Tales from the Lab

Dr Catherine Huntley explores the clinical potential of cancer risk scores in this piece shortlisted for the 2022 Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize.

Dr Matt Clarke presents a case for the need to have difficult conversations with families about post-mortems to inform future medical advances in this winning piece of the 2022 Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize.

Dr Vivian Dimou uses a terrarium as a metaphor to describe the cancer ecosystem in this piece shortlisted for the 2022 Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize.

For National Pathology Week, Dr Matthew Clarke from our Glioma team, and a trainee neuropathologist, shares his experiences of visiting and learning from colleagues at the renowned St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the US.

Dr James Wright covers the evolving field of proteogenomics and its future for targeted cancer therapies in this piece shortlisted for the 2021 Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize.

Dr Vivian Dimou explores the 'immunoverse' – the interplay between immune cells and their surrounding tissue environment – in this piece shortlisted for the 2021 Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize.

Jorge Almagro Santiago draws together differing perspectives on organoid science in this piece which won the 2021 Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize.

Nivedita Ravindran examines cutting edge digital pathology in this shortlisted entry for the 2020 Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize. Nivedita is a Higher Scientific Officer in the Division of Breast Cancer Research at the Institute of Cancer Research.

Dr Vivian Dimou explores the importance and success of collaboration in research in this piece shortlisted for the 2020 Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize. Vivian is a postdoctoral training fellow in the Division of Cancer Therapeutics.

The winner of the Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize for 2020, Dr Arnaud Legrand, explores the life and death of cells in this piece on the theme of 'Barriers and Breakthroughs' in cancer research. Arnaud is a post doctoral fellow in the Division of Breast Cancer Research at the Institute of Cancer Research, London.

To mark Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Diana Martins Carvalho, a post-doctoral training fellow in our Glioma Team, reflects on the vital support of families who generously donate tissue samples and funds, without which her research into childhood brain tumours would not be possible.

The winning entry in our 2019 Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize is by Dr Maxine Lam. Her thoughtful post shares her own personal experience with colorectal cancer following her father's diagnosis, and examines the reasons why it is so often picked up late.

This highly commended entry for the Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize is by PhD student Nithya Paranthaman. She discusses tumour organoids: lab-grown mini-tumours that mimic cancers in a patient's body. These tumours-in-a-dish could be used to screen drug combinations and tailor treatments to each patient.

The third runner-up for the Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize is Dr Samantha Nimalasena with a piece which discusses how our sleeping habits or lack thereof may be affecting our health.

PhD student Varun Ramawamy, runner-up for the Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize muses on the search for a cancer 'cure' in the second post of this five part series.

In the first of five blog posts by the winner and runners-up of the Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize, Dr Amit Samani, runner-up, follows cancer research through the last 50 years to the new challenges today.

Fiona Want is a second-year PhD student in our Division of Cancer Therapeutics. She is working to understand APOBEC proteins, and help develop what ICR researchers believe will be the world’s first family of drugs to target cancer’s ability to evolve and become resistant to treatment. Fiona will be moving along with her team into the ICR’s new Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery next year, working alongside drug discovery researchers and evolutionary scientists to focus on meeting the pressing challenge of cancer evolution and drug resistance.

Dr Sally George, a Clinical Research Fellow in the Paediatric Solid Tumour Biology and Therapeutics Team, explains why we are calling for genetic testing to personalise treatment for all children with cancer.

Joshua Freedman is a third-year PhD student in our Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging. In this blog post, he describes his research to help develop new approaches to support treatment planning and guidance on the MR Linac, a revolutionary new type of radiotherapy machine which is currently being applied for the first time in the UK on patients.

The winner of the Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize 2018, recently graduated PhD student Alice King, looks at whether there is any scientific basis behind media headlines about the causes of cancer.

Hannah Brewer, a PhD student in the Division of Genetics and Epidemiology and runner-up in the Science Writing Prize 2018, shares the story of her mother's cancer diagnosis.

In the second of our series of blog posts by the winner and runners-up of the Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize 2018, Dr Maxine Lam discusses how diet affects cancer.

In the first of four blog posts by the winner and runners-up of the Mel Greaves Science Writing Prize 2018, Dr Samantha Nimalasena, runner-up, writes about how our own microbiomes and immune systems can be used to tackle cancer.

During this year's Teaching Week, Dr Sumeet Hindocha, an MSc student in Oncology and an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Clinical Oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research, introduces some of the benefits and challenges of training simultaneously in a clinical and research environment.

Photoacoustic imaging is an emergent technology that uses a mixture of light and sound to generate images. PhD student Dr Márcia Costa, from the ICR’s Department of Radiotherapy and Imaging, gives an introduction to this exciting technology – and to our work to develop it for use in cancer treatment.