A scientist from Dundee has been awarded just over £200,000 by a Fife charity.
Dr Gareth Inman, a group leader at Dundee University’s biomedical research institute at Ninewells Hospital, will be studying what makes the body’s natural cancer-fighting cells turn dangerous.
His three-year grant has come from the St Andrews-based Association for International Cancer Research (AICR).
The focus of Dr Inman’s work will be a protein called TGF-beta, which he has previously shown to have anti-tumour properties.
He said: ”Healthy cells grow and multiply in a tightly controlled manner. Cancer occurs when the cells become able to proliferate in an uncontrolled manner, leading to the development of tumours.
”However, during the growth of some tumours they are able to switch TGF-beta from being anti-cancer to pro-cancer, but how, when and where this occurs is still unclear.
”Thanks to my funding, my team and I are now investigating this important switch further in an effort to understand the mechanisms behind it.”
AICR has supported Dr Inman’s work before. In 2003 he was the first recipient of its fellowship award, receiving £850,000 over six years to pay for studies on the behaviour of cancer cells.
Dr Lara Bennett, the charity’s science communications manager, said: ”Understanding the basic biology of how cancer begins is absolutely critical in the quest to develop and deliver more effective and individually-tailored cancer therapies for the patient.
”That is why AICR is committed to funding cutting-edge basic and bench to bedside cancer research. We fund the best cancer research proposals we receive, regardless of where in the world the research takes place.”
The charity has 197 active projects worth £37 million, involving scientists in 21 countries. Since it was set up it AICR has supported more than 1800 research projects costing £146 million around the world.