QM cancer researcher wins prestigious new award

Dr Melania Capasso

Dr Capasso fought off tough competition from high profile researchers across the UK to win with her proposal for research on lymphoma.

She said: “It is very exciting to receive this award at a time when funding for research is less available. It is great to have more collaborative projects between industry and academia. This funding will allow us to gain a greater insight into common blood cancers such as lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia that remain incurable with current treatment. Hopefully it will lead to a new cure to take to the clinic.”

The applications for the Awards were reviewed by GSK in the first instance and subsequently evaluated by an independent panel of UK leaders in cancer research who shortlisted five proposals and selected the winning proposal.

Commenting on the entries, judging panel member Professor Alan Ashworth said: “Joint industry-academic research efforts are vital in the quest for furthering scientific progress – especially in the current climate. With this award, GSK have created an exciting opportunity to support and showcase cutting-edge UK research and it was fascinating to be involved in the judging process.  All the finalist proposals were outstanding in their potential to further scientific progress in cancer research so choosing the final winner was a difficult decision.”

Simon Jose, General Manager, GSK UK commented: “GSK aims to be a partner of choice for oncology research in the UK and we thank all those who took the time to nominate future researchers for this Award. We recognise the positive benefits for both science and patients that result from joint industry-academic research efforts, which is why we value the opportunity to work together with academic researchers and offer our support and industrial facilities. We wish the winner every success with their research project and will keenly follow their progress.”