Combining clinical skills and cutting-edge techniques to find new cancer treatments
鈥淎ustralia鈥檚 a great fit. You鈥檝e got the excitement of being on the other side of the world, but at the same time, there鈥檚 a level of familiarity.鈥 Dr Oliver Sinclair
A journey of two halves
Oliver’s research focuses on trying to improve the clinical activity of a new blood cancer drug, inobrodib, that is showing great promise in early phase clinical trials for patients with multiple myeloma. His goal is to identify genes and cellular pathways which, when co-targeted, could make the drug even more beneficial to patients.
“We’re trying to help every patient become a great responder so they can carry on with life as normal.”
Oliver started his dual-award PhD in Manchester with Professor Tim Somervaille as his Manchester-based supervisor. There he worked at the prestigious Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, developing laboratory-based models to help figure out why some patients respond better than others to inobrodib.
The second half of his PhD took him to Melbourne, under the supervision of Professor Mark Dawson at the world-renowned Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. There, he was able to apply innovative genetic screening techniques to newly developed laboratory models. He also had access to specialist in vivo techniques, allowing him to build a greater understanding of how inobrodib works at a cellular level.
“Bringing the two labs together was great. It was fantastic to work with two leading clinician scientists as my co-supervisors, drawing on their wealth of technical expertise and valuable patient experience to really elevate my experience.”
Two very different propositions
A dual-award PhD of this kind has different pros and cons compared with a single-site PhD. As Tim points out, they are two very different propositions.
“With a single-site PhD, you have the benefit of a prolonged focus on a particular project. Shifting between centres means there can be some discontinuity, but you get to experience a different emphasis and different strengths.
“In order for it to work, the two laboratories have to work in similar ways and be able to support the individual to move between them. And the individual has to be resilient to change, and flexible in their attitude.”
Working across two specialist labs, Oliver met many postdoctoral and professional researchers with a related focus and similar international experiences. They formed a supportive network for Oliver, cushioning his transition across the sites, and encouraging his development as a researcher.
“A PhD is always going to be a time of some stress. But being surrounded by two completely different – but equally fantastic – collections of people, I’ve always felt really supported.
“Science is such a small world. You will be working with these people again, so it’s great to make solid connections early on in your career.”
A connected future
While Oliver was originally planning to return to the UK after his postdoctoral position, he’s decided to stay in Melbourne, where the research environment is in a different phase.
“There’s an energy here in Australia right now. Whereas in the UK you have established high-level research communities doing amazing things, in Australia things are just gaining momentum, so there are a lot of exciting avenues emerging. The commercial spin-out scene here is on the up and I want to see where that can go.”
Pursuing the same area of research, Oliver is in regular contact with both Mark and Tim, and the collaboration remains in full swing. It continues to pull in people from across the world, creating an evolving research community and enriching its output.
“Going forward, we know the research we put out is going to be the best quality. I think that’s testament to Mark and Tim, and to the dual-award programme for bringing all these people together.
“The nature of academia means the people we collaborate with now will spread out across the world. This will plant the seed for more productive collaborations in the future, and our combined efforts will help more and more patients.”
As a result of work that Oliver contributed to, published in Cancer Cell in 2023, CellCentric, the pharmaceutical company leading on the development of inobrodib, has secured £150M of investment funding for clinical trials. The Manchester team is working with CellCentric on a worldwide clinical trial, expected to result in regulatory approval for inobrodib as a new treatment option for patients with relapsed multiple myeloma.