The London Cancer Hub project has recently received a major boost in the form of £8.4 million in funding for its development.
Labmate revealed that the money is coming from London’s Strategic Investment pot and that it will be used to continue the development of a world-leading campus where organisations focus on finding ways to beat cancer.
The Institute of Cancer Research and the London Borough of Sutton are jointly leading on the London Cancer Hub initiative, with £30 million already having been invested by the borough to deliver new commercial and life science facilities on a 4.8 hectare site.
These new facilities will cover some 100,000 square metres, providing dedicated spaces for research, treatment, training and enterprise.
According to the news provider, the London Cancer Hub will create an estimated 13,000 jobs, around 7,000 of which will be in the life sciences sector and supporting activities. A further 6,200 will be created by the construction work on the site.
The Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust are already based at the site. Together they are considered one of the world’s top four centres for cancer research and treatment. It’s hoped that this expansion will help bolster their expertise further.
Construction work has already started on the £75 million Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery, which is part of the Institute of Cancer Research. One of the flagship elements of the new developments here will be the Knowledge Centre, which will be home to labs, offices, business engagement activities, and collaboration and events space.
Leader of Sutton Council councillor Ruth Dombey said that the council was “delighted” to secure the additional funding to support the development at the London Cancer Hub.
“The Knowledge Centre will make an important contribution to supporting effective collaboration between research, treatment and technology at the London Cancer Hub. Additionally, it will help create thousands of new jobs in our borough,” she asserted.
Professor Paul Workman, chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, was equally positive about the development. He told the publication that the new investment “represents a big step forward in our plans to create the world’s leading cancer-focused life science district and will help to accelerate our research discoveries and their development for patients”.
Earlier this month, Cancer Research UK highlighted some of the different approaches being taken to cancer research around the country.
Carlos Caldas, a clinician scientist at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, stressed the importance of collaboration when it comes to finding new treatments for cancer. His team is part of a global collaboration that is creating incredibly detailed and precise pictures of breast cancers that can be studied in virtual reality.
“The thing to say is that science is becoming more and more about team science and that requires people of different backgrounds and different expertise,” he stated.
New developments, like that being carried out at the London Cancer Hub, should help foster even more collaborations in this space, which are likely to benefit many people in the future.
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