News

The PANACEA team was invited to present at the ‘Innovation in the early diagnosis of cancer event’ at the BMA House, London, hosted by NHS Cancer Programme.

Mohamed Abulazayem has sampled the first participant of the HOPE study at Hammersmith Hospital and Meadows Centre for Health.

The VAPOR team was invited to join Pancreatic Cancer UK at the Association of Medical Research Charities showcasing event at the House of Commons. We were delighted to have the opportunity to discuss the urgent need for earlier detection in pancreatic cancer with ministers and MPs, and demonstrate our breath test in action.

Congratulations to Ilaria Belluomo for being awarded the Department of Surgery & Cancer’s ‘Kindness towards colleagues in the department’ award!

Congratulations to Ilaria Belluomo for being promoted to Research Fellow!

Congratulations to Philip Leung for being awarded the Provost’s Outstanding Achievement Award!

The awards recognises Philip’s achievements beyond academics, where he has worked with many schools on engagement initiatives, supported students to win university scholarships, and empowered BAME youth through entrepreneurship.

Congratulations to Nader Habib Bedwani for being awarded a Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Fellowship!

This funding will allow Nader to undertake his research project “Immune-derived volatile biomarkers in oesophageal adenocarcinoma”.

Congratulations to Caoimhe Walsh for being awarded her Clinical Research Training Fellowship from Medical Research Council (MRC)!

This funding will allow Caoimhe to undertake her research project “INvestigating the Source of volatile organic compounds in Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma using cancer-associated fIbroblast-oRganoid co-culturEs”.

Congratulations to Ilaria Belluomo for being awarded the Emerging Leader Fellowship Award from Epilepsy from Epilepsy Research Institute UK!

This funding will go towards our study, VIBES, which aims to develop our breath test for epilepsy diagnosis and seizure prediction.

The VAPOR team was invited to give a talk at the Pancreatic Cancer UK Discovery and Translational Research Forum 2024 in Liverpool on “The interface between technology and biology in pancreatic cancer: Developing a breath test for pancreatic cancer detection”.

The Imperial VOC team was awarded a Continuation Funding Grant by Rosetrees and Stoneygate Trust to undertake the VOCAL2 clinical study: “Development of a breath test using Volatile Organic markers for monitoring Cirrhosis And detecting primary Liver Tumours”.

We are running a national public survey on using a breath test to assess general health and detect cancer early. https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4ZW3G5V5TFb2O7c

Congratulations to Sameera Sharma for being awarded an NIHR fellowship! The funding will enable her to conduct the Volatile Organic Compounds as Breath Biomarkers in Squamous Oesophageal Neoplasms (ViSON) study. The ViSON study is investigating the role of breath biomarkers in the detection of oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas.

An enjoyable day at the VAPOR Collaborators’ meeting. Thank you to everyone that attended!

NIHR has provided funding for a Health Technology Research Centre at Imperial College which will focus on diagnostics to improve healthcare.

GutsUK and Channel 4 visited the lab to find out more about breath analysis. Find out more here: https://www.channel4.com/news/breath-test-to-detect-esophageal-cancer-could-be-a-breakthrough-for-testing-other-cancers

Caoimhe Walsh and Ayushi Pabari completed the first site initiation visit for our VAPOR study at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

Pallavi Arya, Philip Leung, Ayushi Pabari, Munir Tarazi, Niamh McGowan and Ella Jameson at the collection of our first sample for our AROMA study.

Congratulations to Michael Fadel on being awarded an NIHR fellowship! The funding will enable him to conduct the COlorectal BReath Analysis (COBRA) study. The COBRA study is investigating the role of breath biomarkers in the detection of colorectal cancer.

Congratulations to Ilaria Belluomo and Philip Leung for winning at this years Department of Surgery and Cancer Awards! Ilaria won the “Most Significant Contribution to Improving Departmental Culture Award” for her work with The Academic Women’s Association Team, and Philip won the “Supporting the Student Experience Award”.