̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Office for Translational Research

Cambridge and SAS launch partnership in AI and advanced analytics to accelerate innovation in the healthcare sector

skbf2 — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:41:30 +0000

̽��ֱ��SAS Advanced Analytics Hub will embed SAS experts and its AI platform capabilities into the ̽��ֱ��, enabling targeted collaboration with leading researchers and early-stage entrepreneurs.

Based on the Cambridge West campus, the Hub will have capacity to recruit and support several high-quality, high-impact academic research projects and promising early-stage startups in the health-tech space, providing their innovative ideas with extra momentum.

̽��ֱ��partners have already demonstrated the effectiveness of the collaboration in addressing an important healthcare challenge. A ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge-led project on kidney transplants, PITHIA, developed an AI-based decision support approach using SAS’s dynamic analytics platform. It is being used to automate the process of scoring biopsies for kidneys to better identify those organs that can be used for transplantation. ̽��ֱ��aim is to increase the number of transplants and improve the function of those kidneys used. This has the potential to save lives and transform the quality of life for more than 100 people each year who would otherwise require dialysis, as well as saving the NHS millions of pounds annually.

This collaboration was initiated and led by Dr Alex Samoshkin (Deputy Head, Office for Translational Research, School of Clinical Medicine) who facilitates interactions between clinicians and researchers from the Biomedical Campus with researchers in science and technology working with the Maxwell Centre. Dr Samoshkin said: “In 2018 I supported the PITHIA project led by Prof. Gavin Pettigrew, looking to optimise qualification of kidneys for transplantation, for which SAS turned out to be the perfect industrial partner. We demonstrated that synergy between the ̽��ֱ�� and SAS was instrumental in accelerating the process of transitioning from ideas to the clinic.”

This initial success paved the way for a more ambitious partnership between Cambridge and SAS. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge team visited the SAS headquarters at Cary, NC, USA in June 2023 to discuss collaboration opportunities with the SAS senior leadership team including Dr Jim Goodnight, co-founder and CEO. Today, the SAS Advanced Analytics Hub at the Maxwell Centre begins building a pipeline of new collaborative projects with potential to improve health outcomes for millions of patients around the world.

̽��ֱ��Maxwell Centre Director, Dr Aga Iwasiewicz-Wabnig, commented: “We are excited to interface Cambridge’s world-class research and innovation with SAS’ leading expertise in advanced analytics and AI forming a partnership for societal good. We are starting with a strong focus on healthcare and will build momentum to support future interdisciplinary projects on sustainability and social equality.”

Roderick Crawford, Senior Vice President, SAS Northern Europe, commented: “There are many examples we’re seeing of how AI can have a truly transformational effect, not just on businesses, but in areas such as healthcare and society as a whole. We’re delighted to deepen our relationship with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge through this partnership, and there is enormous potential when you consider the additional expertise our partners, such as Microsoft, and customers, such as AstraZeneca, can provide.”

̽��ֱ��Maxwell Centre at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and SAS, leaders in data and AI, are launching a partnership aimed at accelerating healthcare innovation through enhanced access to advanced analytics.

Maxwell Centre, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

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Training a new breed of clinical triallist

skbf2 — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 11:48:27 +0000

Cambridge's Experimental Medicine Initiative, working with AstraZeneca and GSK, is training specialists who can work out at an earlier stage of clinical trials if a treatment is likely to succeed.

Joining the dots

skbf2 — Wed, 26 May 2021 12:03:01 +0000

A new online community of researchers, businesses and healthcare providers is bringing the future of medicine one step closer.

Cambridge is one of the UK’s leading centres of life sciences and innovation. Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� and the world-leading research institutes on our doorstep have contributed to major breakthroughs in healthcare. Monoclonal antibodies, IVF and gene sequencing technologies are just some of the life-changing innovations to have emerged from the Cambridge Cluster.

̽��ֱ��need to connect

Cambridge is also a research powerhouse in maths, physics, computer science and engineering. ̽��ֱ��future of healthcare - earlier detection, better diagnostics, more-personalised medicine - lies where these disciplines meet. Maths and computer science, for example, are driving advances in AI which will help us to better understand biological processes (and hence where to target drugs), interrogate the vast genomic datasets that underpin personalised medicine and improve how clinical trials are run. Inventing new diagnostics and medical devices, using new materials and new processes such as additive manufacturing, needs both medical and engineering know-how.

There are plenty of examples of powerful interdisciplinary collaborations in the ̽��ֱ��, such as the new Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. But finding out who does what and connecting the right people across a complex ecosystem is not always easy. An already difficult task is made harder by the fact that researchers in different disciplines, executives in large companies, entrepreneurs and clinicians often talk a very different language and have different expectations of collaborative activities. Once connections have been made, therefore, it can be a challenge to convert them into projects which go on to have a ‘real-world’ impact.

