Professor Shonit Punwani is one of six outstanding UK researchers to be awarded a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Professorship.
The prestigious award comes with £2 million in funding over five years, three support posts and a package of extensive support in order to deliver research that positively impacts people across the country.
Prof Punwani, Professor of Magnetic Resonance and Cancer Imaging at UCL, and Consultant Radiologist at UCLH, will lead research to implement new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies to transform prostate cancer outcomes.
Prof Punwani, who is supported by the BRC, said: “Prostate cancer remains a leading cause of death in men in the UK, with almost 16% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer after the disease has spread. This research will target three points in the prostate cancer management pathway where advances in imaging can be used to improve outcomes.
“First is in enabling screening of men within the population, where developing fast and reliable MRI could help find men with early disease before it has spread.
“Second is the use of novel MRI methods that can deeply interrogate tissue microstructure to enable us to better determine which men should undergo an invasive biopsy once a lesion is found on MRI; currently, 1 in 2 men undergo an unnecessary biopsy.
“Third, and perhaps most important, is the study of prostate cancer metabolism as a potential indicator of aggressive disease. The objective is to determine whether imaging metabolism using MRI can help us to separate aggressive from non-aggressive cancers at an early stage, and thereby avoid overtreatment of men diagnosed with prostate cancer.”
The NIHR Research Professorships scheme funds and supports research leaders of the future. It aims to strengthen and benefit health, public health and care research leadership.
The awards are open to researchers from any professional background. Previous awards in recent competitions have been made to:
- health services researchers
- basic scientists
- health economists, statisticians
- engineers
- psychologists
Applications for the next round are currently open until 6 December. Find out more on the NIHR website.
