The special mini-series of Cancer Research Matters takes a deep dive into all things science entrepreneurship.

This first episode asks: why should entrepreneurship and translation interest researchers from an academic background? Isn’t this a tricky thing to navigate? What support is available? What kinds of research can be translated and what should researchers do if they think their work could lead to an intervention. It’s all in here – so get stuck in.

Appearing in this episode:

Simon Boulton

Principal Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute

Co-founder & VP Science Strategy, Artios Pharma Ltd

Chief Translation Advisor, Cancer Research UK

Simon’s lab has discovered new DNA repair genes and provided novel insights into cancer. In 2016, Simon helped to establish Artios Pharma Ltd where he functions as Vice President of Science Strategy alongside his academic roles at the Francis Crick Institute and Cancer Research UK. Artios are developing new treatments that target DNA repair pathway vulnerabilities to selectively kill cancer cells. Simon is also Chief Translation Advisor at Cancer Research UK, with the remit to guide translation and commercialisation of novel cancer therapeutics.

Tony Hickson

Chief business officer, Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Horizons

Tony leads the Commercial Partnerships team responsible for the commercialisation of IP from Cancer Research UK-funded projects, new start-up creation, licences and corporate alliances.

Faith Howard

Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sheffield

Co-Founder at NANOncolytics

Faith’s research interests are focused on delivery of therapeutics to disseminated tumours. This includes nanoenabled formulations and the development of appropriate models for studying immunotherapies. She is cofounder of NANOncolytics, a company developing nanoparticle technology to provide a less invasive strategy for treating inaccessible and aggressive tumours.

Tommy Rennison

Regional Translation Lead, Cancer Research Horizons

Tommy is responsible for sourcing and evaluating potential new projects for Cancer Research Horizons.

Phil Berry

Translation Executive at Cancer Research Horizons

Phil is responsible for sourcing and evaluating potential new projects for Cancer Research Horizons.

Useful links

Cancer Research Horizons

Cancer Research Horizons entrepreneurial training

The Venture Builder Incubator

ICURe Programme

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This episode features a round-up of the best of the first series of Cancer Research Matters.

It features some of the fantastic researchers that we have interviewed over the past year – including Professor Steve Jackson, Professor Ruth Plummer, Dr Simon Boulton, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Professor Karen Vousden, Professor Richard Gilbertson and Professor Charles Swanton.

In this episode I tease out four themes that emerged over this first series that give some interesting insights into how we work as scientists, research leaders and research translators.

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Cancer Research Matters, a new Podcast from Cancer Research UK featuring some of the incredible researchers behind cancer research. The idea is to drive and provoke conversation around cancer science, how it shapes our understanding of the disease and the challenges we face as we develop therapies.

The first series focusses on the 20th anniversary of CRUK – we’ll be winding back the clock on some of the great discoveries and breakthroughs made in the past two decades and asking some leading names where they think we’ll be in another 20 years.

This episode features Dr Simon Boulton. Simon is a leader in the field of DNA damage sensing, repair and telomere maintenance. He is Principal Group Leader and Assistant Research Director of translation at the Francis Crick Institute, and Director of RadNet, City of London – a CRUK initiative focused on improving radiation treatment for cancer patients. Simon is also co-founder and Vice President of Science Strategy of the spin-out Artios Pharma and Chair of CRUK’s Discovery Research Committee.

He talks about the dawn of the field of DNA damage repair, why an entrepreneurial approach to your research is so valuable and the importance of venture capital in the innovation landscape.

Useful links

Explore the formation of Artios Pharma and the role of Cancer Research Horizons in translation

https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2021/11/05/taking-on-dna-repair-to-tackle-cancer/

Explore RadNet. Whether you’re a cancer biologist, health professional, engineer or physical scientist, RadNet is an exciting and rewarding opportunity to apply your expertise and knowledge

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/funding-for-researchers/our-research-infrastructure/radnet-our-radiation-research-network

Register your interest for the CRUK-ARR Radiation Research Conference https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=L4lzROBx_EaN7Cc5ArUTSeNZ7IzS7O9ItRV1smdjkd1UMDBYRUI1SzRPSThYNTZEUDhSSzZSSUJKVi4u

Find out how Cancer Research Horizons can help you translate your work

https://www.cancerresearchhorizons.com/collaborate-us/researchers

Listen to Professor Steve Jackson on a previous episode

https://shows.acast.com/cancer-research-matters/episodes/translation-tales-20-years-of-forming-spinout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.