Re-write cancer in Manchester

In 2017, the Paterson building which housed one of our cancer research facilities, suffered a devastating fire. 

Over 300 of our scientists and support staff were displaced. It was a major setback to our research.

But from the ashes, the partnership between Cancer Research UK, The Christie and the University of Manchester has the opportunity to replace the severely damaged and outdated building with a research facility twice the size of the previous one and filled with state-of-the-art equipment.

With your help, we want to rebuild our new facility and double the number of patients who are offered access to a clinical trial. This will result in the introduction of new treatments and standard care pathways, which will improve cancer survival globally. 

The new facility will be a unique new collaborative space where scientists, researchers and patients can combine forces to change the face of cancer research.

Our exciting new research facility will open the door to more solutions to cancer and faster development of new treatments and tools, potentially saving millions of lives around the world.

Our new research facility is being custom designed to enable easy collaboration between hundreds of researchers and clinicians. 

The lower three floors include walkways directly into The Christie hospital, providing real-time access to patients. This unique approach will help deliver answers to cancer more quickly.

The new building will bring together the largest concentration of scientists, doctors and nurses in Europe to collaborate and accelerate progress for cancer patients. It will:

• INTEGRATE a further 400 researchers and staff to the existing headcount to speed up the pace of progress.
• CO-LOCATE clinical staff with laboratory-based researchers to enable closer collaboration and to drive forward improvements for patients.
• DEVELOP a world-leading centre of excellence for biomarker research.
• INSPIRE the scientific leaders of tomorrow and attract emerging talent with a new post-graduate education centre.
• CONNECT with the local community through a dedicated public education space and café on the lower ground floor.
• PROVIDE a collaborative research space to further joint research programmes with other leading research institutes.

This is a space that will attract and retain the world’s best and brightest minds as well as developing commercial interest from some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and other industry partners.

But most importantly, this research facility will lead to more clinical trials and will fast-forward our progress in developing new approaches to preventing and detecting cancer to improve patient outcomes and increase survival. 
 

We want to accelerate the ways we prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. Manchester is uniquely situated to drive this forward. It’s already home to some of the world’s leading experts and has a long history of excellence in cancer research. 

Manchester remains an international leader in the fields of proton beam therapy, gene therapy and immunotherapy and is home to The Christie Hospital, the biggest single-site, dedicated cancer hospital in Europe.

A snapshot of our thriving research community includes:

• A dedicated early phase clinical trial facility – the biggest in Europe, with more than 550 active trials currently taking place.
• The recently opened Proton Beam Therapy Centre – the first and the currently only one of its kind in the UK.
• The Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre – a state-of-the-art biomarker imaging facility.

From this platform, we want to climb further. We need support from you to recognise the opportunity and potential we have in Manchester. 

We have the understanding, the talent and the technology – we just need to match it with the funds. Help us create a collaborative space to work together and seize this pivotal moment in the history of cancer.

If we get it right, we’ll see progress against beating cancer at a speed and scale like never before.

More than a century ago, physicists knew how to bend a beam of radiation. But it took engineers, biologists and doctors working together to turn this into the radiotherapy machines that still provide one of the most effective ways to treat cancer today. 

It’s been proven time and time again that collaboration is the key to accelerating progress in science and research.

To tackle cancer head on, we need to bring fresh ideas and new perspectives to the table. One of the best ways to develop new ideas is by collaborating with other researchers – not just biologists with clinicians, but also physicists, chemists, mathematicians, engineers, data analysts and computer scientists. 

Our new research facility will be specifically designed to bring different disciplines together to:

• ENCOURAGE informal discussions and the sharing of ideas and technologies.
• STIMULATE discussion of pressing scientific and clinical problems.
• FOSTER a vibrant, lively community and remove barriers that previously stopped interaction.
• ATTRACT leaders from around the world who recognise and value the benefits of multidisciplinary collaboration.
• DEVELOP the next generation of cancer researchers and practitioners who will be schooled in a collaboration mindset.

The new building will become a model that inspires others locally, nationally and internationally to work more closely together to generate more ideas.