In this episode of Joining the Dots we explore the Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration group and their approach to developing new technologies for hard-to-treat cancers. 

The EPSRC Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC) in Targeted Delivery for Hard-to-Treat Cancers aims to develop new technologies to effectively deliver drugs for the treatment of three hard-to-treat cancers: in the pancreas, brain, and chest.

The guests for this podcast are two of the IRC investigators: Professor Colin Watts, Chair and Professor of Neurosurgery at the Brain Cancer Programme at the University of Birmingham, and Dr Ronan Daly, Associate Professor in the Science and Technology of Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing.

Listen on to hear Colin and Ronan talk about how manufacturing research is helping to overcome the challenges of delivering effective cancer treatments and the opportunities to use the same technologies for other diseases or conditions.

The overarching aim of the IRC is to develop and validate high-capacity vehicles, injectable gels, and implantable devices to better target hard-to-treat cancers, enhancing treatment efficacy by increasing the rate and extent of drug activity at the tumour site. The programme has been designed to facilitate effective translation from the laboratory to the clinic by incorporating cross-cutting validation and manufacturing themes across all the technologies.

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Professor Colin Watts
Professor of Neurosurgery, Chair Birmingham Brain Cancer Programme, University of Birmingham
Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon, University Hospitals Birmingham 

Colin leads the newly established Brain Cancer Programme at the University of Birmingham. His research aims to improve the treatment and survival of patients with glioma by understanding the molecular genetic heterogeneity of individual tumours and using that data to develop novel molecular and functional stratification suitable for application in clinical trials. His clinical practice specializes in neurosurgical oncology with a particular interest in intrinsic gliomas and cerebral metastases.

Dr Ronan Daly
Associate Professor, Science and Technology of Manufacturing, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge

Ronan is a Course Director for the Manufacturing Engineering course, where students learn about manufacturing technologies and manufacturing management. He previously worked in Unilever R&D before completing a PhD in Chemistry from the School of Chemistry and Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices at Trinity College Dublin. He leads the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing research group at the IfM, which tackles fluid flow and functional material challenges to enable scale-up of advanced manufacturing technologies.

Targeting hard-to-treat cancers, with EPSRC's Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration

for six players and electronics (2023). 

commissioned by Southbank Sinfonia and premiered in Anghiari, Italy in July 2023.

flute: Ellie Blamires
clarinet: Raymond Brien
bassoon: Hollie Redshaw
violin: Naomi Warburton
viola: Wanshu Qiu
cello: Miki Piszczorowicz

I was thinking about euphoria in pop music, that simple, single-minded ecstatic feeling you get from so many love songs. I found some vocal samples I liked and slowed them down and looped them, imagining each one as a kind of sculpture, gently rotating round and round in a neutral, dream-like space. Still euphoric, but frozen like TV static, repeating obsessively like prayer ritual.

1. I STILL FEEL
2. YOU'RE ALL I NEED
3. DON'T RUN FROM ALL THE THINGS YOU FEAR
4. THINKIN' ABOUT YOU, I'M THINKIN' ABOUT YOU
5. WE AIN'T GOT NO PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS, YEAH. I LET 'EM GO
6. TELL ME I'M YOURS
7. AH, JUST DON'T WALK AWAY
8. I DON'T WANNA LOVE YOU BUT I CAN'T SAY NO
9. I WANNA BE WITH YOU
10. YOU TOLD ME YOU WOULD NEVER, EVER FADE AWAY

BREAK-UP MANTRAS

In this special episode of our podcast, we bring you a recording of a live 'Ask Me Anything (AMA)' event held by our Pancreatic Cancer Programme for World Pancreatic Cancer Day on 16 November 2023. The AMA webinar saw specialists from across different disciplines answering questions submitted by members of the public and discussing topics related to day-by-day living with pancreatic cancer.

In alphabetical order, the AMA panel consisted of:

Dr Bristi Basu, an Academic Consultant in Medical Oncology specialising in experimental cancer therapeutics at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and the clinical co-lead of the CRUK Cambridge Centre Pancreatic Cancer Programme.

Yvonne Cartwright, a Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Paulo Fidalgo, a Gastroenterologist at the Digestive Unit of the Champalimaud Clinical Centre in Portugal, and head of their Risk Assessment and Early Diagnosis Programme.

Kirsty Hoare, a Cancer Support Specialist at Maggie's.

Dr Asif Jah, a Consultant Surgeon in hepato-pancreatico-biliary (HPB) and transplant surgery at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Clinical Lead of the Department of HPB Surgery and Associate Lecturer at the University of Cambridge.

Jeni Jones, a Pancreatic Cancer Specialist Nurse at Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Laura McGeeney, a Pancreatic Cancer Specialist Dietician at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Sally Pascall, a 13-year survivor of pancreatic cancer, and one of our patient representatives who advises the Pancreatic Cancer Programme on issues that are relevant to patients.

Abigail Redman, an HPB Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Ask me anything about… day-by-day living with pancreatic cancer

Performed by City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in January 2023, conducted by Clark Rundell.

programme note:

egress – to go out of or leave a place. A strategy of exit.

Writing music often feels like an exercise in learning how to escape a trap I’ve set for myself, like creating a little world with certain rules that have to be broken in order to progress. Sometimes I imagine that it’s not me doing this but the music itself, like an autonomous AI thing scanning random bits of music in real time, trying to understand itself. As if programmed by a machine, the orchestra starts and stops, switches material, gets things wrong, tries them again – always manically searching for some kind of logical thread, a way forward and out, an egress.

Egress

for six players, electronics & video (2023)

video: https://youtu.be/4h4dmdcHO2I

Commissioned by Stomping Ground and performed in London in September 2023.

Kate Ryder - Toy Piano 1
Ben Nobuto - Violin
Maya-Leigh Rosenwasser - Glockenspiel
David Nunn - Keyboard
Clara Daly Donnellan - Melodica, Toy Piano 2
Pia Rose Scattergood - Toy Piano 3, Singing Bowl

https://bennobuto.com/love-games

LOVE GAMES

for alto saxophone, bass clarinet & piano (2023)

Lucy Havelock - Saxophone
Hannah Shilvock - Bass Clarinet
Ben Nobuto - Piano

JOY REPLICA

Joining the dots to turn ideas at the interface between medicine and technology into reality.

Targeting hard-to-treat cancers, with EPSRC's Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration

Connect: Health Tech

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