University scientist wins over £150,000 prize for cancer research

Dr Steve Royle, a scientist based at Warwick University, together with his team has won a £158,000 prize to go towards researching cancer.

Dr Royle, a Senior Research Fellow at Cancer UK and resident of Kenilworth, won the Cancer Research UK Pioneer Award; a Dragon’s Den-style funding process in which applicants make a five-minute pitch and are then awarded up to £200,000 by a panel of expert judges.

Anyone could submit their ideas, as experience in research was not prerequisite. Any idea which could help understand, diagnose or treat cancer was admissible for the competition.

Dr Royle’s previous work has contributed to the scientific community with an innovative analysis of brain tumour cells.

His work explains how the cell division process can result in cancer. It also shows how the number of chromosomes in a cell changes depending on the type of cancer.

According to Dr Royle, his research aims to “better understand how this process going wrong can cause cancer.” He hopes that by understanding this complex issue it can also be resolved.

In 2016, 30,400 people were diagnosed with cancer in the West Midlands. However, the West Midlands Clinical Network has published information which shows survival rates improving over the last five years.

In the future, Dr Royle is planning to focus his research on drug-based solutions. He aims find out whether drugs could be developed which would prevent the unequal division of chromosomes that can cause cancer.

In the UK and worldwide, many associations are working to combat this disease, and with the help of scientific research, they are finding different solutions to treat it. Meanwhile, charities such as Cancer Research UK are helping those affected by raising public awareness and calling for donations that can help research towards beating the disease.