UCLH and UCL clinician scientist Professor Charlie Swanton has won a European award for translational research – the process of taking innovations in scientific research and turning them into treatments and therapies which benefit patients.
Professor Swanton, who is also Royal Society Napier Professor and Chief Clinician at Cancer Research UK, will formally receive the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Award for Translational Research 2019 at the upcoming ESMO conference in Barcelona.
Professor Swanton’s research group has provided conclusive evidence that the way in which tumours evolve over time follows Darwinian principles of natural selection and branched evolution – and that this frequently constitutes an underlying cause of treatment failure.
He has developed new methods to overcome this treatment resistance in cancer in the clinic.
Professor Swanton said: “This award is an encouragement to continue with our work and I gratefully accept it on behalf of my team: it is for them, more than for me, because none of our progress would have been possible without their contributions. The funding and support of Cancer Research UK, UCL Hospitals BRC and the Francis Crick Institute have also been vital.”
