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20 November 2024
Publish date: 09 May 2024
UCLH Charity is delighted to announce that the Dangoor Family’s Exilarch’s Foundation has pledged a £1.2m gift to support the next phase of the development of the CAR T programme at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH). The CAR T Speed Release Project aims to reduce the time between extracting patient’s stem cells and injecting re-engineered CAR T cells back into patients with cancer to fight cancer cells.
This generous gift follows the Foundation’s £1.6m donation in 2019 which established the ‘Sir Naim Dangoor Centre for Cellular Immunotherapy’, a 14-bed inpatient ward at UCLH’s newest hospital cancer and surgery hospital, the University College Hospital Grafton Way Building.
Professor Karl Peggs, the Clinical and Scientific Director of the Centre, explains,
‘Clinical translation of cellular immunotherapy research into blood cancers has -already shown positive outcomes and this generous gift will help to advance the treatment of cancer even further.”
Dr Claire Roddie, Clinical lead on the CAR T Manufacture Speed Release Project said, ‘This generous gift will enable a step-change in immunotherapy cancer treatment and I look forward to achieving our aim to rapidly accelerate the lab process from 28 days down to 2 days, thereby getting the cancer-fighting product into patients quicker.
David Probert, Chief Executive, UCLH, said, ‘UCLH has the largest Haematology inpatient Unit in the UK and innovation is at the core of providing the best treatments possible. We are extremely grateful for the Exilarch’s Foundation’s continued generosity. With their support, we can continue to drive cellular immunotherapy advances through research and treatment long into the future”
Carol Haraldsson, Head of Charitable Giving, UCLH Charity said, “We are delighted to continue and build upon our relationship with the Dangoor family. Their generosity and commitment to working with us will deliver immediate, tangible impact for the many patients treated at UCLH for cancer. We are incredibly grateful”.
Exilarch’s Foundation Trustee Michael Dangoor said, "Having previously made our commitment to the Immunotherapy Centre, it was natural to double down on our support when presented with the opportunity to significantly speed up the treatment process."
