Springboard grant – Enhancing collaborations between the UK and Germany

Meeting in Munich

In January 2024, CanDetect Workstream 2 team members Dr Pilar Acedo and PhD student Kyra Fraser from the UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, received a 1-year Springboard Grant from the British Research Council to enhance research collaborations between the UK and Germany. Since then, they have travelled to Munich to connect with experts in pancreatic diseases, including cancer, and explore potential research and funding opportunities. Several aspects of ongoing collaborative projects focused on early detection were also discussed.

In September 2024, Kyra returned to the Technical University of Munich for a one-week internship, where she gained hands-on experience with surgical treatments and various scientific models of pancreatic cancer.

In December, the collaborating teams held an online webinar, during which Kyra presented her research on extracellular vesicles and their role in biomarker discovery. The Pereira/Acedo group have included members of the Munich team in several grant applications, and a new collaborative project is set to commence in Spring 2025.

Group photo