Professor Paul Workman, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, visited the prestigious university town of Boston this week with Mayor of London Boris Johnson to promote the capital as a world-leading centre for life sciences.
The visit focused on promoting trade links and attracting inward investment from American companies into London.
Professor Workman was part of a MedCity delegation, representing prominent research institutions and universities across London, and was flying the flag for the life sciences sector in London and the wider south east.
During the visit Mayor Boris Johnson announced two investments from leading US companies, Gilead and Mobiquity. The deals build on previous announcements from Merck and Pfizer about new investment in London, and are designed to support greater access to innovative medicines across London and the south east.
The Boston visit also sought to enhance collaborations in life sciences between London and American universities. Mayor Boris Johnson emphasised the similarities between London, and cities like Boston and New York, and the opportunities to partner for mutual benefit.
While poor weather affected plans to visit Harvard University, the Mayor hopes that London can build on existing ties between researchers at the prestigious University and London institutions, including studies with scientists at the ICR.
Professor Ros Eeles and her team at the ICR, in collaboration with colleagues at Harvard, identified 23 new genetic variants associated with increased risk of prostate cancer. The study looked at the genomes of nearly 90,000 men of European, African, Japanese and Latino ancestry to identify prostate cancer risk variants.
Professor Janet Shipley, along with colleagues at Harvard University and the University of Aberdeen, identified a protein called Yap which appears to trigger the development of a rare childhood muscle cancer called rhabadomyosarcoma.
And a team led by Dr Louis Chesler at the ICR and The Royal Marsden, and scientists from Harvard University, found a way to overcome resistance to the cancer drug crizotinib in a type of childhood cancer called neuroblastoma.
As part of the MedCity delegation, Professor Workman visited MIT and attended a dinner with high-level executives from life-sciences industries.
Professor Workman met with Fiona Murray, Associate Dean of Innovation at MIT, to discuss its Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program and to find out how Boston acquired its status as the top city of the global innovation economy.
The MedCity delegation hopes the visit will lead to new opportunities for exciting and innovative research partnerships, as well as investment from US companies.
Professor Paul Workman, Chief Executive of the ICR, said: “Boston is renowned as the richest life sciences ecosystem in the world and is the yardstick against which other regions competing to be global life sciences players measure their success, but London is a vibrant, exciting and unique market offering opportunities that cannot be found anywhere else.
“Institutions like the ICR are leading the way in bench-to-bedside research to move innovations rapidly to patients. The US and the UK may have very different health systems but the challenges we face are similar, and we could tackle them far more effectively by working together. I’m keen that this visit can be successful in not only driving investment from the US, but identifying problems that we can collaborate to beat.”