Bangor North West Cancer Research Institute:
The Bangor North West Cancer Research Institute was founded in 2004, with support from North West Cancer Research (NWCR), Bangor University and the Welsh Assembly Government. The Institute is housed in recently refurbished laboratories at the School of Medical Sciences in the Brambell Building.
Cancer and Cancer ResearchCurrently, 1 in 2 people born after 1960 will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their life time. There are more than 200 types of cancer, each having a unique cause and set of symptoms. Due to the complexity of cancer, there is no single cure for all types of cancer and different cancers require different treatments. The aim of our research is to understand the differences between different types of cancer cells and their healthy equivalents, and then to utilise these differences to devise new diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic procedures to be employed in the clinic for specific cancers. Thanks to the money invested in cancer research, many advances have been made over the last decades: while 50 years ago the chance that a cancer patient was still alive 10 years after diagnosis was only slightly above 20 percent, the current average 10-year cancer survival rate is around 50 percent. However, the cancer incidence rate is steadily increasing and more research is needed to improve cancer diagnostics and treatments!
Research at Bangor
Members of the Institute use a range of model systems and state of the art technologies to research various aspects of carcinogenesis, cancer diagnostics and treatment. The research groups of Dr. Jane Wakeman and Dr. Ramsay McFarlane use human cell lines to investigate tumour invasion and metastasis, and to identify novel cancer markers that can be used in diagnostics and treatments. The groups of Dr. Thomas Caspari, Dr. Rita Cha, Dr. Chris Staples and Dr. Edgar Hartsuiker are interested in mechanisms that maintain genome stability and thus prevent cancer. Dr. David Pryce is interested in understanding the role of the immune system in cancer. One of our aims is to translate our research findings into the clinic to improve the treatment of cancer patients. For this purpose, we are increasingly collaborating with clinicians in Wales and Liverpool.
Flint & Holywell members and partners are indebted to Amy Robinson (NWCR), Dr. Edgar Hartsuiker, Dr. Rita Cha and members of their research team for facilitating our visit.
