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My laboratory is involved in the fight against cancer and particularly we focus on how the
immune system can control cancer. It’s been known for about a hundred years that our bodies’
immune defences can pay a role in eradicating cancer and we’re working on the details
of understanding that so that we can take it forward into the clinic. We’re particularly
interested in how patients who’ve had a bone marrow transplant can eradicate diseases
such as leukaemia and lymphoma because that’s very powerful in some patients and not in
others and we want to work out how that’s effective in patients who get a good response.
The Cancer Institute at Birmingham has been strong for a few decades now and we’ve got
quite a broad range of interests. We go through from very fundamental research looking at
how the mutations in DNA can cause cancer through to excellence in clinical trials.
We’ve got one of the largest clinical trials units in Europe looking at how new interventions
and drugs can be properly brought into the clinical arena. So we’ve got a very broad
area of expertise.
One thing we’re particularly strong on in Birmingham is the area known as translational
research. That’s where we take research right from the bench through to clinical trials
in the patients and being so close to the hospital here, that’s a great asset for
us. It’s been particularly exciting for me to see some of our basic research ideas
moving through into patient trials and that’s really the most rewarding aspect of our research.
We work very closely with families and supporters to share our efforts and communicate what
we’re doing and there's really nothing as rewarding as bringing people into the laboratory
– relatives and patients – and showing them what we’re doing and that really makes
it all worthwhile. That interaction is really excellent in the research programme.
It’s the most incredibly exciting time in cancer research and when I’m giving lectures
to medical students I try and get this across to them that there has never been a time like
this. It is the most remarkable time to be in research. And we really are the first generation
that has it in their ability, their capacity, to control this disease. That’s my optimistic
belief. I think we’re going to see a lot of change towards personalised medicine in
the future. We won’t just be treating breast cancer or prostate cancer as a group, we’ll
be looking at patient’s individual disease and treating it appropriately. So it really
is going to be the most exciting few decades ahead.