Prestigious award for cancer researchers
18 May 2012 by Evoluted New Media
A multidisciplinary team of researchers which discovered 16 preclinical drug candidates in six years have become the first outside the US to win a prestigious global award for their success.
The team – made up of researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden Hospital – were awarded the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Team Science Award for “the tremendous impact this team has had in preclinical and clinical studies of cancer therapeutics.”
They were recognised for their discovery of 16 innovative drugs over the past six years, and the progression of six of these into Phase I clinical trials. Among these were inhibitors of HSP90, PI3 kinases, protein kinase B/AKT and cyclin-dependent kinases.
“I am proud and honoured to accept this award on behalf of our team at the Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden. The dedicated members of our multidisciplinary team are all individually experts in their respective fields,” said team leader Professor Paul Workman, director of the ICR’s Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit.
“This expertise is really important – but it’s also the very close collaboration between the scientists and doctors in our cancer research institute and partner hospital, as well as industry colleagues, that has really enhanced our ability to translate basic scientific research into new personalised cancer medicines.”
They were also recognised for their work on BRAF and its inhibitors, the identification of inhibitors on CHK1 and Aurora/FLT3, and the discovery and development of abiraterone acetate. This new treatment for advanced prostate cancer – now licensed in the UK and US – was an “outstanding example of how a highly functioning translational team can rapidly translate a biologic hypothesis into a new cancer therapeutic.”
“Overall, the work carried out by this multidisciplinary team over the last six years provides an outstanding example of the non-profit cancer drug discovery and development model that they have pioneered, as well as exemplifying a meritorious ability to collaborate productively with industry to accelerate patient benefit,” said the AACR Award citation.
