Our top researchers share their ambitions for 2019

We asked some of our top researchers to share their personal ambitions for 2019 and the key trends that they hope to see emerge in their field.

Professor Karen Vousden – Cancer Research UK’s chief scientist 

Professor Karen Vousden has spent the last 30 years in cancer research studying one of the most important molecules in cancer, called p53. She was director of our Beatson Institute in Glasgow from 2003 until two years ago, when she was appointed Cancer Research UK’s chief scientist. In 2019, Vousden is looking forward to understanding more about how altering diet can affect cancer treatment.    

One of the areas we’re interested in is whether we can use defined diets to boost the effectiveness of treatments like chemotherapy. This approach depends on a detailed understanding of how cancer cells feed themselves. Research by us and others has shown that cancer cells are highly dependent on a supply of some amino acids, including one called serine. And we’ve found that we can slow tumour growth in mice given a diet that doesn’t contain this amino acid. Now we’re really interested in trying to move this work into people to see if the same thing applies.  

Professor Karen Vousden

Our ultimate aim is to run a clinical trial testing if a special diet that lacks serine can help patients having chemotherapy, but first we need to test the diet in healthy volunteers. This year we hope to find out if it’s possible to reduce the amount of serine circulating in the body by putting someone on a special diet, as it is in mice. We’ll also be running more experiments with mice to see if this restricted diet has any unexpected impact on the rest of the body, particularly the immune system.   

Beyond my work I’m really excited about what we’ll learn about immunotherapy in 2019. The idea that we can reactivate the body’s ability to detect and kill cancer cells using these new treatments has been a game changer in recent years. But while it’s had astonishing results for some people, others don’t respond at all. So as well as looking to develop new approaches, I hope the next few years will bring a deeper understanding of why only some patients’ cancers respond to this type of treatment.   

Finally, there’s a lot to look forward to at Cancer Research UK. I’m particularly excited by some of the ambitious initiatives that are being set up at the moment. We’re bringing together talented people from around the world and from lots of different areas of science to tackle some of the big questions in cancer research. And that opens up some hugely exciting possibilities. 

We’ll be updating this post throughout the week. Tomorrow, Professor Karl Peggs, a clinician and researcher at University College London, shares what to look out for in immunotherapy in 2019.

Gabi, Katie & Ethan

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog http://bit.ly/2BUby0L

We asked some of our top researchers to share their personal ambitions for 2019 and the key trends that they hope to see emerge in their field.

Professor Karen Vousden – Cancer Research UK’s chief scientist 

Professor Karen Vousden has spent the last 30 years in cancer research studying one of the most important molecules in cancer, called p53. She was director of our Beatson Institute in Glasgow from 2003 until two years ago, when she was appointed Cancer Research UK’s chief scientist. In 2019, Vousden is looking forward to understanding more about how altering diet can affect cancer treatment.    

One of the areas we’re interested in is whether we can use defined diets to boost the effectiveness of treatments like chemotherapy. This approach depends on a detailed understanding of how cancer cells feed themselves. Research by us and others has shown that cancer cells are highly dependent on a supply of some amino acids, including one called serine. And we’ve found that we can slow tumour growth in mice given a diet that doesn’t contain this amino acid. Now we’re really interested in trying to move this work into people to see if the same thing applies.  

Professor Karen Vousden

Our ultimate aim is to run a clinical trial testing if a special diet that lacks serine can help patients having chemotherapy, but first we need to test the diet in healthy volunteers. This year we hope to find out if it’s possible to reduce the amount of serine circulating in the body by putting someone on a special diet, as it is in mice. We’ll also be running more experiments with mice to see if this restricted diet has any unexpected impact on the rest of the body, particularly the immune system.   

Beyond my work I’m really excited about what we’ll learn about immunotherapy in 2019. The idea that we can reactivate the body’s ability to detect and kill cancer cells using these new treatments has been a game changer in recent years. But while it’s had astonishing results for some people, others don’t respond at all. So as well as looking to develop new approaches, I hope the next few years will bring a deeper understanding of why only some patients’ cancers respond to this type of treatment.   

Finally, there’s a lot to look forward to at Cancer Research UK. I’m particularly excited by some of the ambitious initiatives that are being set up at the moment. We’re bringing together talented people from around the world and from lots of different areas of science to tackle some of the big questions in cancer research. And that opens up some hugely exciting possibilities. 

We’ll be updating this post throughout the week. Tomorrow, Professor Karl Peggs, a clinician and researcher at University College London, shares what to look out for in immunotherapy in 2019.

Gabi, Katie & Ethan

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog http://bit.ly/2BUby0L