The Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit, at University College London’s (UCL) Cancer Institute is our first dedicated Research Centre of Excellence. Members of our expert Grant Review and Monitoring committee recently visited the Centre to review progress and were very impressed, both by the headway that has been made in the research being conducted there, and by the facilities, researchers and scientific collaborations that have been put in place – click here for an executive summary of their report.
The centre, which is costing £1,667,511 over five years, is led by Professor Paolo Salomoni and Dr Steve Pollard, both talented researchers with considerable experience in brain tumour research.
View a pictorial summary of our Centre of Excellence journey.
The Centre
UCL is the largest Biomedical Research Centre in Europe, encompassing the UCL Cancer Institute, a state-of-the-art facility incorporating some of the most advanced research technologies and equipment. Researchers at the Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit work together with colleagues at the UCL Institute of Neurology, Institute of Child Health and UCL Hospitals, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The University of Nottingham.
Programme Lead Prof. Salomoni and Team Leader Dr Steven Pollard are involved in a number of educational programmes and research forums at UCL and beyond, maximising the impact and wider application of their research.
Find out more about the Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit
The researchers
- Professor Paolo Salomoni
Professor Paolo Salomoni is the Brian Cross Professorial Research Associate at the Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit, and has been Programme Lead since October 2009. He has extensive experience in brain cancer research, having worked at several prestigious institutions around the world. He has written a number of scientific publications and has been responsible for some major breakthroughs in the field.
Read an interview with Prof. Salomoni, in which he explains his role and his vision for the laboratory.
Dr Steven Pollard has been a Team Leader at the Unit since February 2010. He is at the forefront of research into cancer stem cells in brain tumours, having worked at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge.
Find out more about the researchers and their teams
The research
The research programme at our UCL Centre of Excellence aims to shed light on the origins and development of brain tumours, and to reveal why some cancer cells are resistant to therapy. Researchers at the Unit hopes to identify ways of overcoming this problem, with a view to producing results which will, in turn, translate into clinical practice. Specific tumours that are currently being researched are glioblastoma multiforme, oligodendroglioma, medulloblastoma, ependymoma and neuroblastoma.
Find out more about research at our UCL Centre of Excellence
The Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit has been funded by the Brian Cross Memorial Trust, T & S Meyer Foundation, SDBTT Umbrella and Friends Groups and numerous individual donations. SDBTT and the researchers at the Unit are extremely grateful for this support.
Research highlights so far
• The successes highlighted by Prof Salomoni and Dr Pollard here both relate to glioblastoma, but this is far from the only tumour type that the UCL team works on. Other tumour types covered by their research include oligodendroglioma, medulloblastoma, ependymoma, neuroblastoma and other types of glioma too.
• In total, the team now comprises seven postdoctoral scientists, four PhD students, a laboratory manager and a research assistant.
• One of the aims of the Centre of Excellence Programme was to attract funding from other sources to build up the amount of brain tumour research. Other funding sources so far have included: The Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, a Marie Curie Training Fellowship and a prestigious UCL ‘Grand Challenges’ PhD studentship.
• There is lots more information about our UCL Centre of Excellence online, including more info about all the research, the team and the ‘story so far’; see: www.braintumourtrust.co.uk/ucl
• We recognise that supporters often appreciate the opportunity to see at first hand the research that is made possible through their donations and fundraising, and our researchers also find it rewarding to meet the fundraisers whose time and generosity enables them to carry out their research in such an excellent environment. If you would be interested in attending a future lab tour at UCL, please contact research@sdbtt.co.uk.
• Prof Salomoni is the co-organisers of a newly established annual glioma conference, a research symposium for researchers, clinical scientists and medical staff working on various aspects of the origin, genetics, neuropathology, diagnosis, imaging and treatment of gliomas.
• We are grateful to the Brian Cross Memorial Trust for their funding towards Prof Salomoni’s work, and the SDBTT Alex Bolt Fund, who have raised £85,000 in less than a year to fund Dr Pollard. Without these, all of our Umbrella and Friends Groups, our other funders and all our donors and supporters, none of this work would be possible.