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We’re delighted to announce the latest awardees of our 2025 Development Fund, a seed funding scheme that supports researchers to generate preliminary data and accelerate the adoption of innovative approaches in clinical practice and research.
This year’s call centred on the integration of Precision Medicine, Convergence Therapies, and Therapy Monitoring. At the heart of this theme is a vision: that every new diagnostic tool should help guide treatment decisions, and every treatment should be paired with a way to monitor its response
At the heart of all the research we support is a single goal: improving the lives of people affected by cancer. Embedding patient perspectives into cancer research strengthens the science at every stage, from early discovery through to clinical application.
To ensure this remains central, we invited a diverse panel of representatives with lived experience of different cancer types to share their perspectives on a shortlist of project proposals. The panel reviewed and scored the lay summaries and PPIE plans, and also discussed each proposal in depth, offering insights on potential patient impact and constructive feedback to help applicants strengthen their submissions. This input was shared with both the applicants and the Research Subcommittee, who drew on it in making their final funding decisions.
We are deeply grateful to our panel of representatives for their time and contributions, which help shape the research we support and ensure it remains relevant to those with lived experience.
Five projects were selected by our Research Subcommittee for their innovation, potential patient impact, focus on convergence science, and use of cross-institutional expertise. Together, they span a wide range of approaches, from advancing detection technologies to enable earlier diagnosis and more accurate prediction of treatment outcomes to applying nanotechnology to target treatment delivery more precisely and control the tumour microbiome, and to developing new tools for studying metastasis with reduced reliance on animal models.
Dr Sylvain Ladame, Prof Nicholas Turner, Marc Soler, Dr Ahmad Kenaan, Dr Paramvir Sawhney, Dr Isaac Garcia-Murillas
Cancer cells release their DNA into the bloodstream. This circulating cancer DNA can be detected with a type of blood test known as a liquid biopsy. Analysing the mutations within these liquid biopsies can help doctors choose the best treatments for patients, based on their specific mutations.
Cancer cells can also develop additional differences overtime, impacting the cell’s ability to interpret DNA instructions. For example, these differences may cause the cell to ignore ‘stop’ signals or hyper-activate a ‘go’ signal, leading to cancer growth. This area of research is known as cancer epigenetics and has big impacts on how well a person may respond to certain treatments.
Current liquid biopsy technology is not very effective at analysing epigenetic characteristics of cancer DNA. This project aims to improve liquid biopsy technology, so it is better able to assess the epigenetics of cancer and through this better answer both why and when specific cancer treatments eventually fail. This research should enable future developments of cutting-edge blood tests and personalised treatments which may help cancer patients live longer.
Prof Darryl Overby, Prof Victoria Sanz-Moreno, Eva Zeringa, Dr Larry O’Connell
Metastasis is the spread of cancer through the body and is responsible for 90% of cancer deaths. It begins when cancer cells enter blood vessels at the original tumour site, travel through the bloodstream, and cross the blood vessel wall to invade organs like the liver, lungs, or brain. Despite its impact, the early steps of this process remain poorly understood, making it hard to develop effective treatments.
Researchers typically study metastasis in mice, but these models are complex and require many animals. An alternative approach is to use thin slices of tissue from mice or human patients. However, current methods of studying tissue slices often don’t reflect what happens in the body. For example, when cancer cells settle atop a tissue slice, they can easily migrate through the exposed cut surface. This differs from natural metastasis where cancer cells must first pass through blood vessels and cross the vessel wall before invading a new organ.
To overcome this challenge, this project aims to develop a device that restores flow through blood vessels already present within tissue slices, mimicking the natural pathway through which circulating tumour cells invade new tissues while allowing scientists to visualise the process under a microscope.
This technology offers several key advantages. It enables unprecedented visualisation and detailed study of the critical early stages of cancer spread in living tissues without requiring difficult surgical techniques that can raise animal welfare concerns. While initial studies will use animal tissues, human tissues left over from surgery or transplant procedures could be used in the future. The technology will also provide a powerful new tool for testing potential anti-metastatic drugs.
Dr Periklis Pantazis, Prof Udai Banerji, Dr Larry O’Connell
Detecting cancer early can save lives, but current tests often struggle to find the tiny amounts of biomarkers in the body that signal cancer’s presence. This project aims to improve early detection by enhancing a technique called Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), which can already spot certain cancer biomarkers quickly and without the need for special dyes or labels. However, SPR isn’t sensitive enough to pick up very low levels of markers like circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), which are key for catching cancer in its earliest, most treatable stages.
By bringing together expertise in bioengineering, optical physics and oncology, the research team aim to integrate SPR with novel nanoprobes called bioharmonophores that boost light signals and therefore enhance the sensitivity and enable the detection of multiple biomarkers at once, offering a more comprehensive diagnostic tool.
Ultimately, this innovation has the potential to transform cancer care by offering faster, more accurate and cost-effective diagnostic solutions. Patients could benefit from earlier diagnosis, personalised treatment plans and improved monitoring of disease progression. Importantly, the platform’s affordability and simplicity mean it could be widely adopted in clinical settings, making cutting-edge diagnostics more accessible across diverse healthcare environments.
Dr Robert Kypta, Prof Alexandra Porter, Prof Fang Xie, Prof Rakesh Heer, Shaobai Wang
This project will use tiny tube-like structures, called nanotubes, armed with an antibody to recognise metastatic prostate cancer cells. These antibodies will help the nanotubes attach to these metastatic cells and stop them spreading to other locations in the body, such as the bone. Using a variety of chemistry techniques, the researchers will explore how the nanotubes can also be loaded with drugs that stop cancer cells growing, to target both the spread and growth of advanced prostate cancer.
By the end of the project, the researchers hope to show that these nanotubes can target prostate cancer cells and deliver a medicine without affecting non-cancerous cell to effectively treat advanced prostate cancer.
Dr Jang Ah Kim, Prof Anguraj Sadanandam, Dr James Kinross, Seungyeop Kang, Chaewon Han
Cancer treatments have improved significantly in recent years, particularly with immunotherapy, which helps our body’s own immune system fight cancer. However, not all patients respond to these treatments. One reason may be bacteria living inside tumours, which can affect how well treatments work.
Right now, there is no safe and precise way to control these bacteria inside the body. Existing approaches often rely on genetic modification or antibiotics, which can be unpredictable, unsafe, or ineffective in a complex tumour environment.
This project will explore a new way to influence tumour-associated bacteria using tiny, light-driven tools called microrobotic swarms. These tools use heat or movement to change bacterial behaviour such as how they move or affect the immune system.
The research team aims to use these tools to understand how bacteria inside tumours might shape immune responses, and how this could help make cancer treatments more effective.
If successful, this research could help unlock a new type of immunotherapy that works by reprogramming the bacteria inside tumours – offering patients safer, smarter options that work in harmony with their own immune systems.
These projects mark an important step in exploring how convergence science can bring fresh ideas into cancer research and clinical practice. While early-stage by design, the seed funding programme provides researchers with the opportunity to test new approaches and generate the insights needed to shape larger studies. As the work progresses, it has the potential to pave the way for future innovations that could ultimately benefit patients.
More information about these projects and previous Development Fund awardees can be found here.