̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Li Ka Shing Foundation

UK's only research institute dedicated to understanding early cancer receives £11 million donation

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 08:00:07 +0000

Located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus – the largest bioscience ecosystem in Europe – the Institute brings together world-leading expertise from across diverse fields including biology, physics, mathematics, epidemiology, medicine, and computer science under one roof with one goal: to predict and prevent cancer.

̽��ֱ��donation will support the redevelopment of the Hutchison building, home to the Early Cancer Institute. This will enable the Institute to scale up its work, creating the cutting-edge laboratory space needed for its research teams to advance their early detection efforts and expand the Institute's research capabilities, attracting more world-class scientists and clinicians to join its teams.

̽��ֱ��building will be renamed the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute in honour of Hong Kong-based philanthropist Sir Ka-shing Li and the enduring partnership between the Li Ka Shing Foundation and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge in progressing the fight against cancer. Sir Ka-shing Li generously donated to the original Hutchison building in 2002, and then – in 2007 – to the Li Ka Shing Centre, which houses the CRUK Cambridge Institute.

Commenting on the renaming of the building in his honour, Sir Ka-shing Li said: "I am greatly encouraged that much advancement has been made towards cancer diagnosis, treatment and prevention. It is also evident now that early detection of cancer will yield the best chance of successful treatment and quality of life for the patient.

"It is a great privilege, therefore, to support the transformation of the Hutchison building to become a centre of excellence and a fitting home for the national Early Cancer Research Institute and a first of its kind in the UK. This inspirational journey with Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� spanning over two decades fulfils my lifetime commitment to build the good of science, and I am truly gratified by this partnership."

Researchers at the Institute are focusing on cancers that are hard to treat, such as lung, oesophageal and liver cancers, and acute myeloid leukaemia. Detection and treatment methods have changed very little for these types of cancer over the past few years, and outcomes are often poor. Detecting and treating cancer earlier will dramatically increase survival rates and reduce healthcare costs across all tumour types.

By working across disciplines to understand the fundamental biology of how cancer develops and evolves, researchers at the Institute are making pioneering early detection research advances and translating these into clinical practice. They have used the power of theoretical physics methods to identify blood cancer years before the patient has symptoms, while biology and chemical engineering experts have collaborated to develop a method to detect and destroy early lung cancer.

̽��ֱ��Institute’s director, Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, pioneered the capsule sponge – a new test that can identify ten times more heartburn patients with Barrett’s oesophagus, a pre-cursor to oesophageal cancer. ̽��ֱ��device aims to catch the disease when it is easier to treat, thus helping more people survive.

Fitzgerald, also Professor of Cancer Prevention, remarked on the gift’s far-reaching impact, highlighting the importance of the redevelopment in helping researchers make life-saving scientific advances: "This extraordinary gift will provide the cutting-edge research facilities necessary to help our researchers develop pioneering early cancer detection innovations and take these from bench to bedside with even greater speed and focus, resulting in fewer cancer-related deaths worldwide."

Professor Richard Gilbertson, the Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology said: "It is fitting that the home of this exceptional centre for research into the early detection of cancer should be renamed the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute. From his inaugural gift to establish the Li Ka Shing Centre to house the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, to the endowment of a new Professorship of Oncology, Sir Ka-shing Li has been a generous and constant partner in the ̽��ֱ��’s pioneering work to help create a world free of the fear of cancer."

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, said: "New technologies are ensuring that ideas developed here in Cambridge can be used to benefit patients around the world, and we must ensure that as many people as possible are able to benefit from our cancer research. We are very grateful for Sir Ka-shing Li’s longstanding generosity, which has allowed us to make extraordinary progress in understanding this terrible disease. As our work continues, we look forward to developing novel ways of diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it more precisely and effectively."

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Early Cancer Institute – the UK's only research facility dedicated to understanding early cancer – has received a landmark £11 million donation to support its vital work in the fight against cancer.

This extraordinary gift will provide the cutting-edge research facilities necessary to help our researchers develop pioneering early cancer detection innovations... resulting in fewer cancer-related deaths worldwide.

Rebecca Fitzgerald

Li Ka Shing Foundation

Sir Ka-shing Li at the opening of the MRC Cancer Centre in the Hutchinson Building, 18 May 2022

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Large-scale genetic study reveals new clues for the shared origins of irritable bowel syndrome and mental health disorders

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 16:42:29 +0000

IBS is a common condition worldwide, affecting around 1 in 10 people and causing a wide range of symptoms including abdominal pain, bloating and bowel dysfunction that can significantly affect people’s lives. Diagnosis is usually made after considering other possible conditions (such as Crohn’s disease or bowel cancer), with clinical tests coming back ‘normal’. ̽��ֱ��condition often runs in families and is also more common among people who are prone to anxiety. ̽��ֱ��causes of IBS are not well understood, but an international team of researchers has now identified several genes that provide clues into the origins of IBS.

