Manchester Voices: A student podcast from The University of Manchester

Students Maansi, Khadijat and our host Georgia, discuss the things you need to think about before coming to university. How easy is it to make friends? What is the step-up like? What's it like coming from abroad? Is studying a lot harder? 

In this episode, we speak to Professor Caroline Dive, Professor of Cancer Pharmacology at The University of Manchester, Interim Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute and Director of the CRUK Cancer Biomarker Centre, about cancer biomarkers in lung cancer, focussing on:

• Establishing a Cancer Biomarker Centre in Manchester
• Developing liquid biopsies such as circulating tumour cells (CTCs), circulating free DNA (cfDNA) and circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA)
• The future of integrating novel biomarkers into the clinic

Show notes:  

About the CRUK MI Cancer Biomarker Centre: https://www.cruk.manchester.ac.uk/Our-Research/Cancer-Biomarker-Centre

Professor Caroline Dive’s research profile: https://www.crukcentre.manchester.ac.uk/team-members/caroline-dive/

cfDNA methylome profiling for detection and subtyping of small cell lung cancers: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-022-00415-9

The evolution of lung cancer and impact of subclonal selection in TRACERx: https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=3CNlPIMAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=3CNlPIMAAAAJ:e84hm74t-eoC

Pulmonary venous circulating tumour cell dissemination before tumour resection and disease relapse: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6986897/

 Speaker profile:   

Upon completing her PhD studies in Cambridge, Professor Caroline Dive moved to Aston University’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Birmingham where she established her own group studying mechanisms of drug-induced tumour cell death, before moving to The University of Manchester to continue this research. Caroline was awarded a Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine Research Fellowship before joining the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (CRUK MI) in 2003.

Currently, she is Interim Director of the Institute and Director of its Cancer Biomarker Centre, with research spanning tumour biology, biomarker discovery and preclinical pharmacology alongside regulated laboratories for biomarker assay validation and qualification within clinical trials to Good Clinical Practice standards supporting clinical decision-making.

Caroline was awarded the Pasteur-Weizmann/Servier International Prize in 2012 for her Biomarker Research, the AstraZeneca Prize for Women in Pharmacology in 2016 and was presented with the 2019 Heine H. Hansen Lectureship Award by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). In 2018, Caroline was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her services to cancer research. Most recently, she became an elected member of EMBO (2020), received the inaugural Johann Anton Merck Award in recognition for exceptional contributions to the field of preclinical oncology (2020) and was the recipient of the Mary J. Matthews Pathology/Translational Distinguished Service Award by IASLC (2021). Caroline was President of the European Association for Cancer Research from 2020 – 2022.

Students Aidan, Maansi and Irene talk about what they were most worried about before starting their studies at university. They talk about making friends, accommodation and much more, as they battle the misconceptions of starting university.

Three of our students - Khadijat, Dorsa and Dara - talk about their wellbeing and mindfulness techniques. They hope these tips will help those of you who are applying to university, as this is the kind of advice they wished they had at that time.

In this episode, we speak to Dr Colin Lindsay, Clinical Senior Lecturer at The Christie and The University of Manchester about the basic biology of lung cancer, focusing on:

• The high incidence of lung cancer here in Manchester
• The differences between non-small cell and small-cell lung cancer
• Oncogenic drivers in lung cancer such as the KRAS mutation
• His work on the drug sotorasib which targets KRAS mutant cancer and has now been approved by the FDA and for use in the UK by NICE

Colin Lindsay's research profile

EPAC-lung: European pooled analysis of the prognostic value of circulating tumour cells

KRAS: Reasons for optimism in lung cancer 

On target: Rational approaches to KRAS inhibition for treatment of non-small cell lung carcinoma 

Sotorasib versus docetaxel for previously treated non-small-cell lung cancer with KRASG12C mutation: a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial

Molecular characterization of primary and secondary resistance to RET inhibitors in patients

with advanced NSCLC and RET fusions (2022) https://www.ejcancer.com/article/S0959-8049(22)00871-1/fulltext

Students Madi, Georgia and Aidan talk about the city of Manchester, in England, UK. They discuss sober nights out, the best places to go for a drink, the nicest restaurants, the cheapest places for students and their ideal weekend for any new student. 

In this episode, The University of Manchester students Khadijat, Dara and Dorsa reminisce about the exam period and how they managed their wellbeing. 

In our opening episode of Manchester Voices, students Madi, Grace and Georgia get together to talk all about revising, exams and wellbeing through the stressful period of exams. They share their experiences from before joining the University and what they've learnt about studying since arriving at Manchester.

In this special episode, we speak to Dr Jen Davies-Oliveira, a researcher and PhD student at The University of Manchester and Stewart O’Callaghan, the Founder and Chief Executive of Live Through This, the UK’s only LGBTQIA+ Cancer charity. We discuss challenges that LGBTQIA+ people face when accessing cancer care in the UK, Jen’s research project in alternative cervical screening which aims to tackle some of these inequalities and Stewart’s experiences as a person living with cancer, how they came to set up their charity and how it is aligned with research. 

Live through this: https://livethroughthis.co.uk/

Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust: https://www.jostrust.org.uk/

Answer cancer GM: https://www.answercancergm.org.uk/

LGBT foundation: https://lgbt.foundation/

Peaches Womb Cancer Trust: https://peachestrust.org/ 

Let's Talk Climate: Professors Kevin Anderson and Mat Paterson discuss carbon offsetting and if it's helping or hindering climate action. 

Kevin's research and Twitter:

https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/kevin.anderson.html 

https://twitter.com/KevinClimate  

Mat's research and Twitter:

https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/matthew.paterson.html 

https://twitter.com/MatPaterson