Fighting the Big Diseases at AstraZeneca and the Postdoctoral Challenge – with Lotte van Beek and Toby Gurran 

How are young researchers helping AstraZeneca fight complex diseases?  

Rebekah King speaks with Lotte van Beek and Toby Gurran, about what it's like to be a researcher at AstraZeneca, and hears about the postdoctoral challenge, an opportunity which is aimed at young scientists finishing their PhD or MD.  

Find out more about the challenge here: https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2022/astrazeneca-launches-global-rd-postdoctoral-challenge-to-accelerate-scientific-discovery-and-diversity.html 

And find out more about AstraZeneca at the Cambridge Festival: https://www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events?search_api_views_fulltext=astrazeneca

Music by Coby O’Brien
Produced by Rebekah King

AstraZeneca are a key sponsor of the Cambridge Festival.

Fighting the Big Diseases at AstraZeneca - the Postdoc Challenge – Lotte van Beek and Toby Gurran

Ellie Wolmark introduces part three of our Integrated Cancer Medicine: Research in Focus series. In the coming episodes, the net continues to be spread a little wider to include conversations about biosampling, the IMAXT project, the company Cyted, personalised radiotherapy, and much, much more. As always you will hear discussions about research and research collaborations, the techniques that are being developed, and how they translate to the clinic to affect patient treatments and outcomes.

Ellie is Communications Manager for Integrated Cancer Medicine at the University of Cambridge and the CRUK Cambridge Centre.

Integrated Cancer Medicine: Research in Focus

Integrated Cancer Medicine: Research in Focus – Part three introduction

In the first episode of part three, podcast host Ellie Wolmark is joined by Professor Robert Rintoul and Lauren Wallis to talk about biological sampling. They discuss what biosamples and biobanks are, how they are collected and used, and why they are so important for both patient treatment and cancer research.

Robert is Professor of Thoracic Oncology in the Department of Oncology at the University of Cambridge, and Honorary Consultant Respiratory Physician at Royal Papworth Hospital.

Lauren is Translational Research Manager in the Urological Malignancies Programme at the CRUK Cambridge Centre, University of Cambridge.

Biosamples and biobanks

In this week's fascinating episode, Ellie Wolmark is joined by Dr Dario Bressan to discuss how the Cancer Grand Challenges team IMAXT has brought cancer researchers together with astronomers and video game designers to build the world's first virtual reality map of a tumour. By developing this entirely new way to study cancer, team IMAXT could revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of people with the disease.

Dario is Head of the IMAXT Laboratory at the CRUK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge.

Cancer Grand Challenges is a funding initiative co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US.

Virtual reality and cancer research

Dr Marcel Gehrung talks about how his research at the CRUK Cambridge Centre led him to co-found the start-up Cyted with Rebecca Fitzgerald, Professor of Cancer Prevention and Director of the Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Maria O'Donovan, lead pathologist for upper gastrointestinal cancer and diagnostic cytology at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Cyted combines innovative AI-driven diagnostics with a new sample collection method to detect and prevent oesophageal cancer, developed at Cambridge University.

Cyted: Combining AI with non-invasive testing to aid early detection of cancer

In this week's episode, Professor Florian Markowetz talks about his work and recent publication on chromosomal instability. Chromosomal instability is a dynamic process of DNA change, which leads to some DNA being present multiple times and some being lost altogether. Some cancers are dominated by this process of genomic disruption; ovarian, pancreatic and triple-negative breast cancer for example. These chaotic DNA changes mean that there are not good biomarkers present to guide treatment decisions. Florian's laboratory has found a structure underlying chromosomal instability and has identified genomic fingerprints which enable them to read out the fundamental reasons for the DNA changes.

Florian is a group leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Chromosomal instability

In this episode, Professor Charlotte Coles talks about her work on the personalisation of radiation techniques to give patients with cancer the best chance of cure with the least side effects.
 
Charlotte is Professor of Breast Cancer Clinical Oncology and Deputy Head of the Department of Oncology at the University of Cambridge, UK. She is also the Director of CRUK RadNet Cambridge.

