CRUK Convergence Science Centre

Congratulations to our 2025 Development Fund awardees! 🎉

From new detection tools to targeted nanotech therapies, these seed funded projects explore bold ideas to improve cancer diagnosis & treatment.
👉 bit.ly/4gV38tf

@icr.ac.uk @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social @imperialsandc.bsky.social

A study led by our Scientific Director Prof Axel Behrens, found that blocking protein SPP1 can boost survival & stop the spread of #PancreaticCancer in mice. A breakthrough that could pave the way for new targeted treatments.
👉 bit.ly/4gTvG6q
@icr.ac.uk @imperialsandc.bsky.social @nature.com

🎤Prof @trevorgraham.bsky.social (@cec-icr.bsky.social)
Tracking cancer evolution at clinical scale with fluctuating methylation

🎤Dr Rachael Barry (Imperial)
Targeting Hydrolytic Enzymes in Colorectal Cancer

Chair: Prof Anguraj Sadanandam, ICR Systems & Precision Cancer Medicine Group Leader

Is it possible to predict the trajectory of cancer and prevent progression? 🤔 Find out how #ConvergenceScience can answer this at our upcoming #ConvergingOnCancer seminar for colleagues across the @icr.ac.uk and @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social

📅 Thurs 2nd Oct 2025
⌚ 3-4pm BST
✍️ bit.ly/4pIObhS

🔬 Discoveries in #CancerResearch are stronger when shaped with the people who have experienced #Cancer. Find out why #PPIE matters, how it benefits researchers, and where to get support 👉 bit.ly/41TGN9b   

#BetterResearchTogether #ResearchSupport

We support the development of new technologies that enable long-term monitoring and prediction of cancer treatment response. Using #ConvergenceScience, a recent study from The ICR and @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social demonstrates how a new type of test can achieve this in lymphoid cancers. 👇

📢 We're #hiring a Health Economist to lead early-stage health economic modelling and health technology assessment (HTA) for cutting-edge oncology innovations. 💻 💊

Find out more and share with your networks 👇
jobs.icr.ac.uk/vacancies/13...

#ConvergenceScience #Economics #Cancer

Talks include:
🧫 Asst Prof Andrea Pavesi (Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, NTU) - Exploring and Exploiting the Tumour Microenvironment through Human Microphysiological Systems

🎯 Dr Sam Au (@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social) - Avidity to Avigen, Engineering a Microfluidic Immunotherapy Startup

🔬 #ConvergingOnCancer: International Online Seminar

Join us to hear how #bioengineering is being used in immuno-oncology research.

🗓 Thursday 4th Sept 2025
🕙 10–11am BST | 11–12 CEST | 5–6pm SGT
🔗 bit.ly/3UtfT3O

📣 Promising new drug combination for #OvarianCancer which led to accelerated FDA approval.

Results from the Phase 1 FRAME trial, led by the Drug Development Unit across @icr.ac.uk and @royalmarsden.orga, were recently published in @natmed.nature.com

Find out more 👉 bit.ly/4lW6k9A

🚨 New cross-institutional study from researchers at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social, @icr.ac.uk & @cruk-mi.bsky.social use microfluidic “vessel-on-chip” technology to reveal how circulating tumour cells release “shearosomes” and promote metastasis.

👉 bit.ly/3Ib6paq

#Cancer #ConvergenceScience

Talks include:
🔎Prof. Franz Schilling (@schillinglab.bsky.social‬, @tum.de‬) – Advanced MRI methods to visualize cellular metabolism & function.

🧬Dr Max Douglas (@icr.ac.uk‬) – Telomere-bound shelterin complex as a molecular switch to inhibit NHEJ.

Chaired by Prof. Kristijan Ramadan (NTU).

🔬 Converging On Cancer: International Online Seminar

Join us for a unique opportunity to learn how convergence science, from molecular imaging to DNA repair, is advancing our understanding of cancer biology.

