03 NOV 09

Cancer Research Centre is Launched in Cardiff


A new Cancer Research UK Centre has been launched in Cardiff. The centre will focus on understanding the biology of leukaemia, urological cancers, breast cancer and bowel cancer to improve prevention, treatment and early detection of cancers.

The partnership between Cardiff University, Cancer Research UK, Velindre NHS Trust and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board hopes to better understand the variations in cancers found in patients and develop suitable treatments for individual cases. The centre will also work with the University to expand existing PhD programmes for training clinical and non-clinical postgraduates.

Local research in cancer biology is already supported by Cancer Research UK, the leading funder of cancer research in the UK, and the establishment of this centre brings an extra £2 million to the work in Cardiff over the next three years. The centres of excellence are part of a prioritised initiative by Cancer Research UK to provide a better understanding of the diseases.

The launch of the centre was announced in the same week as researchers in Cardiff University’s Department of Primary Health Care and Public Health are to be involved in a new five year programme to improve cancer diagnosis. The DISCOVERY programme, which will begin in January 2010, stems from a £1.94 million grant from the National Institute for Health Research. The grant will fund six projects, the findings of which have the potential to directly affect clinical practice and health policy. The projects range from issues at patient and GP level, such as reporting symptoms and referral practices, to a wider economic and societal review of the diagnostic system.

The expertise of researchers at Cardiff University will be drawn on as one of four universities working on the project led by Bristol University, alongside Durham, Cambridge and Oxford, as well as NHS Bristol.

11 OCT 09

Goldcliff Wetlands, South Wales

An American in Cardiff

I've had (nocturnal) Rachel staying with me in Cardiff this week. She's been learning things at the university (which is more than can be said for a lot of the Freshers I've bumped into this week, but that's another story) and I took the opportunity to show her around Cardiff. True to form nothing goes to plan and these, I believe, will be the most memorable moments of her trip:

1. Shortly after arriving we encountered a middle-aged lady wearing a washing basket on her head.

2. Dismembered pigeon wings on the pavement.

3. Hoards of screaming, drunk students littering the streets.

4. Having to call an ambulance to assist a man with a bleeding head after being bottled after a football match on Thursday evening.

5. Witnessing a passer-by ask a homeless man for 'change for a fiver' and proceeding to walk off when the homeless man pointed out that he somewhat lacked spare change.

So I apologise firstly to Rachel for such a strange visit to Cardiff, and also to Wales, for not giving our cross-Atlantic friends a very good impression of what I consider a fine, fine city!

16 JUN 09

Before heading back to the jungle from Kota Kinabalu we took a slight detour to bid farewell to our friends in Sukau. It was our last visit to the village for the foreseable future, certainly for this stay in Malaysia.
Whilst there we sorted out our data/computer issues with Mislin, visited some old friends in a village further downriver and were able to spend some time with the family at the homestay. We also took another trip to the study site where the orangutan-staff were following Jenny and her baby Mallotus. They were particularly 'un-bovvered', munching on leaves in a particularly tall tree, but it was a nice way to spend a day and say goodbye to the field-staff, for the time-being at least!

Of course, there's still a month to go, and a busy one at that. There are lots of jungle visitors scheduled in for the next four weeks, as well as the 2009 field course coming out from Cardiff... I have a feeling it's going to be a hectic time!

More soon,
Rachel