Cancer has become the third most likely cause of death worldwide. Presently cancer is killing 8.5 million people per year and by 2030, this number is estimated to reach 12 million.Cancer has become the third most likely cause of death worldwide. Presently cancer is killing 8.5 million people per year and by 2030, this number is estimated to reach 12 million. 


One of the most serious obstacles facing scientists involved in the development and assessment of new anti-cancer drugs and therapies is the failure of preclinical cancer models able to predict, in a reliable way, whether a given drug will have anti-cancer activity and acceptable toxicity in humans.


Most animal models are not representative of human situations and currently, more than 70-80% of cancer research is based on 2D models.


Leading Portuguese scientist Professor Rui L. Reis has been named as the 2017 winner of the IET Harvey Prize – a £350,000 research grant. The prize is named after Dr A F Harvey, who bequeathed a huge sum of money to the IET upon his death to support scientific research in the fields of medical, microwave, laser or radar engineering. 


Reis has been working for decades on the development of innovative Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM) strategies. In his lecture, Prof. Reis will talk about how tissue engineering (TE) can help to solve this situation, by means of creating novel breakthrough and reliable 3D engineered functional cancer disease models that can help to predict the efficacy of novel cancer drugs and potential therapies, avoiding a range of unnecessary animal tests, and preclinical and clinical trials of doomed to fail new drugs.


Sir John O’Reilly, chair of the IET’s selection committee for the prize, pointed to Professor Reis’s research record, adding: 

“Trialling the efficacy of new anti-cancer drugs remains one of the biggest challenges facing scientists today and his breakthrough research in the field of 3D engineering of functional cancer disease models could accelerate the screening of new drugs and the approval of new treatments.”


Professor Reis will give a lecture on his research at IET London: Savoy Place on 20 March 2018. The lecture is free to attend and will be followed by a networking drinks reception. Join us from 6pm to learn more about this fascinating work.


Secure your place today by visiting: www.theiet.org/harvey