Current pancreatic and biliary research funded by BRIGHT

current pancreatic and biliary research funded by BRIGHT, we have:

1. Funded Mr Nabeel Merali (surgical trainee now in 3^rdyear of PhD) and now also Mr Bhavik Patel (surgical trainee in 1^st year of PhD) at University of Surrey.
2. Recruited more than 300 patients at the Royal Surrey into the CIRCUS study (Circulating RNAs as Clinically Useful Biomarkers) which is looking at molecules in the blood, bile and tumour to help diagnose pancreatic cancer earlier and also predict whether certain treatments will be / assess if treatments have been successful.
3. We have collaborated with University of Wisconsin and Oxford to perform one of the largest studies in the world looking at ctDNA (circulating DNA) in the blood as biomarkers for pancreatic cancer in >600 patients. We hope to publish in a high impact journal like the New England Journal of Medicine.
4. Had a paper recently accepted in Experimental Haematology & Oncology looking at microRNAs (small cancer genes) in the bile juice of patients with pancreatic cancer as biomarkers that could help stratify the disease better at the time of endoscopy before surgery.
5. We have had success looking at the microbiome (bacteria) in both the bile juice and tumour tissue in pancreatic cancer in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and Birmingham. We are hoping to identify “bad bugs” which are associated with poor survival from pancreatic cancer that may need to be eliminated with antibiotics, and conversely “good bugs” that may need to be given back to the patient, in order for chemotherapy treatment to be more successful.
6. We have started a collaboration with University of Glasgow and Birmingham to understand the “spatial biology” of pancreatic cancer in 1000 patients where we will look at all the genes (“spatial transcriptomics”)  in a tumour (after surgical resection) and reveal how the cancer cells interact with the immune system. This will reveal new targets for anti-cancer immunotherapies. This technique is incredibly expensive and we need to fundraise, but will generate a wealth of information to answer some of the most difficult questions in pancreatic cancer and will provide a massive resource for the scientific community. It will hopefully lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms behind pancreatic cancer, and allow the discovery of more effective treatments, and therefore will improve patient outcomes / survival.

The head of this research id Dr Adam Frampton, trustee of Bright.