Conquering Cancer: Personalised Drugs and Bugs

The microorganisms which live in the human gut regulate health. They programme the immune system, nervous system, and our energy production. Our latest research is revealing an astonishing secret, that gut bacteria from infants can use the immune system to treat diseases (including cancer). I will talk about why you should care about gut bacteria, and explain how bacteria from infants could generate the next wave of cancer drugs.

In the battle against cancer, scientists are always looking to unveil new clues to develop better cancer treatments. But how do we develop treatments for a disease so complex, and is there ever going to be a cure for all cancers? From classical chemotherapies to immunotherapies, discover how science continues to reshape the landscape of cancer treatment.

Bowel cancer in the UK causes ~16,800 deaths per year. Cancer is caused by damage to DNA known as mutations. Each patient has a unique combination of mutations, and these differences underpin the varying responses to standard ‘one-size-fits-all’ chemotherapy. This calls for tailoring chemotherapy based on the patient’s mutations. To address this challenge, the laboratory grows miniature organs and tumours from patient tissue. These models allow us to identify mutations, predict effective drugs, and validate those predictions on patient tissue: thereby personalising medicine for bowel cancer.