A clear vision

Connect: Health Tech, a Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Enterprise Zone was set up in 2019 with funding from Research England expressly to bridge these interdisciplinary and inter-organisational gaps through a range of activities. A roadmapping exercise was carried out, using innovation management techniques developed at the ̽��ֱ��’s Institute for Manufacturing. Key stakeholders were brought together to identify the top five barriers to collaboration and the best ways to overcome them. ̽��ֱ��report, Creating a ̽��ֱ�� Enterprise Zone for Cambridge across the life and physical sciences, will be published in June 2021.

Building a community

̽��ֱ��roadmap identified a clear need: a digital way of connecting and collaborating with people across the Cambridge ecosystem. A year later, we are delighted to be launching, a new, easy-to-navigate online community where the physical and life sciences can meet, along with entrepreneurs, large corporates, venture capitalists, science parks, National Health Service and member organisations. While focused on Cambridge initially, in time we hope that it will help community members forge connections further afield and expand the geographical boundaries of the ecosystem to create the right environment for ideas, start-ups, innovation and co-creation to thrive.

̽��ֱ��idea of Connect: Health Tech is to ‘join the dots’, to help researchers from different disciplines to find each other and other resources they might need, whether that is mentorship, skills, equipment, funding or physical space. For businesses, it’s about all that as well as being a welcoming, easy-to-navigate way into the complexity of the ̽��ֱ�� and the wider Cambridge cluster.

Getting successful collaborations off the ground often relies on the efforts of a relatively small group of people who have the knowledge and expertise to make connections – and broker relationships - across projects, disciplines and sectors. Connect: Health Tech brings these ‘super-connectors’ together in one place, creating a hugely powerful resource that, we hope, will both bring people together and provide the support they need to take collaborations forward.

How it works

Users will be able to find new contacts and networks and the community can post events, funding opportunities and jobs of interest. Special interest groups will encourage businesses and academics to discuss areas of common interest, with the topics chosen to catalyse inter-disciplinary interactions across the physical and life sciences. In time, the intention is that businesses will use these groups to share the challenges they face so the community can help solve real world problems

If Connect: Health Tech is successful it will benefit everyone – business, academia and patients. We want to see it leading to stronger and deeper interaction between physicists, material scientists, chemists, engineers, biotechnologists, biologists and clinicians across academia and industry leading to more clinically beneficial projects. And we hope it will strengthen the already rich pipeline of healthcare spin-outs, start-ups and SMEs that emerge and flourish in the Cambridge Cluster.

Please join us

With this blog comes an open invitation for businesses and individuals to join the online community and to get involved. ̽��ֱ��link is here. We will ask you a few short questions about why you want to join, what expertise you bring and what your expectations of it are. ̽��ֱ��platform is designed to enable informal connections and provide an easy way into Cambridge through individuals. It’s not a searchable website, it’s a live discussion forum with access to real people. I look forward to seeing and connecting with you there!

Dr Kathryn Chapman
Deputy Director of the Milner Therapeutics Institute
and ̽��ֱ�� Relationship Manager for the Cambridge-AstraZeneca Partnership

May 2021

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Surgical robot

GSK/Cambridge Strategic Partnership aims to develop next wave of ‘game-changing’ medicines

cjb250 — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 12:10:11 +0000

̽��ֱ��GSK/Cambridge Strategic Partnership builds on collaborations between the partners that bring together a variety of unique and complementary expertise and capabilities, from basic biology through to clinical studies, which when combined could transform how we develop the next wave of ‘game-changing’ medicines.

At an event being held at Trinity Hall, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, to celebrate the partnership, researchers from all three organisations will be showcasing existing projects, which include research towards new medicines for brain trauma, cystic fibrosis, osteoarthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and the development of cutting-edge imaging techniques.

So far, the partnership has brought together scientific and clinical experts and provided access to research infrastructure across the university and hospital, including that provided by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. This has led to a growing range of active collaborations, including pre-clinical and clinical research projects, studentships and post-doctoral appointments, training and education, drug discovery workshops and a Knowledge Exchange Programme. ̽��ֱ��partners are looking at ways of building stronger links between their respective programmes focused on Africa and on the search for new medicines for neglected tropical diseases.

Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, says: “Our vision for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus is to pursue world-leading biomedical research and translate this into new or improved diagnostics and treatments. Key to this vision are partnerships with industry.

“Our collaboration with GSK builds on the strengths of each partner to create a relationship that is far greater than just the sum of its parts. It gives our academics access to the technologies and molecules that only industry can provide while giving GSK access to the world-leading research knowledge at Cambridge, delivering valuable impact for both partners.”

̽��ֱ��relationship champions the value of industry-academia collaboration to build trust and enable scientists to share complementary skills and expertise. A GSK ‘Entrepreneur in Residence’ to the university provides support to academics to encourage translational thinking. By supporting academics in their applications to translational funding programmes, GSK seeks to leverage its investment and grow the partnership further.

