We caught up with Dr. Sandra Hanks, director of Curesponse’s UK Laboratory at the Innovation Gateway
Nestled within the London Cancer District is the Innovation Gateway, where a range of companies are delivering groundbreaking advances in life sciences and drug discovery.
The facility, a partnership between The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and Sutton Council, is home to the personalised cancer medicine start-up Curesponse, the only business of its type in the UK.
We caught up with Dr. Sandra Hanks, the director of its UK Laboratory, to learn more about her team’s discoveries and why collaboration is key in the fight against cancer.
Please can you tell us a bit about Curesponse and its objectives?
Curesponse is a commercial-stage precision oncology company, founded in Israel, that has developed cResponse™, a unique genomic-functional personalised cancer medicine platform which evaluates drug response in patient tumour tissues.
The cResponse™ platform combines rapid genomic sequencing with a functional assay that preserves the tissue’s architecture and microenvironment, enabling prioritisation of different therapeutic options for cancer patients. The technology works across the full therapeutic modality spectrum including chemotherapies, targeted therapies, immunotherapies and combinations of different drugs.
The test provides a critical decision-support tool for oncologists that enables more precise and personalised treatment planning. cResponse™ is also utilised by pharmaceutical companies to accelerate the discovery and development of new cancer drugs. Our mission at Curesponse is to enable truly personal therapy selection for cancer patients and expedite cancer R&D.
What does your role as UK Laboratory Director involve?
I am responsible for the overall operation and administration of our UK laboratory. This includes the recruitment and management of laboratory staff, equipment maintenance, safety, quality assurance, regulatory compliance and ensuring the accuracy and reliability of test results.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
I enjoy that I get to work with experts in their field and being part of a company that has developed a groundbreaking innovative test which has the potential to offer significant benefit to those treating cancer and their patients, as well as accelerating the discovery of new cancer drugs.
Are there any exciting projects or developments at Curesponse you’re able to share?
Curesponse is currently initiating commercial activities to support the clinical use of cResponse™ in the UK and EU, with expansion to the USA planned. We are also actively engaged in collaborations with 5 of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies, including Roche, to accelerate their drug discovery pipelines.
What inspired you to pursue a career in the industry?
I have always been passionate about science and have spent most of my career working in the cancer field, previously in academia at the ICR where I completed my PhD, and subsequently as a Laboratory Manager at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
My move to medtech was inspired by the opportunity to be part of a company that had developed a groundbreaking test to directly impact patient outcomes and enhance the quality of healthcare globally.
Have there been any particularly rewarding moments in your career so far?
I have been very privileged to have the opportunity to set up the Curesponse UK operations which has included gaining UKAS ISO 15189 medical laboratory accreditation as well as CE marking of cResponse™, essential to enable its commercial launch in the UK and Europe. I am also very proud to have been part of the successful global clinical validation of cResponse™.
What excites you most about the future of Curesponse?
cResponse™ is the world’s first platform that can offer patients, oncologists and pharmaceutical partners a truly empirical test that captures the sensitivity and resistance of an individual tumour to different drugs and drug combinations within two weeks from tissue sampling. I am very excited that our platform is available in the UK and EU, with plans to expand to the USA, to assist clinicians in identifying optimal treatments for their patients and accelerating drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry.
What do you like most about being based at Innovation Gateway?
Being located at Innovation Gateway offers Curesponse the opportunity to be part of the London Cancer District, with close proximity to world-leading organisations such as The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital. This provides unique opportunities to establish new collaborations to advance cancer care and cancer research and save lives.
Have you partnered with any other occupiers at Innovation Gateway?
We have collaborated with The Institute of Cancer Research’s Core Research Facilities and their Flow Cytometry team to assist our R&D work and we are currently planning further collaborations with other teams within The Institute of Cancer Research’s Core Research Facilities.