̽��ֱ��research team, including more than 40 institutions and coordinated by scientists in UK and Spain, looked at genetic data from 40,548 people who suffer with IBS from the UK Biobank and 12,852 from the Bellygenes initiative (a world-wide study aiming to identify genes linked to IBS) and compared them to 433,201 people without IBS (controls), focusing on individuals of European ancestry. ̽��ֱ��findings were repeated with de-identified data from the genomics company 23andMe Inc., provided by customers who have consented to research, by comparing 205,252 people with IBS to 1,384,055 controls.

̽��ֱ��results showed that overall, heritability of IBS (how much your genes influence the likelihood of developing a particular condition) is quite low, indicating the importance of environmental factors such as diet, stress and patterns of behaviour that may also be shared in the family environment.

However, six genetic differences (influencing the genes NCAM1, CADM2, PHF2/FAM120A, DOCK9, CKAP2/TPTE2P3 and BAG6) were more common in people with IBS than in controls. As IBS symptoms affect the gut and bowel, it would be expected that genes associated with increased risk of IBS would be expressed there – but this is not what the researchers found. Instead, most of the altered genes appear to have more clear-cut roles in the brain and possibly the nerves which supply the gut, rather than the gut itself.

Researchers also looked for overlap between susceptibility to IBS and other physical and mental health conditions. They found that the same genetic make-up that puts people at increased risk of IBS also increases the risk for common mood and anxiety disorders such as anxiety, depression, and neuroticism, as well as insomnia. However, the researchers stress that this doesn’t mean that anxiety causes IBS symptoms or vice versa.

Study co-senior investigator and consultant gastroenterologist Professor Miles Parkes from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge explained: “IBS is a common problem, and its symptoms are real and debilitating. Although IBS occurs more frequently in those who are prone to anxiety, we don’t believe that one causes the other – our study shows these conditions have shared genetic origins, with the affected genes possibly leading to physical changes in brain or nerve cells that in turn cause symptoms in the brain and symptoms in the gut.”

̽��ֱ��study also found that people with both IBS and anxiety were more likely to have been treated frequently with antibiotics during childhood. ̽��ֱ��study authors hypothesise that repeated use of antibiotics during childhood might increase the risk of IBS (and perhaps anxiety) by altering the ‘normal’ gut flora (healthy bacteria that normally live in the gut) which in turn influence nerve cell development and mood.

Current treatments for IBS vary widely and include dietary changes, prescription medications targeting the gut or brain, or behavioural interventions. Lead author Chris Eijsbouts from the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford suggests that discovering genes which contribute to IBS may aid in the development of new treatments in the long term. He said: "Even genetic changes that have only subtle effects on IBS can provide clues about pathways to target therapeutically. Unlike the individual genetic changes themselves, drugs targeting the pathways they tell us about may have a considerable impact on the condition, as we know from other disease areas."

Co-senior investigator Dr Luke Jostins from the ̽��ֱ�� Oxford commented: “We anticipate that future research will build on our discoveries, both by investigating the target genes identified and exploring the shared genetic risk across conditions to improve understanding of the disordered brain-gut interactions which characterise IBS.”

“IBS represents a remarkable challenge for genetic studies. These initial findings have been long awaited, and finally tell us this type of research is worth the struggle,” added Ikerbasque Professor Mauro D’Amato from CIC bioGUNE, co-senior investigator and coordinator of the Bellygenes initiative.

This research received funding and support from National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centres in Cambridge, Oxford, Nottingham and Manchester. Further funding and support was received from the Wellcome Trust, the Li Ka Shing Foundation and the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research in the UK, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Instituto Salud Carlos III), the Health Department of the Basque Government and the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet).

Reference
Eijsbouts, C et al. Genome-wide analysis of 53,400 people with irritable bowel syndrome highlights shared genetic pathways with mood and anxiety disorders. Nature Genetics; 5 Nov 2021; DOI: 10.1038/s41588-021-00950-8

Adapted from a press release by the National Institute for Health Research

An international study of more than 50,000 people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has revealed that IBS symptoms may be caused by the same biological processes as conditions such as anxiety. ̽��ֱ��research highlights the close relationship between brain and gut health and paves the way for development of new treatments.

Although IBS occurs more frequently in those who are prone to anxiety, we don’t believe that one causes the other – our study shows these conditions have shared genetic origins

Miles Parkes

Scientific Animations

3D image showing irritable bowel syndrome

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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