Team Science at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre
This article was originally published in Issue One of Discover: Cancer Research In Manchester. All articles are available to read on the MCRC website and a PDF version can be accessed through the links at the end of the page.
Behind every discovery is a team of dedicated scientists working together to achieve a common goal. Long gone is the idea of a lone scientist working in a single lab making headway against a disease as complex as cancer.
This transformative approach, known as Team Science, is re-defining how we tackle the biggest challenges in cancer research, driving discoveries from the lab into the clinics for patients.
At the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC), Director, Professor Robert Bristow champions this way of working, ensuring collaboration is at the centre of every stage of the research process.
Team Science starts by defining an important problem: what global cancer challenge needs to be tackled with a group effort? Next, it is about approaching the problem as a team to find a solution. Open communication, diverse idea generation and innovative collaboration is key at this stage to build a team with complementary and multidisciplinary expertise suited to solve the problem at pace and scale.
Professor Robert Bristow
Director of the MCRC
Cancer Team Science
“Team Science can be implemented in multiple ways, but its guiding principles are rather simple, it relies on goal alignment and scientific altruism” Professor Robert Bristow says.
“Team Science starts by defining an important problem: what global cancer challenge needs to be tackled with a group effort? Next, it is about approaching the problem as a team to find a solution. Open communication, diverse idea generation and innovative collaboration is key at this stage to build a team with complementary and multidisciplinary expertise suited to solve the problem at pace and scale”.
The MCRC embodies this approach to Team Science. Formed in 2006 by The University of Manchester, Cancer Research UK and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, the MCRC works to achieve what one organisation alone could not, making research, innovations and progress possible.
“Team Science expands beyond organisational and even national boundaries. Cancer is a global challenge, impacting everyone in some manner, so why should our response not be equally international?”
“Take early detection as an example. A ‘traditional’ approach might see laboratory scientists identifying biomarkers in a lab to detect cancer earlier, while separately a clinician leads work to implement screening and local governments work to improve healthcare services”.
“But why not bring all these people together?”
“This is what we are doing in Manchester. Focusing on Early Detection, Manchester are founding partners in the International Alliance for Cancer Early Detection, a £50m alliance between centres in the US, UK and Europe. Initiatives like this bring international experts in laboratory, clinical and population science together with patients, public, and policymakers across the globe to solve major problems”.