A Varsity Funding Programme, overseen by a Joint Steering Committee and part of the Strategic Partnership, directly funds collaborative projects focused on developing new medicines across the breadth of GSK research areas of interest, such as small molecules, biopharmaceuticals and cell/gene therapy. In addition to this core focus the Varsity programme also supports enabling/fundamental scientific projects which aim to address clear gaps in our understanding of disease and drug mechanisms.

Experimental Medicine

A key component of the partnership is a more targeted approach to testing medicines in patients known as ‘experimental medicine’. Early stage R&D has, until very recently, been limited to lab and animal-based research. As a result, it has been very difficult to accurately identify new targets and to measure the impact of potential new medicines on disease; in recent years, only around 10% of compounds entering clinical trials have succeeded. With recent technological advances, it is now possible to examine how different diseases behave in individual cells in the body, and the impact of potential new medicines on disease processes.

For example, a collaboration between Professor Andres Floto at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Dr Rab Prinjha at GSK is looking at a potential new treatment for inflammatory lung disease. ̽��ֱ��team is using state-of-the-art remote monitoring devices to study precisely how certain inflammatory molecules affect the symptoms of disease in a small group of patients. If this small study suggests they are effective in reducing the chemical signs of the disease, then a larger, more expensive clinical trial may be justified. If, on the other hand, the results are negative, the expense, time and impact on patients of a clinical trial can be spared.

Paul-Peter Tak, Head of Immuno-Inflammation at GSK and a lead on the Cambridge partnership, says: “At GSK, we believe that working alongside scientists from outside our labs is crucial to strengthening our understanding of human disease. ̽��ֱ��scientific community needs to embrace collaboration and share information about its successes and failures if we’re to accelerate the development of new treatments for patients.

“Our partnership with Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� is a great opportunity for us to combine our drug development expertise with the research skills of the academic scientists based at this world leading hub for life sciences research. Centred around our own clinical trials unit located within the city’s main hospital, we’re perfectly placed to work together to translate cutting edge early stage science in to innovative new medicines.”

GSK, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust today announce their Strategic Partnership, with the long-term ambition to jointly deliver new medicine to patients in the next 5-10 years.

Our vision for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus is to pursue world-leading biomedical research and translate this into new or improved diagnostics and treatments. Key to this vision are partnerships with industry

Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic

Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute

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MRC, GSK and five leading UK universities collaborate to crack difficult disease areas

cjb250 — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 09:00:15 +0000

̽��ֱ��Experimental Medicine Initiative to Explore New Therapies (EMINENT) network will be coordinated by ̽��ֱ�� College London (UCL) and will bring together teams of researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Glasgow, Newcastle, Imperial College London and UCL, with GSK researchers to study the fundamental biological mechanisms responsible for a range of inflammatory diseases. Professor Edwin Chilvers, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, will be leading the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s involvement, and his colleagues Professors Arthur Kaser and Ken Smith and Dr David Jayne will be leading research themes.

It is hoped that combining the disease biology expertise of these academic scientists with GSK’s drug development expertise and resources will ultimately lead to breakthroughs in understanding that could accelerate the development of innovative treatments for patients.

Drug development is a lengthy, costly and risky process, with the majority of promising treatments failing in clinical trials and hence never reaching patients as medicines. This is because the biological processes that underlie many diseases are still not fully understood.

By gaining a better understanding of the inflammatory process in diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and fibrosis, the collaboration aims to improve the success rate for discovering new potential treatments for these and other diseases.

Through the unique EMINENT network, MRC funding of up to £8m over five years will support academic costs. This will be matched with GSK in-kind contributions, including access to a portfolio of currently available medicines, experimental compounds, screening facilities and the company’s drug discovery and development in-house expertise. While GSK will retain ownership of the intellectual property covering these medicines and compounds, joint project teams of GSK and academic researchers will be able to use these as investigational tools to help answer scientific questions about human disease – which in turn could provide starting points for the development of next generation treatments for patients.

̽��ֱ��initiative aims to support up to ten experimental medicine projects over the five year period. ̽��ֱ��academic research teams that are awarded funding by the MRC will work alongside their industry colleagues at both GSK and university facilities, with a view to building a legacy of expertise in translational and experimental human research across academia and industry. It is anticipated that the network will grow beyond the first five academic partners.

Information and new discoveries will be readily communicated across the network, and beyond, in a spirit of open innovation. This will help enable breakthroughs in understanding to be applied across a spectrum of diseases, maximising the potential of the initiative to bring real benefits to patients.

Minister for Life Sciences George Freeman said “Networks of biomedical researchers from hospitals, industry and universities are key to unlocking the biomedical breakthroughs that are transforming our understanding of the mechanisms of disease and developing new diagnostics and treatments for patients.”

