Cancer research work by University of Leeds experts moves into vital new phase

A research project that aims to revolutionise the way cancer is treated has taken a significant step forward.
Prof Stephen Evans.Prof Stephen Evans.
Prof Stephen Evans.

As previously reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post, experts at the University of Leeds and Leeds’s two main hospitals have been studying how so-called ‘microbubbles’ could be used to fight the disease.

The Leeds scientists have already developed two pieces of microbubble technology – and now they have teamed up with Medicines Discovery Catapult for the latest stage of the project.

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Operating from laboratories at Alderley Park in Cheshire, Medicines Discovery Catapult is a Government-backed national centre of excellence in the field of drug research.

The three-year collaboration will establish whether microbubbles – which are one thousandth of a millimetre in diameter – are a viable method of delivering cancer treatment in humans.

It is hoped that injecting microbubbles filled with drugs into a patient’s bloodstream could spare them the harrowing side-effects normally associated with chemotherapy.

One of the machines developed in Leeds can produce a billion microbubbles in the space of a few minutes.

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The other machine devised by the Leeds team would use ultrasound to burst the bubbles remotely in the bloodstream.

The University of Leeds’s Prof Stephen Evans said: “This collaboration will take existing research to the next stage and aims to validate the technology on a range of drug molecules, developing it to a stage suitable for future consideration in humans.”

Dr Peter Simpson, chief scientific officer at Medicines Discovery Catapult, said: “[We are] here to help translate the best new technology and innovations – like microbubbles – into groundbreaking products.

“Our industry expertise and research rigour mean we’re expertly placed to support world class academic endeavour, in this case with our partners at the University of Leeds.”