Yorkshire Lung Cancer Research Boosted by Funding
Much of the investment comes from existing investors White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund and Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR). This will enable the Cizzle team, led by Dr Dawn Coverley, to develop its research based on the gene Ciz1 which appears to influence DNA replication and cell growth.
In the UK there are 33,000 deaths from lung cancer each year and it is the second most common form of cancer in the developed world. The new funding will be used to confirm that targeting a mutated version of Ciz1 will inhibit the growth of some types of lung tumours in disease models. Further studies will start to evaluate the usefulness of Ciz1 as a marker for diagnosing patients with the same type of lung cancer. The ultimate aim would be to identify patients with disease at an early stage and to treat them with more effective drugs that have fewer side effects.
Says Rod Adams, chairman of Cizzle Biotechnology, “The funding will help us make significant progress with the research to develop a diagnostic test and therapy to combat lung cancer. This will see us through the next two years of development and we hope will allow us to expand the team to around six employees, including the appointment of a business development manager to help explore opportunities with large pharmaceutical companies.”
David Milroy of Aberdeen Asset Managers who manage the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund says, “We are delighted with Cizzle’s progress to date and believe the company has robust plans for validating its therapeutic strategy. The recently initiated development programme will provide key data for partnering discussions and will bring the company a step closer to providing an alternative for what is a poorly diagnosed and treated form of cancer.”
Email this item to a friend
Printer friendly version
Add your own comment
Receive new comments by email
