Researchers are set to to combine expertise in drug discovery, artificial intelligence (AI), and experimental cancer models and platforms in a new programme to design the precision cancer drugs of the future.

A gene test already used routinely in the NHS can guide use of chemotherapy in people with bowel cancer by predicting whether or not they will benefit.

A drug combination targeting multiple mutant versions of cancer’s ‘death star’ protein has shown promise in a small, early-phase clinical trial for some patients with advanced lung, ovarian and thyroid cancer.