University of Oxford researchers get £1.7 million funding to develop lung cancer vaccine

The team of researchers will get the funding for the study over the next 2 years to support lab research and initial manufacturing of 3,000 doses of the vaccine at the Oxford Clinical BioManufacturing Facility.

The Researchers at the University of Oxford, the Francis Crick Institute and University College London have been granted funding of £1.7 million from Cancer Research UK and the CRIS Cancer Foundation to develop a lung cancer vaccine - ‘LungVax’.

As per the report, the vaccine uses technology similar to the one used in the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The scientists are creating this vaccine in the lab to show that the vaccine successfully triggers an immune response. If the lab experiment proves to be successful, the vaccine will move straight for clinical trial.

If the vaccine shows promising results during the early trial, it will be used for people at high risk of lung cancer. 

"Cancer is a disease of our own bodies and it’s hard for the immune system to distinguish between what’s normal and what’s cancer. Getting the immune system to recognise and attack cancer is one of the biggest challenges in cancer research today," said Professor Tim Elliott, the Kidani Professor of Immuno-oncology at the University of Oxford and research lead for the LungVax project.

University of Oxford finds risk factors for dementia

The study by researchers from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford revealed that traffic-related air pollution, diabetes, and alcohol intake are among the most harmful risk factors for dementia.

The researchers classified the so-called ‘modifiable’ risk factors of dementia and divided them into 15 broad categories including inflammation, pollution, hearing, sleep, socialisation, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, weight, alcohol consumption, smoking, depressive mood, diet, physical activity, and education.

"We know that a constellation of brain regions degenerates earlier in ageing, and in this new study we have shown that these specific parts of the brain are most vulnerable to diabetes, traffic-related air pollution − increasingly a major player in dementia − and alcohol, of all the common risk factors for dementia," said Professor Gwenaëlle Douaud, who led this study.

University of Oxford: Latest Update

While speaking at the Harvard Institute of Politics forum recently, Louise M. Richardson, former vice-chancellor of Oxford University, said universities can foster more discourse and education to help combat terrorism.

“Professor Allison would prefer me to talk about terrorism, but I want to talk about universities,” she said. “Of course, there is a practical link between the two," as reported by The Crimson.

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