Wednesday 20 July 2011
Cancer Research UK has awarded Dr Claus Jorgensen from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) a prestigious award as part of a series of grants given to new investigators who are set to become the eminent cancer scientists of the future.
The charity has awarded £12 million to 10 exceptional researchers from across the country to develop their careers and to aid exciting discoveries that will help more people beat cancer than ever before.
Dr Jorgensen, who is based at the ICR’s Chester Beatty Laboratories in Fulham Road, Chelsea, will receive a five-year Career Establishment Award totalling around £700,000.
Career Establishment Awards were launched by Cancer Research UK three years ago. These awards allow up-and-coming university lecturers to start a world-leading research group.
Dr Jorgensen will use the award to investigate how communication signals between neighbouring cells, which normally ensure the tissue functions properly, are hijacked in pancreatic cancers leading to tumour growth and spread.
Dr Jorgensen said: “I am very grateful to receive this award and excited to undertake this research project with Cancer Research UK as a partner. The award is very important to me as it provides generous long-term support which will allow me to establish my laboratory.”
Dr David Scott, Cancer Research UK’s director of science funding, said: “Having 10 awards available sends out the important message that Cancer Research UK is serious about supporting new scientists at the start of their careers.”
Professor Margaret Frame is chair of the panel of world-renowned cancer experts that helped to select these scientists and science director at the Edinburgh Cancer Research UK Centre. She said: “It was highly competitive and we ended up with an excellent set of individuals. Now Cancer Research UK will nurture their talent and their passion for cancer research.
“I am always amazed by the breadth of wonderful new innovation and ideas that I see at these interviews. The funding from Cancer Research UK will give these ten scientists the time and resources to take on challenging problems in cancer. It will be exciting to see what comes out of these projects over the next few years. I look forward to watching them develop their own independent careers and join the next generation of cancer research leaders in the UK and internationally.”
Cancer survival rates have doubled since the 1970s and Cancer Research UK’s work has been at the heart of that progress.
In 2009-10, the charity spent £146 million on research in London alone.
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For media enquiries, please contact Lynn Daly, Regional Press Manager, Cancer Research UK, on 07766 070705 or Rachel Gonzaga in the Cancer Research UK press office on 020 3469 8252 or out of hours on 07050 264 059.
Notes to editors:
For more information on the grants visit:
www.cancerresearchuk.org/new-investigator-awards
Career Establishment Awards http://science.cancerresearchuk.org/funding/find-grant/all-funding-schemes/career-establishment-award
Career Development Fellowship http://science.cancerresearchuk.org/funding/find-grant/all-funding-schemes/career-development-fellowship
Senior Cancer Research Fellowship http://science.cancerresearchuk.org/funding/find-grant/all-funding-schemes/senior-cancer-research-fellowship
About Cancer Research UK
- Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research
- The charity’s groundbreaking work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives. This work is funded entirely by the public.
- Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival rates double in the last forty years.
- Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.
- Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to beat cancer.
For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 020 7121 6699 or visit www.cancerresearchuk.org
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)
- The ICR is Europe’s leading cancer research centre
- The ICR has been ranked the UK’s top academic research centre, based on the results of the Higher Education Funding Council’s Research Assessment Exercise
- The ICR works closely with partner The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust to ensure patients immediately benefit from new research. Together the two organisations form the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Europe
- The ICR has charitable status and relies on voluntary income
- As a college of the University of London, the ICR also provides postgraduate higher education of international distinction
- Over its 100-year history, the ICR’s achievements include identifying the potential link between smoking and lung cancer which was subsequently confirmed, discovering that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer and isolating more cancer-related genes than any other organisation in the world
For more information visit www.icr.ac.uk