate is only 4%.

Prof. Tuveson continued:

"With the Centre, we hope to change the perception that there aren't treatment options for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer."

Prof. Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said:

"This is a tremendously exciting initiative which will take advantage of Cambridge's numerous strengths as a centre for cancer research to develop new, practical applications for the benefit of pancreatic cancer patients. Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease that not only affects thousands of people in the United Kingdom every year but is also the sixth leading cause of cancer deaths in the European Union. This Centre will help progress the development of more effective treatments, which are badly needed."

Dr Gareth Goodier, chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals, said:

"This is a perfect example of why we are developing the Cambridge Biomedical Campus as an international centre for patient care, biomedical research and healthcare education.

Bringing these three elements together enables us to create centres of excellence like this one. Through this collaboration scientists and doctors are working together to find the best possible clinical care for our patients … helping to reduce the impact of this desperate disease."

Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said:

"This new Centre in Cambridge will give patients access to trials of exciting new treatments where they otherwise may not have many options. The involvement of Cancer Research UK's leading scientists will ensure that discoveries made in the lab reach these patients as fast as possible. This Centre is focussing on a critically important field of research and we look forward to seeing the impact of its work in the future"

The launch of the Cambridge Pancreatic Cancer Centre was featured on the BBC new website.

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Dr. Ferdinandos Skoulidis Wins 2011 Medical Research Society Young Investigator Award

February 2011

Congratulations to Dr. Ferdinandos Skoulidis who has won the 2011 Medical Research Society Young Investigator award.

Dr. Skoulidis gave a 20 minute presentation entitled "Germline Brca2 heterozygosity promotes KrasG12D-driven carcinogenesis in a murine model of familial pancreatic cancer" to an audience including the Chief Executive of the MRC and the Chairman of the Wellcome Trust.

This prestigious competition is organised jointly by the Medical Research Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal College of Physicians and is open to "Clinician Scientists in Training".

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Prof. Ron Laskey Awarded CBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours List

January 2011

Congratulations to Professor Ron Laskey who was recognized in the Queen's New Year's Honours list announced on 31 December 2010.

Prof. Laskey, FRS, FMedSci, was made a CBE for services to science. His research focuses on how cells control DNA synthesis. He holds the Charles Darwin Chair of Animal Embryology at the University of Cambridge, Department of Zoology and was Director of the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, Hutchinson/MRC Research Centre until his retirement from the MRC in January 2010.

Ron Laskey is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Member of Academia Europaea, Vice President of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a former President of the British Society for Cell Biology.

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Welcome to New Graduate Students

05 January 2011

The Department welcomed 3 new graduate students at the beginning of Lent Term 2011:

• John Gounaris (MPhil - Dr. James Brenton)
• Stacey McGowan (PhD - Dr. Neil Burnet)
• Muhammed Murtaza (PhD - Dr. Nitzan Rosenfeld)

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