MCRC Director’s Update – March 2025

Manchester Cancer Research Centre shared a post on LinkedIn:

“MCRC Director’s Update – March 2025

‘Hello, I hope everyone has had a productive month. March at the MCRC has been filled with many accolades, events and conferences.

I was delighted to welcome our new Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine, and Health Dean – Professor Ashley Blom – to the MCRC earlier this month. We described the vision and ambition for international excellence in cancer research across the three MCRC partners when Ashley visited the Christie Cancer Campus.

Radiotherapy Research Showcase

On the 19th of March, I was delighted to join the Radiotherapy Research Showcase biannual event, showcasing research from across our three major radiotherapy research programmes: Cancer Research UK RadNet Manchester, the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre and the Cancer Research UK Manchester Centre.

It was a fantastic opportunity to meet PhD students and post-docs and connect with other academic researchers. We heard about the latest innovations in radiotherapy research in the fields of proton beam therapy, the effects of hypoxia and immunobiology and discovery approaches using real-world data to inform treatment options.

We clearly are a powerhouse in radiotherapy research and look forward to next 2-3 years in our synergistic research funding streams.

Prostate Cancer Collaborations

At the start of the month, alongside Dr. Ashwin Sachdeva and Prof. Noel Clarke, I travelled to Belfast to discuss future plans within our joint Belfast-Manchester Prostate Cancer Centre of Excellence, FASTMAN.

We had a very productive meeting with the Belfast team and presented results of PCUK-funded clinical trials, new models for hormone therapy resistance and hereditary cancer, radiomics and imaging of the tumour microenvironment and as novel prognostic factors. Coming out of the meeting was an excellent commonality and collegiality for future joint grant application.

I was delighted to welcome Dr. Mitchell Lawrence, who heads a pre-clinical experimental programme at the Biomedical Discovery Institute at Monash University in Melbourne, who gave a lecture entitled: ‘Heresy in cancer biology: The highs and lows of treating prostate cancer with testosterone’. It was an excellent visit to cross-talk the build of joint much-needed models of localised prostate cancer.

In other developments from the MCRC

Congratulations to the STAMPEDE team who on the 20th March won the established investigator NIHR Impact Prize. This award recognises their multi arm platform trial to assess 10 different treatment approaches in men with advanced prostate cancer, leading to improvements in survival.

Congratulations to Professor David French who has been appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator and Professor Peter Hoskin who has been re-appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator. Read more about their awards on the MCRC website.

Congratulations also to Simon Reeds, MCRC Outreach and EDI Manager, who has been shortlisted for a University of Manchester Making a Difference Award 2025 for ‘Increasing inclusivity and access to cancer research’ in the Outstanding Professional Services for Social Responsibility category.

Simon’s work has provided a step-change in our research engagement activities from his management of events and seminars to events that connect communities with researchers. We keep our fingers crossed for Simon and await the outcome in May.

On the topic of outreach and engagement, the MCRC and CRUK MI had an excellent presence at the Manchester Museum as part of British Science Week. We were delighted to be joined by many of our researchers inspiring the next generation to pursue careers in science and research.

I hope everyone has an incredible April, and I look forward to updating you all at the end of next month.’

Robert Bristow

• Director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre
• Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Centre.”