Research

Uniquely, we are one of two academic centres in the UK with the ability to undertake research of this type.

In clinical research, strong links exist between clinical staff, both ward and laboratory- based, and basic scientists, which enable fast and effective translation of clinical findings and speeds up the transition of new drugs from ‘bench to bedside’.

Almost all of the research in NICR is officially classified as world-leading or internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour, having most of its evidence assessed as being in the highest categories of 4* and 3* for quality in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

There are 4 interrelated research teams based in NICR:

  • Drug Discovery & Imaging - Hosts one of 4 major CRUK small molecule drug discovery programmes in the UK. The group is unique in the focused application of multimodality preclinical and clinical imaging to facilitate the discovery and development of targeted therapies.
  • Clinical and Translational Group - Provides a strong link between clinical and laboratory studies and undertakes a wide range of early phase clinical trials on novel anti-cancer agents, both initially developed in Newcastle and elsewhere.
  • Solid Tumour Target Discovery - Focuses on tumours originating in the bladder, breast, kidney, ovary, prostate or upper gastrointestinal tract and seek to identify damaged or malfunctioning genes as new targets for therapy.
  • Paediatric Oncology and Haematology - Focuses on improving outcome for patients with haematological malignancies (leukaemia or lymphoma), medulloblastoma or neuroblastoma.

Each research group coordinate their areas of expertise to:

  • Identify the biological and molecular differences between normal and malignant cells
  • Identify and exploit novel anti-cancer drug targets
  • Develop novel drugs with a concept of introducing a more personalised treatment method pre-determined by individual patient disease pathology

It is only by combining our full range of laboratory and clinical disciplines needed to undertake research in contemporary experimental cancer medicine that advances in the development of personalised novel targeted therapies can be achieved.

In order to undertake our research it is essential that we have access to samples from patients with cancer or leukaemia. We store the samples we need in a variety of "Biobanks". Details of these, and similar sample collections held by other research teams in the University, can be found here.

Diagram showing research group relationship

Figure shows organisation of research groups.
Our four research groups work together to develop novel drugs