Research update - December 2023
With the holiday season in full swing, our Research team has been as busy as ever with a flurry of events, and preparing for what is set to be an exciting 2024!
Back in October, we were proud to sponsor the latest ACCELERATE Paediatric Strategy Forum focused on CDK inhibitors. ACCELERATE is a multistakeholder platform that brings together representatives from academia, industry, patient communities and regulators from across the globe to tackle issues that help accelerate drug development for children’s cancers. As part of their work, they convene regular Paediatric Strategy Forums, that bring partners together to discuss specific drug development challenges and come up with strategies to address them.
CDK inhibitors are a group of drugs that may show promise to treat certain childhood cancers, including neuroblastoma, and are an exciting new topic on the horizon for research. It is vital that when new developments such as this are in their early stages, that a proper strategy is established with the input of all stakeholders in the sector, to ensure that research can take place with the pace and efficiency needed to bring impact to children as rapidly as possible. That’s why we were passionate to support and attend the meeting in Amsterdam in October to allow exactly that. We look forward to seeing the manuscript and publication that will follow in the coming months.
In November, we were delighted to attend Cancer Research UK’s inaugural Children and Young People’s Cancer Conference at the Royal Society in London. The day was packed with informative talks ranging from innovative tests to detect cancer earlier, to novel approaches to trial funding and delivery for small patient populations. Best of all, the day opened with two very poignant patient perspectives from Sarah, mum to Talan, and Shaumya. Their moving stories, plus the opportunity to meet in person with colleagues from across the sector made for a day in which children and families were at the front and center of presentations and conversations.
On top of these amazing events and many more, we’re rounding of the year with the annual meeting of our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), in which they review the progress of the projects in our portfolio as well as any new funding applications that we’ve received. Our Head of Research Leona, and Research Manager Leah have been hard at work preparing for the packed agenda, which includes a number of exciting new projects in the pipeline that we look forward to sharing more on in the New Year. As ever we are incredibly grateful to the experts that make up our esteemed SAB whose time and dedication ensures that we are doing the best we can for children with the generously donated resources we have.
Keep an eye out for lots of exciting news to come from the Research team in 2024!
