UPDATE - Issue 25 - Spring 2006
Record Research Grants
Prostate Research Campaign UK is delighted to announce a further fifteen grants for research projects. These, together with £75 thousand allocated to training, brings the total awarded in 2005/2006 to almost half a million pounds.
This breaks the charity's previous record by a considerable margin. It also brings the total awarded since the year 2000 to over £2 million.
Neil O'Donoghue, Chairman of the medical panel that reviewed the applications, said 'During January we considered 38 applications. We had serious difficulty coming to our decisions because the standard was so high. To be able to award grants amounting to £489,834 is quite wonderful. It reflects great credit on all who support the charity financially. I am certain the money they have raised and donated will be well spent and I look forward to seeing the results in due course'.
All the applications for research grants were in the field of prostate cancer, which is clearly one of the hot research topics of today. Disappointingly, there were no applications for research relating to benign prostatic hyperplasia, although it affects many more men. Nor were there any applications relating to that most puzzling and ill-understood ailment, prostatitis.
Of the grants made, there were many aimed at increasing our understanding of prostate cancer mechanisms; why cancer cells proliferate, why they do not die as other cells do, how the signalling pathways operate, how we may forecast the future behaviour of cancer cells and so forth.
Some projects will be considering the genetic and chromosomal changes caused by the disease. Others may be described as closer to immediate application. They include work on a new diagnostic test which may one day replace the PSA test. This is the subject of a separate article on the back page. There are also projects assessing the efficacy of new treatments using very low temperatures and high intensity focused ultrasound.
Full details of all the successful grant applications will be posted on our web site.
Research Grants were awarded to:
Dr Tom Swallow, St George's, London
Dr Charlotte Bevan, Imperial College, London
Dr Yong-Jie Lu, Institute of Cancer, London
Dr Christiane Fenske, St George's, London
Prof Mark McCarthy, University College, London
Dr Daniel Ashdown, Birmingham University
Mr David Haines, Mr Edwin Ho, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Mr Grant Stewart, Edinburgh University
Prof Youqiang Ke, Liverpool University
Dr Vincent Gnanapragasam, Newcastle University
Dr Badar Alam Usmani, Leeds University
Dr Ian Graham, Royal Holloway, London
Dr Gunnel Hallden, Institute of Cancer, London
Dr Andrew Blann, Birmingham University
Mr Mark Emberton, Prostate Cancer Research Centre, London
Mr Mark Feneley, University College, London