Centenary Conference
Professor Sir David Lane
To celebrate its milestone 100th anniversary at the forefront of the fight against cancer, The Institute of Cancer Research has been running a series of special centenary events.
In June the ICR held a conference on the theme of Cancer Genes: Discovery and Exploitation. The fully-booked conference took place in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in the heart of London, just a short walk from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament.
Opening the conference, Professor Peter Rigby, Chief Executive, gave a fascinating historical overview of 100 years of the ICR.
Speaking at the conference were two keynote speakers from outside the ICR: Sir David Lane, Director of the Cancer Research UK Transformation Research Group at the University of Dundee, and Dr Alan Hall, Chair of Cell Biology at the Sloan-Kettering Institute. David Lane, a leading expert on the p53 gene who was knighted in 2000 for his services to cancer research, spoke on 'Curing Cancer' and Alan Hall on “Rho GTPases and the cell biology of cancer progression”. Dr Hall’s name will be familiar to old hands at the ICR. In the eighties and early nineties he worked here as a molecular biologist. Since leaving the ICR he has risen to become Program Chairman at the prestigious Sloan-Kettering Institute. In recognition of his achievements in cancer science, he will be awarded an honorary degree by the ICR in November this year at the ICR’s award ceremony.
Hall and Lane, and the conference's other speakers, helped spark some lively discussion. The assembled delegates exchanged latest findings and debated points of contention.
The poster exhibition was also very successful - enabling internal and external students and staff to showcase their work alongside the latest findings of external organisations.
A reception was held at the House of Lords for distinguished guests, to thank them for their contributions to the ICR. The event was sponsored by Farrer & Co, the ICR's lawyers since inception, one hundred years ago!
Together, it was an extremely memorable conference.