Professor Sir John Savill, Chief Executive at the Medical Research Council, said: “Despite major progress made over the last 20 years in many disease areas, some hard-to-treat conditions still carry high morbidity and mortality. Addressing these challenges successfully requires close, flexible, collaboration across a range of disciplines with complementary methodological expertise and disease understanding which is why initiatives such as this are so important to the MRC. We believe this innovative approach could be applied in other areas to combine the work of academia and industry.”

GSK’s president of pharmaceuticals R&D, Patrick Vallance, said: “At GSK, we believe that alongside the cutting-edge research our own scientists are leading, we also have much to learn from researchers outside our walls. We believe that by sharing our resources and research during the early stages of research we can stimulate innovation within the scientific community, strengthen our understanding of human disease and accelerate the development of new treatments for patients. We need to embrace opportunities to work together and share information about our successes and failures.

“ ̽��ֱ��MRC’s EMINENT initiative is a great way for us to do precisely this, allowing us to work alongside scientists from five top UK universities to drive forward our collective understanding of inflammatory disease, and we’re confident this unique approach will make us better able to develop innovative new treatments in the future.”

An independent panel of experts will assess the applications submitted by EMINENT collaborators. Projects will be assessed against the same criteria as any other MRC-funded research, based on the quality of the science. An oversight group, the Joint Steering Committee (JSC), reporting to the MRC, will ensure robust governance and alignment with MRC’s strategic priorities.

̽��ֱ��collaboration will also be supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres at Cambridge, Newcastle, Imperial and UCL.

Cambridge has been part of a successful £16 million bid to work with the MRC, GSK and four other UK universities in a unique open innovation research initiative aiming to improve scientists’ understanding of inflammatory diseases that present a serious burden to patients.

James Heilman, MD

A chest X-ray demonstrating severe COPD (cropped)

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Astrazeneca and Cambridge announce new joint PhD and clinical research scholarships

cjb250 — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 10:33:38 +0000

̽��ֱ��programmes reflect the long term commitment of AstraZeneca to the science base in the UK and the shared dedication of the company and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge/Cambridge BRC to developing the next generation of world-class scientists.

̽��ֱ��schemes are as follows:

AstraZeneca will fund a minimum of nine scholarships annually, divided across the departments of chemistry, biochemistry and pharmacology, with each running for a four-year period. AstraZeneca will also have the possibility of enrolling up to two of its employees annually as PhD students in one or more of the departments.
MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development arm, together with the School of Clinical Medicine and the School of the Biological Sciences at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have established a collaborative PhD programme which will focus on both clinical and translational research, supporting up to six scholarships annually, with students spending equal amounts of time at the ̽��ֱ�� and MedImmune’s laboratories in Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre Training Theme will also co-fund these posts.
AstraZeneca and MedImmune will fund one PhD scholarship and two academic clinical lectureships annually for four years under the ̽��ֱ��’s new Experimental Medicine Initiative. Each post will run for up to four years with the opportunity for placements within AstraZeneca or MedImmune. ̽��ֱ��NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre is also committed to the Experimental Medicine Initiative and will provide part funding for the Academic Clinical Lecturer and PhD posts.

All three schemes will start in the autumn. Students will be appointed by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and will be supported by an academic supervisor from the ̽��ֱ�� and an industrial supervisor from AstraZeneca or MedImmune to ensure that basic scientific research is closely aligned with real-world challenges of drug discovery and development. Joint Steering Committees comprising senior representatives from the ̽��ֱ��, AstraZeneca and MedImmune will oversee the schemes.

Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, Innovative Medicines and Early Development at AstraZeneca, said: “For the UK to remain at the cutting edge of life science, it’s essential that we continue to invest in developing the next generation of scientists who can combine outstanding basic research with an understanding of its translation into new medicines for patients. These new scholarships are a great way to train young translational scientists and reinforce the shared commitment of AstraZeneca and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge to create an open, collaborative research environment where investigators can work side by side to push the boundaries of science.”

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��new PhD schemes further strengthen the partnership between AstraZeneca and the ̽��ֱ��, supporting the development of a cadre of Cambridge scientists who can continue to compete with the very best in the world. Under the new schemes, Cambridge students will have a unique opportunity to develop their scientific knowledge across academia and industry.”

Adapted from a press release from AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge today announced three new joint schemes to support more than 80 PhD scholarships and eight clinical lectureships over the next five years spanning translational science, basic and clinical research. Two of the schemes are co-funded by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, a partnership between Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals and ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��new PhD schemes further strengthen the partnership between AstraZeneca and the ̽��ֱ��, supporting the development of a cadre of Cambridge scientists who can continue to compete with the very best in the world

Sir Leszek Borysiewicz

Sir Cam

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