Re-Write cancer: £5m boost for new world-class cancer centre in Manchester
13 Jan 2020
Bringing together the largest concentration of scientists, doctors and nurses in Europe, new facility will open in 2022 and be twice the size of the fire-damaged Paterson building
The University has been awarded a major £5million funding boost by The Wolfson Foundation that will help build a new world-class cancer research facility in Manchester.
The new building will bring together the largest concentration of scientists, doctors and nurses in Europe to collaborate and accelerate progress for cancer patients. The new facility is due to open in 2022 and will be twice the size of the Paterson building which was extensively damaged by fire in 2017.
The £5million gift will go towards the 'Re-Write Cancer' campaign, a £20million joint fundraising appeal from the University, Cancer Research UK and The Christie Charitable Fund. It aims to help meet the cost of a new £150million cancer research facility.
The building itself will adjoin The Christie NHS Foundation Trust so it can enhance collaboration between the partners and enable Manchester to lead the world in recruiting patients to clinical trials within a decade. Such trials are vital to find out if new treatments are safe and better than current treatments. This could see more patients receiving new cancer treatments leading to improved outcomes and survival rates.
President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nancy Rothwell, said: “We are extremely grateful to The Wolfson Foundation for this incredible boost to our Re-Write Cancer fundraising campaign. This gift is testament to the high regard in which the University, in partnership with The Christie and Cancer Research UK, is held internationally in cancer research.”
Professor Nicholas Jones, who is the project lead for the new building, added: “This is an exceptionally generous contribution and we are very excited about the opportunity it gives us to enhance our world-class research and accelerate the development and implementation of new treatments. With this investment and ongoing fundraising we can realise our ambition to be one of the top comprehensive cancer research centres in the world.”
The Wolfson Foundation is an independent charity that supports and promotes excellence in the fields of science, health, education and the arts and humanities. Since it was established in 1955, over £900 million (£1.9 billion in real terms) has been awarded to more than 11,000 projects throughout the UK, all on the basis of expert review.
Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: "We are happy to be continuing our longstanding partnership with the University. Our expert reviewers were hugely impressed by the ambition and quality of the research that will be supported by this new building. Manchester has become an international powerhouse in cancer research. There could be few more important subjects - and increasingly it is clear there could be few better places to study this most pernicious of disease areas."