12 Nov 2024
Charity founded by Noel Fitzpatrick in 2014 says One Medicine Cancer Discovery Fund aims to encourage multi-disciplinary and collaborative exploration to tackle cancer for animal and human patients.
Vet Times
Job Title
Noel Fitzpatrick, who set up the charity.
A charity set up by Noel Fitzpatrick has announced a £250,000 fund for research projects that could benefit humans and animals with cancer.
The One Medicine Cancer Discovery Fund has been created by the Humanimal Trust and is designed to encourage multi-disciplinary and collaborative research that can:
• Improve cancer diagnosis and understanding of cancer disease biology
• Develop new cancer treatments or improve existing treatments
• Improve quality of life for humans and animals with cancer
Iva Hauptmannova, research support consultant at Humanimal Trust, said: “Cancer does not discriminate between species. Approximately one in four dogs, one in three cats and as many as one in two humans will develop cancer during their lifetime.
“We know that tumour biology, development and prognosis can be remarkably similar between humans and animals for certain types of cancer.
“This, and other factors, such as humans and companion animals living in the same environment and many sharing similar lifestyles, opens up huge opportunities for cross-disciplinary knowledge sharing and learning between human and animal researchers, and clinicians in cancer research.”
Expressions of Interest should be submitted by 5pm on 29 December 2024 and successful applicants will be invited to submit a full application, which will be assessed by the charity’s science committee, made up of leading human and animal health professionals, academics and researchers from around the world.
Roberto La Ragione, chair of trustees at Humanimal Trust and interim chair of the science committee, said: “A collaborative, one medicine approach can and will benefit all species and ensure a more sustainable future.
“We believe the integration of ‘natural’ or ‘spontaneous’ disease data from companion animals into clinical development programmes has the potential to accelerate clinical and drug development research for all species.”
Further details are available at the Humanimal Trust website.