Personalised radiotherapy

Leading experts from the Bennett Institute and IAST debate emerging technologies like generative AI tools and the metaverse; why there is so much interest, whether we should be excited or worried, and what are the associated policy implications.

Sam Gilbert Bennett Institute), César Hidalgo (IAST) and Jeni Tennison (Bennett Institute) talk to podcast host Rory Cellan-Jones  (former technology correspondent for the BBC) about the latest developments of emerging forms of technologies, their opportunities and harms, and what policymakers can do to mitigate the associated risks.

This episode unpacks the most recent advancements of generative artificial intelligence and the metaverse, their policy implications, and the role of policymaking and legislation in this sphere. Our guests highlight the need for deliberative and participatory governance structures to facilitate the development and use of new technologies.

Season 2 Episode 8 transcript

Listen to this and other Crossing Channels episodes on your favourite podcast platform.

For more information about the Crossing Channels podcast series and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk and www.iast.fr

Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouse

Audio production by Steve Hankey
Associate production by Stella Erker
Visuals by Thomas Devaud

Are emerging technologies more hype than reality?

In today's episode, Ellie Wolmark is joined by Natalie Ellis, Ellen Nowak and Lauren Gardiner Walton to talk about the development of the Arts Strategy for the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital (CCRH). They also discuss the benefits of the arts in cancer care and in supporting patient treatment and recovery.

If you would like to get involved in the CCRH project by joining any of the groups that Ellen mentions in this episode, further information can be found at: www.cambridgecancer.org.uk/our-community/get-involved

Natalie is Head of Arts at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Ellen is an Arts Programme Manager at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Lauren is a member of the CCRH Environment Design Working Group as well as being Curator of the Cambridge University Herbarium, and was recently treated for cancer.

About CUH Arts:
CUH Arts is Cambridge University Hospitals' arts-in-health programme, dedicated to shaping care through creativity. They strive to promote wellbeing, distract from illness, and improve the hospital experience by providing excellent creative and cultural opportunities for patients, staff, visitors and the wider community. Embedded within one of the world's leading hospital trusts, their diverse, person-centred, multi-disciplinary programme of live, participatory and visual arts is facilitated and managed by an expert team of arts professionals in collaboration with artists and cultural partners.

How the arts can support cancer care

Rory Cellan-Jones talks to Michael Kenny, Louis Baktash, and Mathieu Carpentier about the governance challenges in France and the United Kingdom, the impact of recent political protests, and whether devolution might be the answer to address these challenges.
This podcast examines the constitutional challenges in France and the UK. Leading experts from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge, and Toulouse Capitole University, France, reflect on recent political protests and movements – including protests over Macron’s pension reforms, the gilets jaunes movement, and Brexit – and the impact these have on policy. The guests discuss how the structure of the UK and French government could be reformed, and whether devolution is the adequate response. 

This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones (former technology correspondent for the BBC), and features experts Michael Kenny (Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge), Louis Baktash (Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge), and Mathieu Carpentier (Toulouse Capitole University).

Are countries becoming harder to govern?

What is the future of religion?

Rory Cellan-Jones talks to Iza Hussin and Paul Seabright about recent trends in world religions, the interplay between politics and religion, and the economics of religion.

This episode unpacks the widespread belief that religion is in decline and explores why this view is mistaken. Leading experts discuss the intersection between religion and politics, the rivalry within and between religions, and how wider socioeconomic trends are both impacted by and impacting religious movements. 

This episode is hosted by Rory Cellan-Jones (former technology correspondent for the BBC), and features guest experts Iza Hussin (University of Cambridge) and Paul Seabright (IAST). 

Season 2 Episode 10 transcript

For more information about the podcast and the work of the institutes, visit our websites at https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/ and https://www.iast.fr/.

Tweet us with your thoughts at @BennettInst and @IASToulouse



Audio production by Steve Hankey

Associate production by Stella Erker

Visuals by Tiffany Naylor