Today, Thursday 20th March I went to the Cancer Research Institute in Manchester. I wanted to understand the process of how cancer develops and I also wanted to know more knowledge about the disease and how it can be treated.
Stuart Pepper, Chief laboratory Officer, introduced himself to the group and I. Luckily it was only a small group of 4 of us , myself and 3 others, who wanted to see the facilities as they are holding a fund raising event through their employers.
The Manchester Institute, started before Cancer research Uk and the site has over a hundreds years heritage into the research of cancer.
£12m per year is raised to help fund the Institute and this helps to govern a group of 12 research groups , which eventually will be expanding to 17 groups. The research groups are made up of 250 scientists. The Institute is situated next to Christies hospital, Manchester and is affiliated with the University of Manchester.
Due to the funding raised via Cancer research UK , the institute is a very independent due to this. Through the research, they are trying to understand cancer, find new ways to treat and diagnose it which in turn leads to patient benefits and they also also trying to detect cancer earlier.
Statistic time!
In the UK 333,000 people are diagnosed with cancer. This means 1 in 3 people will develop during their life time and this will result in 1 in 4 deaths. There are over 200 different types of cancer. (Cancer Research UK, 2014)
THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING HOW CELLS WORK
Every minute of each day the following cells are produced
- 300 million new red blood cells
- 12,000 new gut cells
- 40,000 new skin cells
This is a tight control process and its the process of how our bodies work. In order for this process to work , proteins inside the cells sends signals.
These signals are controlled by DNA , this is made up of a double helix and is known as a human GENO (very important!!) Damage to the DNA results in a domino effect.
Cancer happens when the instructions inside the cells are faulty. it takes only one cell for this whole sequence to go wrong and this results in a tumour/ cancer growth.
Any way , enough of the scientific theory, however to understand the tour properly you need to understand the background knowledge of how cancer develops.
So here is images from todays tour. A very big thank you to Stuart Pepper, Steve Bagley and of course Hannah Leaton. It has certainly helped me understand things more clearer.
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| Cancer cell image inside the stairwell - loved the separate panels, hmmm i feel inspired! |
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| Microscope which takes magnifies the cells and takes photographs of the cell development over a 5 day period. this is crucial research as it shows how a call develops over a time period |
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| same microscope as above. These are houses underneath the main offices in the basement and have to be kept at a certain temperature in order for the cells to reproduce. |
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| Another imaging microscope |
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| Cancer cell imaging in process |
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| Slide of a liver cancer cell with added dye to enable the naked eye to see it |
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| this slide has over 100 different cells formations on it. |
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| cancer cell imaging in process |
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| This is another microscopic imaging machine. This image shows how a cell travels which s also key into research. |
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| A whole room was taken up by this huge microscope (same as above) Laser light beams are used to enable the scientists to get a closer look inside. |
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| Manchester Institute of Cancer research. |
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| Site of new Manchester Cancer research centre being built. I was shown into the visitors centre, were an artists impression and slideshow was shown. The design also integrates the community and allows them to participate in visiting the centre. |
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| Right this is such an important part of cancer research. This machine is a GENO machine. It helps to find out what causes the GENO within a person to make them develop cancer.. This machine costs £250,000 and is used 4 times a month, once a week or 52 times a year. Over 20,000 people are treated at Christies each year and by using the GENO machine, this helps determine the exact treatment to use to help treat that persons particular cancer. |
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| A scientist within the lab! |
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| Inside the Lab |
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| This robot will decanter out experiments into small petri dishes (see images to gain an insight into how small the space is) This robot costs around £160,000 and can decanter over 96 samples at once. |
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| An example of petri dishes used within the robot above. |
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| More samples of petri dishes |
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| Another example of petri dishes. This sample can hold over 196 experiments. This enables different drugs to be added to a particular cancer sample to experiment how the drugs reacts and whether it is successful or not. |
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Name badge and research report 2012-13.
By donating to cancer research Uk, your donation will go towards laboratories like the one shown above. The insight after today's tour has helped me understand even more about the disease.
A very very big thank you to all at the Manchester Institute for allowing me to take my own photographs on the tour and also for their time and help.
Now, Lets get creative!!!!
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