This year, the 2024 Government Science and Engineering Infinity award was given to Nuffield Department of Medicine’s Associate Professor Lennard Lee and his team at the Office for Life Sciences. His team was awarded the prize for advancing the field of cancer vaccines. The project was picked from a competitive field, spanning UK Space projects, mega-rail projects, super-computer and AI initiatives.
Cancer vaccines are designed to help the immune system recognise abnormalities seen in a cancer, potentially helping individual develop better immunity against the disease.
Lennard and his team at Office for Life Sciences, Julia Heckenast, Beth Teo, Jo Parkes-Newton established a successful cancer vaccine advance. They facilitated national technology partnerships, assisted the opening of clinical trial sites, empowered NHS to create new products like the Cancer vaccine launchpad, and accelerated trial recruitment. The programme aims to establish new cutting-edge treatment opportunities to those with cancer.
As a result of efforts empowering our best cancer centres, the UK is widely acknowledged as the best place in the world to run cancer vaccine trials, routinely topping global cancer vaccine trials recruitment. The UK is also on track to place 10,000 people through trials by 2030, launch trials across multiple cancer types and to stimulate advances in other countries.
Dr Lennard Lee said ‘This award was a really lovely surprise. Vaccine technology has the potential to help against cancer. It was my honour to build on the success of the Nuffield Department of Medicine, which created the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID vaccine. This laid the foundation for cancer advances, ensuring this flagship endeavour was also a success. Every day, patients with cancer are benefitting from access to trials, and this is bringing investment and additionally showing our scientific capabilities as a nation and as a world leading University’.