The Convergence Discovery Research theme focuses on enhancing our understanding of cancer biology and translating this into patient benefit through transformative, proof-of-concept, investigator-initiated clinical trials. 

The primary focus of this theme is to support collaborative endeavours that develop new technologies to address currently intractable problems in cancer biology, and to translate these innovation to the clinic, whenever possible. Closely supported by our Clinical Development initiative, our Convergence Discovery Research theme aims to create a virtuous loop between Discovery and Clinical research (Iterative and reverse translation), allowing clinical trial materials (e.g, trial data, liquid and solid biopsies) to drive Discovery Research to, in return, inform and guide future clinical trials. The Convergence Science Centre strongly support the development of 3D patient-derived cancer models – including organoids, co-culture systems, organ on a chip and explant cultures. Our ambition is to engage engineering and physical science (EPS) research groups to utilise the extraordinary potential of patient-derived models to solve unanswered biological questions, and find solutions to unmet clinical needs. This mission will also require a multi-modal Data Science approach combining OMICs, imaging, and mixed-methods research data to decipher in depth what the cancer biology can tell us in term of cancer emergence, adaptation, response to treatment, resistance, metastasis and recurrence.