🗓 Thurs 3 July
🕙 10–11am BST (11–12 CEST, 5–6pm SGT)
🔗 Register to join bit.ly/44tB8bf

🧫Our #organoid facility supports @icr.ac.uk & @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social researchers with training & expert help. Even non-lab scientists, like surgical trainee Caoimhe Walsh, are using it to explore new tools for #cancer diagnosis
🔗 bit.ly/4leguSe
@hannagroupicl.bsky.social
#CancerResearch

🎉 Thank you to everyone involved, we couldn't have done it without our collaborators at @icr.ac.uk‬, the input from our researchers and our fantastic volunteers who helped make each activity engaging and accessible

Read the full highlights 👉 bit.ly/3I3PtCs

Through hands-on activities and interactive demonstrations, we demonstrated how technologies - from soft robotics to #AI and mobile apps - are being developed to make cancer treatment more supportive, kinder and help empower patients along their treatment journey. 🤖 📱 🤝

🌟 Catch up on the highlights from the #GreatExhibitionRoadFestival 2025 where we welcomed over 600 visitors to our “Patient Power: Innovating Cancer Technologies" stand in the Future Medicines Zone. 💊

#ExRdFest #CancerResearch #PublicEngagement #AIInHealthcare

📢 We're recruiting an Analytical Scientist in Computational Genomics to develop computational approaches for investigating genomic and transcriptomic determinants in treatment resistant breast cancers 💻 🧬

Find out more and share with your networks 👉 bit.ly/4jYdsAu

Using the Centre's Microfab Facility a team led by Dr Sam Au at Imperial have launched a company, Avigen, to help accelerate the development of immunotherapies by assessing the binding strength of potential #immunotherapy cells and identifying which ones are more likely to succeed.
👉 bit.ly/4n4tbAA

We're at the Great Exhibition Road Festival this weekend! Come find us in the Future Medicine zone and try out our activities focussed on how technology can make overall #cancer care better for patients 👇
@icr.ac.uk

Join us for our next #ConvergingOnCancer seminar where we'll explore these topics with:

➡️Prof @doryenbubeck.bsky.social‬ (@imperialsci.bsky.social‬)
➡️Dr @claudioalfieri.bsky.social‬ (@icr.ac.uk‬ )

📅 Thursday 5th June, 3-4pm
🖱️ For more information and how to register: bit.ly/3Z80SqS

At the intersection of molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics, structural biology reveals the 3D structures of biological molecules. But what insights can it offer into complex mechanisms such as the immune response and cell cycle regulation?
#ConvergingOnCancer #Cancer #ConvergenceScience

GERF is free and open to all, just register below. Visit our stand to try a soft robotic device that aims to reduce treatment anxiety by simulating the feeling of a comforting hand to hold 🙏, share your views on a health app 📱 and play a jigsaw game about AI and diagnosing cancer. 🧩 bit.ly/43ANBbs

The Great Exhibition Road Festival is a celebration of science and arts with a range of activities for all ages. Find us in the Future Medicine zone on 7th and 8th June where we’ll be focussing on technologies that are patient centric and help to improve the overall cancer journey. 🧬 🎨 🤖 @icr.ac.uk‬

Thank you to all supporters who helped make this possible 🙏

@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
@icr.ac.uk
@oxprimarycare.bsky.social
@qmbci.bsky.social ‪

YouTube video by CRUK Convergence Science Centre Accelerating Pancreatic Cancer Test Adoption: A Multi-Stakeholder Call to Action

Early diagnosis improves patient outcomes but getting new #cancer tests into a GP setting is slow. Our Catalyst Team uses a breadth of expertise to accelerate innovations into clinical practice. Watch our short film with @pancreaticcanuk.bsky.social calling for action. 🎬

youtu.be/VXgzgRLu5BU?...

4 people sat round a table, 3 students listening to the one patient representative talking

3 people sat round a table with their laptops. One student is writing something down as the others look with interest.

2 students and a patient rep smiling

A man giving a presentation with a picture of a car and a manual on the slide.

Thank you to our students for their presentations and openness to feedback🙌, Kelly Gleason for her support in shaping the session 💡, Nicholas Crump for his engaging talk 👏 and to the patients who gave their time and insights so generously - making the session truly meaningful. 🙏

We held a #PatientEngagement workshop to help our students grow into confident, clear, and compassionate science communicators. Students met with patients who shared thoughtful perspectives and it was a powerful reminder of the importance of involving patients at every stage of the research journey.

Immunotherapies have great promise but not all patients respond well. Read how a team of researchers at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social are using #MachineLearning to predict immunotherapy treatment outcomes in #LiverCancer 👇

www.convergencesciencecentre.ac.uk/news-events/...

Register for our international #ConvergingOnCancer seminar where we'll explore these topics with Assoc Prof Torsten Wuestefeld #NTU and Dr Jorge Bernardino de la Serna @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social. Chaired by Dr Ursula Ehmer @tumunich.bsky.social

📅Thursday 8th May, 10-11am BST
🖱️ bit.ly/3Se4JP6