Cancer Research UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are committing 35 million pounds in funds for five years to four separate cancer imaging centers across the U.K.
Building on an initial 50 million pound investment in October 2008, the latest funding aims to bring together scientists, engineers, and clinicians to develop new imaging techniques and applications that will help clinicians learn more about how tumors feed and grow, how cancer cells signal to one another, tumor blood supply, the environment surrounding tumors, and molecular and genetic signatures, according to the organizations.
The imaging centers will serve as research focal points using modalities such as optical microscopy, MRI, functional MRI, ultrasound, and PET, Cancer Research UK, and EPSRC said.
The four imaging centers to receive funding are at the University of Oxford, the Institute of Cancer Research in London, a joint imaging center between King's College London and University College London, as well as a new collaboration between the University of Cambridge and University of Manchester.
The cancer imaging center in Oxford aims to integrate basic research in chemistry, physics, and cancer biology with imaging science to guide treatment choices for cancer patients, while the cancer imaging center at the Institute of Cancer Research will focus on enabling personalized medicine, according to Cancer Research UK and EPSRC.
Meanwhile, the cancer imaging center at King's College London and University College London combines technology development at King's College London with genomics expertise and clinical trials as well as access to the first clinical PET/MRI facility in the U.K., the organizations said.
The cancer imaging center in Cambridge and Manchester combines translational research and clinical trials with imaging, genomics, and preclinical research, according to Cancer Research UK and EPSRC.
