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AI-VISION project secures Innovate UK funding to advance precision medicine
A collaborative project between Durham, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), The Royal Marsden Hospital, and techbio company Concr, has been awarded a prestigious Innovate UK grant. The AI-VISION project, which will play a pivotal role in advancing precision (genetically tailored) medicine, has secured a grant of £1million.
Advancing cancer therapies
Leading researchers from our Institute for Computational Cosmology and world-leading Department of Physics will use their astronomy expertise to help model the success of cancer therapies using new data technologies.
The grant will fund an observational clinical study of tissue samples from patients with early triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). These samples will be profiled to define and validate biomarkers of chemotherapy response, with and without immunotherapy.
The funding will help towards meaningful strides in clinical validation of new technologies, demonstrating how it may improve the treatment decision making process for cancer patients.
Linking genomic data to clinical data
The current standard of cancer care is the physician making the "best" choice using clinical and pathology data alone.
Despite significant advances in molecular genomic profiling, there is currently no licensed platform linking tumour molecular data to predict drug responses for TNBC in the clinic.
For the first time AI-VISION will link genomic data to clinical data from TNBC samples using Concr’s proprietary platform FarrSight®, to identify and validate biomarkers of response.
Image top right: The EAGLE simulated universe from Durham’s Institute for Computational Cosmology and the Virgo Consortium.
Find out more
- Durham’s lead researcher on the project is Professor Richard Massey, in our Department of Physics. Richard is a member of Durham’s Institute for Computational Cosmology and Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy.
- The AI-VISION project involves techbio company Concr and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, with a trial to be carried out with doctors at The Royal Marsden Hospital.
- Find out more about how Durham astronomers are applying their research skills to cancer research.
- Our Department of Physics is a thriving centre for research and education. Ranked 2nd in the UK in The Guardian University Guide 2024 and in the World Top 100 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023, we are proud to deliver a teaching and learning experience for students which closely aligns with the research-intensive values and practices of the University.
- Feeling inspired? Visit our Physics webpages to learn more about our postgraduate and undergraduate programmes.