Cancer Research UK City of London Centre

The Cancer Research UK City of London Centre is a world class hub for cancer biotherapeutics.

The CRUK City of London (CoL) Centre brings together researchers from four of the central London Cancer Research UK centres: UCL, Barts / Queen Mary University of London, King’s College London and The Francis Crick Institute. This unique interdisciplinary and collaborative network will generate novel innovative biological therapies, diagnostics and stratification strategies in addition to providing a clinical and translational pipeline for cancer discovery science.

Biotherapies delivered as part of a multimodal/combinatorial approach have the potential to dramatically change cancer therapy and management. The CRUK City of London Centre’s vision is to be at the forefront of cancer biotherapeutics in the UK and internationally, providing leadership for the wider CRUK Centres network.

The CRUK City of London Centre partners have contributed significantly to the field of intra-tumour heterogeneity and cancer evolution, elaborating its clinical significance and the unique challenges it poses for therapy of a dynamic tumour and its microenvironment. The CRUK City of London Centre will develop innovative biological therapies and diagnostics/stratification strategies working from an evolutionary and immunological perspective. The CoL Centre will explore the interplay between biological and other precision therapies to develop novel, potent and selective therapeutic combination approaches.

The unique research focus of the CRUK City of London Centre is predicated on the view that precision cancer therapy of the future will rely on the utilisation of biological therapies combined or in sequence with targeted small molecule approaches and new classes of spatially targeted and image-guided physical therapies. The work is divided into three programmes:

• Developing biological therapies
• Cross-disciplinary approaches enhancing biotherapeutics
• Cancer evolution and tumour heterogeneity: targeting biotherapies

Central to these three programmes will be two cross-cutting themes:

• A unique focus on childhood cancers
• A multi-disciplinary and collaborative training programme

The development of an integrated portfolio of shared technology core platforms is a central aspect of the CRUK City of London Centre’s strategy. Building on the complementary strengths of the partners, we are developing world-class infrastructure cores to support the CRUK CoL Centre’s scientific programme, deliver a step-change in capacity, and give the best value for money.

To find out more, please visit the CRUK City of London Centre website: www.colcc.co.uk.