International Women’s Day 2024 – A message from the MCRC Director
Friday 8th March marks International Women’s Day, a day where we are specifically reminded of the extraordinary talents and leadership of our female colleagues in cancer team science in Manchester.
Our commitment to diversity and inclusion at the MCRC in unwavering. It takes diverse talents, supported at all career stages and disciplines from professional services and professors to undergraduate and postgraduate trainees. Together we all support the pursuit of “Precision Medicine for All”.
Across our entire research portfolio, women are leaders or co-leaders at academic and operational levels covering institutions and programme grants. Some examples include:
- The Manchester Institute led by Professor Caroline Dive and Dr Caroline Wilkinson
- The Manchester RadNet Centre of Excellence co-led by Prof. Kaye Williams
- The Experimental Cancer Medicine Team led by Dr Natalie Cook
- Fiona Blackhall who leads the Christie Research and Innovation
Closer to home, the MCRC itself has outstanding female colleagues across our entire team. Notably at the senior leader level, we’re supported by many exceptional female role models, including Rachel Chown, who also leads our clinical academic training programme, Dr Nathalie Dhomen, Amanda Rees and Dr Sinéad Savage.
In addition, we should celebrate our many female researchers who lead best practice in research programming, programmatic leadership, gender-specific scientific hypothesis generation and analytics, best treatments, new models and living with and beyond cancer initiatives. A selection of stories from our researchers can be read below.
International Day of Women and Girls in Science day 2024
To mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science, MB-PhD students Yuki Zhou, Joanne Oke, and Jean Ling Tan share their experiences and challenges of working in STEM, as well as their advice for other women and girls thinking of a career in science and research.
"Health Economics: Is early detection cost effective?" with Katherine Payne
In this episode of One in Two: A Manchester Cancer Research Podcast, we speak to Professor Katherine Payne about health economics; what it is, its importance in cancer treatment and early detection strategies and the crucial role it plays in changing healthcare policy.
Looking outside the cell with Professor Sarah Cartmell: can we see where cancer starts?
In this episode of “One in Two: A Manchester Cancer Research Podcast” we speak to Professor Sarah Cartmell on her work in bioengineering and ex-vivo modelling which involves studying cancer cells outside of an organism.
Pioneering Treatment with Prof. Ananya Choudhury
Clinical oncologist Professor Ananya Choudhury is leading one of the world’s most innovative radiotherapy treatment machines here in Manchester. In this Cancer Futures article she tells us how the MR-linac is transforming patient outcomes since it started treating patients in 2019.
Bringing tomorrow’s medicines to patients today with Prof. Fiona Thistlethwaite
Working together to scale up cancer research activity and develop best practice is what Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite considers is the answer to increasing Manchester’s ability to deliver cell therapy clinical trials. She tells us how links across the city are being strengthened in order to help advance these cutting-edge treatments.
On this International Women’s Day 2024, join me in continued support for all women in cancer research and our commitment to their aspirations and ambitions for a future free of cancer.
I am delighted that the MCRC is supporting Dr Simona Valletta in an event to mark IWD 2024 at the Oglesby Cancer Research Building.
The day includes a selection of talks and workshops with many exciting and diverse speakers. I encourage all to attend to hear from our keynotes: Prof Rachel Cowen (Work Life Balance and Career Progression); Rachel Pooley (Taking an idea to market – my story); and Prof Irene Roberts (Mentorship). As well as an exciting panel session and workshops involving Dr Yee Pei Song, Adesewa Adebisi, Dr Sapna Lunj, Prof Irene Roberts, and Dr Nathalie Dhomen. All of these fantastic women are leaders in their field and we anticipate an exciting and inspiring event.
There is much more to do and support women to remove barriers and achieve progression to the most senior roles in leadership. A selection of these tangible actions will be covered in today’s workshop. In the long term, the MCRC remains committed to pursuing activities which:
- Increase representation of female academic leaders
- Provide mentoring and role models for aspiring researchers
- Reduce the barriers that would prevent anyone progressing in their career.
