Cambridge student gets six-figure research grant from cancer charity

Cambridge PhD student has received a six-figure grant from a national charity, to help him in the fight against cancer.

Siang Boon Koh, a student in the Department of Oncology, has been awarded almost £120,000 from Pancreatic Cancer UK, to investigate new ways to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

He will look at the process in which cancer cells mend their damaged DNA after chemotherapy, which allows them to resist the treatment.

If successful this could make the process more effective, which could in turn allow patients to live for longer.

This award, part of the charity's £500,000 Future Leaders Fund, will be supervised by Professor Duncan Jodrell.

He said: "We are thrilled that Pancreatic Cancer UK's Future Leaders Fund award has allowed us to support a bright young student to work alongside us on investigations that will help us to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that lead to the resistance of pancreatic cancer to chemotherapy, hopefully leading to ways of improving the efficacy of current treatments."

The Future Leaders Fund awards were approved by the charity's Scientific Advisory Board, which has membership drawn from leading scientists from across the world. The other grants were awarded to researchers based at institutions throughout the UK including London, Oxford, Manchester and Glasgow.

Charity chief executive Alex Ford said: "As a charity that represents people with pancreatic cancer and their families, we have a responsibility to tackle the huge issue of under-funding into pancreatic cancer research as well as stimulating interest among the research community.

"We are delighted to be announcing this research at the University of Cambridge as part of our latest round of grants under our Future Leaders Fund. We feel confident that the projects we have chosen to fund have the potential to make an important contribution to the fight against this disease.

"It is very exciting to be pairing up some of the most experienced researchers in the field and working together to begin to develop the leaders of the future in the fight against this terrible disease. We are looking forward to hearing of their findings as they work together with the aim of helping thousands of people with pancreatic cancer live for longer."