Michaela and Ferda write:
Who are we?
We are Dr Michaela and Dr Ferda, two scientists from the University of Cambridge, who have spent years studying cancer. Right now we are trying to tackle the biggest global cancer killer: lung cancer.
Contribute Now [funding campaign closes on 11 December]
Why lung cancer?
Lung cancer is highly aggressive and survival rates have remained stubbornly low over the past few decades. Our progress against it has not been fast enough.
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We want to change that.
But it’s no easy task, the lung is a complex organ and we struggle to see the full picture. Lung cancer is intelligent, to beat it we need to learn more about how it grows, how it develops and how it becomes resistant to treatments.
Building lung tissue
To gain a better understanding we are approaching the disease from a new angle. We recently revealed a type of cell in the lung called a stem cell.
It has the ability to develop into many different types of cell found in the lung:
This forms the basis of our idea. We want to grow these stem cells into a piece of 3D lung tissue in an instrument called a bioreactor. By using a bioreactor, we can create the perfect conditions to grow human lung tissue outside of the body.
A new perspective
This process will give a 3D model to study what happens when lung cancer develops.
No cell acts alone. Cells communicate with each other all the time. Cells grown in 3D will give us a much clearer picture than those grown in a Petri dish.
So we are aiming to shift the focus from the dish to actual lung tissue and introduce cancer cells to understand how they interact with the healthy lung cells.
Why back our campaign?
Our funding target is £75,000. This covers the costs of growing and maintaining the lung tissue over the course of a year.
Our funding target is £75,000. This covers the costs of growing and maintaining the lung tissue over the course of a year. It’s no easy job, it takes researcher time and the careful construction of the bioreactor, a smart piece of kit that creates the perfect conditions for growth.
By pledging towards this research you are supporting a groundbreaking new approach in the battle against cancer. We’re offering some great rewards as a token of our appreciation.
Our goal is fixed. Meaning that if we don’t reach our target by the end of the campaign, money you have pledged will be returned and this project won’t happen now.
What is the impact of this research?
This research could be game-changing for drug testing, matching treatments to patients and beyond.
It could mean a future where it’s possible to take an individual patient’s cancer cells, and rapidly test treatments on them using a 3D model lung, helping to understand which ones would be the most effective.
Risks and challenges?
As with all experiments, the outcome can’t be guaranteed but our lab has proven expertise in stem cell and cancer research. Nobody is better placed to make this happen. That’s why our campaign is being supported by Cancer Research UK.
Thank you.
If you have reached this far down the page then we’d like to say thank you. We would really appreciate your pledge and your company on this project. We want to bring you along with us, and keep you posted on all the interesting twists and turns on this journey of discovery.
If you find this research as exciting as we do and care about this cause as much as we do, then please share our project with the people you know - across your social networks, on your blog, anywhere is helpful because a single pound could decide whether or not this happens.
Contribute Now [funding campaign closes on 11 December]
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