Cancer Research Technology (CRT) has teamed up with Astrazeneca in a multi-project alliance in which around 30 scientists will focus on creating a stream of new anti-cancer drugs.
CRT is the commercialisation and development arm of Cancer Research UK.
The three-year alliance will focus on a portfolio of projects selected by CRT from Cancer Research UK's portfolio of biological research in the emerging field of cancer metabolism.
Cancer metabolism research seeks to explain why cancer cells use energy differently to normal cells in order to survive and grow, particularly under the conditions of nutrient and hypoxic stress faced by rapidly growing tumours.
New drugs that control a cell's metabolism could attack an 'Achilles heel' of the tumour while sparing normal tissues.
The team will work at CRT's Discovery Laboratories in London and Cambridge, and Astrazeneca's cancer research centre near Manchester.
The scientists will seek to develop small molecules that attempt to target the changes to a cell's metabolism - attempting to deprive cancer cells of the nutrients they need to grow and survive.
Astrazeneca will take the most promising projects forward into pre-clinical and clinical drug development through an innovative model for sharing the risks and potential rewards in creating new anti-cancer treatments.
CRT will receive milestone payments and royalties on the projects that Astrazeneca take into clinical development.
