Dr Claus Jørgensen, who leads the Institute’s Systems Oncology group, is one of six scientists to have new research projects funded by Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF). He will receive £180,000 for a three-year study entitled “Targeting enzymes for stromal normalisation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma”.

Pancreatic tumours have a thick protective coating called the stroma, which contains certain types of cells hijacked from neighbouring tissues that have been forced to help the tumour survive and grow. Dr Jørgensen has discovered that blocking a particular enzyme in these hijacked cells returns them to their normal state. His project will investigate how this happens and whether interfering with this enzyme will make the tumour cells more vulnerable to chemotherapy.

The PCRF has awarded a total of £1 million - bringing the charity’s support for research into the UK’s most lethal cancer to over £8 million. In total, the charity has funded 40 cutting edge research projects across the UK and Ireland.  These new grants are in addition to the £2 million committed to the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund Tissue Bank, which launched in January 2016 and will accelerate research progress. The Tissue Bank is the world’s first nationally co-ordinated pancreas tissue bank and has already been hailed as “one of the most important developments in resourcing UK pancreatic cancer research in a generation”.

Says PCRF’s founder and CEO, Maggie Blanks: “In the charity’s early years, we had to focus on basic research to help understand pancreatic cancer and its mechanisms, with the knowledge that this would be a springboard for future research progress. More recently – typified by this year’s grants – we’ve been able to focus on projects that are closer to patients. These include innovative ways of making current treatments much more effective, developing ‘personalised medicine’ approaches and finding ways to diagnose the disease in its earliest stages. 

“We’re committed to beating this disease and thanks to our loyal supporters whose fundraising enables us to fund all these projects and initiatives, we’re making real progress towards this goal.”