Dr Andrea Sottoriva, recipient of the Chris Rokos Fellowship in Evolution and Cancer.
A generous gift has provided the driving force behind new research at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, to explore how cancer occurs and why.
Chris Rokos is supporting a new five-year fellowship called the Chris Rokos Fellowship in Evolution and Cancer.
The fellowship has been awarded to Dr Andrea Sottoriva who joins The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) from the University of Southern California to head-up a new team within the ICR’s pioneering new Centre for Evolution and Cancer.
The Centre for Evolution and Cancer applies Charles Darwin’s principles of natural selection within ecosystems in a quest to understand why we develop cancer and why it is so difficult to treat.
Dr Sottoriva will use mathematical and computational modelling techniques coupled with patient genomic data to explore how cancer develops in the body over years, starting from a single cell, and the emergence of resistance to drug therapy. His interdisciplinary team will integrate research tools and concepts from cancer genomics, computational modelling and statistics, within an evolutionary cancer biology perspective.
The Centre for Evolution and Cancer offers a radically different way of thinking about cancer, opening up new opportunities for exploring the fundamentals of cancer, and new avenues for treatment and prevention.
Dr Sottoriva said: “It is truly exciting to be a part of the ICR’s pioneering Centre for Evolution and Cancer and particularly to be taking on the problem of drug resistance, one of the biggest challenges in cancer research.”
The first year of funding has enabled Dr Sottoriva to establish his new research team and research is already underway to gather preliminary data.
If you are interested in making a gift to the ICR to help us advance our research, please contact Lara Jukes, Director of Development on [email protected].