We’re proud to announce the latest recipients of our Future Leaders grants that’ve been awarded for their innovative new research projects.
By Lucy Grist
We are pleased to share the five new researchers who have been awarded our Future Leaders grant!
Our Future Leaders programme supports excellent researchers just beginning their careers, to establish themselves as leading experts and also inspires more researchers to join our movement, encouraging them to remain working within the field of neuro-oncology.
This award was designed to provide the right researcher with up to £1.8 million in funding over 12 years, and give them the support needed to set up their own lab.
The following researchers have been awarded the Postdoctoral Fellowship – the first stage of the Future Leaders programme – and will each receive up to £75,000 in funding per year, over three years.
Dr. Mathew Clement
Mat is a postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Division of Infection & Immunity, School of Medicine at Cardiff University. He studies the role of immune cells in glioblastoma (GBM). Mat’s research will focus on testing whether IL-10 can be targeted to treat GBM. He aims to find out if blocking IL-10 with antibodies may unleash effective immune responses capable of killing GBM cells. Mat will also be aiming to identify new treatments for GBM that can be administered non-invasively or during surgery.
Bo is a Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Neurology Registrar at Oxford University. His research is focused on the role of the adaptive immune system in cancers of the brain. He aims to harness genetic traits of T-cells to improve detection, monitoring, and treatment of high-grade tumours. His goal is to develop a minimally invasive blood test that will help doctors detect cancer recurrence earlier in patients with adult diffuse gliomas following surgery.
Emily is a postdoctoral researcher at Cardiff University. She works with oncolytic viruses, and has developed a “smart virus” that can recognise glioblastoma. She is aiming to use these viruses to selectively target glioblastoma cells and deliver immunotherapies, boosting the patients’ immune system and allowing the immune cells to recognise and destroy the tumour.
Charlotte is a postdoctoral researcher at The University of California, San Francisco. Her research aims to define the cells that meningiomas originate from and shed light on how they grow and develop. She will be using novel techniques to identify changes in DNA that contribute to the development of meningiomas, with the ultimate goal of designing and developing specific treatments for patients.
Antonio is a postdoctoral researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. His research is focused on the immunopeptidome of brain tumours. He aims to use a combination of molecular analyses, single-cell sequencing and modelling techniques to identify the different cells in gliomas and uncover information about the immune response, brain tumour evolution, and the effectiveness of current therapies.
At The Brain Tumour Charity, we are committed to funding excellent research that has the potential to make a real difference to people diagnosed with a brain tumour and their families. We are committed to enabling not only world-class excellence in the brain tumour space, but also long-term inspiration to join the field, through investment in talented early-career researchers. By supporting these Future Leaders, we’re helping to shape the future of research into brain tumours and improve outcomes for people diagnosed.
“We are thrilled to announce a new cohort of researchers funded by our Future Leaders Grant Programme. By providing substantial support to early-career scientists, this programme is helping to transform the research landscape by ensuring that innovative ideas will continue to drive progress in the field of research into brain tumours. It’s initiatives like these that help accelerate breakthroughs, bringing us closer to transforming patient outcomes and, ultimately, finding a cure.”
– Dr Simon Newman, Chief Scientific Officer at The Brain Tumour Charity
We’ll be following the progress of these researchers closely and sharing updates on their work in the coming months and years. We can’t wait to see the impact they’ll have in the field of research into brain tumours!
