An academic from Portugal has received a major research award to develop laboratory-grown cancer tumours for drug testing.
Some £350,000 is to be pumped into the project at the University of Minho, Portugal, with the aim of reducing animal testing and unsuccessful clinical trials.
The recipient, Professor Rui Reis, will create a unique tissue engineering platform to generate 3D cancer microenvironments.
Professor Reiss has been named as winner of the Institution of Engineering and Technology AF Harvey Engineering Research Prize.
He said: “Cancer has become the third most likely cause of death worldwide.
“One of the most serious obstacles facing scientists involved in the development and assessment of new anti-cancer drugs and therapies is the failure of preclinical cancer models being able to predict, in a reliable way, whether a given drug will have anti-cancer activity and acceptable toxicity in humans.
“Most animal models are not representative of human situations, and currently more than 70 to 80% of cancer research is based on 2D models which can’t accurately replicate the three dimensional properties of cancer cells such as tumours.”
He added: “I am honoured to receive this award that is considered by many to be one of the major international engineering awards. It is also a privilege to be the first winner whose career is based in a country that is not English-speaking and not a scientific powerhouse.”
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