Scientists have beaten off tough competition from around the world to win a grant for their cutting-edge cancer research.

Dr Chris Norbury, based at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund's Laboratory at Oxford University's Institute of Molecular Medicine, in Headington, Oxford, has been awarded a share of £3.8m for research in cancer detection.

The grant, from the Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) will fund Dr Norbury's specialist work over the next three years.

Dr Norbury said: "Cancer cells frequently acquire resistance to multiple types of anti-cancer therapy, limiting the effectiveness of current treatments for most tumour types.

"We have found that genes involved in this type of multi-drug resistance have been conserved in evolution from yeast to humans.

"By studying these genes, and the proteins they make, we hope to find ways to overcome the resistance of cancer cells to anti-cancer thera- pies."

Dr Norbury said the AICR grant would allow him and his team to make the most of rapid advances being made in this area of cancer research.

Derek Napier, chief executive of AICR said: "Dr Norbury's project was judged highly by our expert panel and we are delighted to be able to fund it."

Story date: Monday 05 April

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