Breakthrough glioblastoma research wins £400k charity funding

A pioneering collaboration between Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) and King’s College London (KCL) has secured £400,000 from The Brain Tumour Charity to accelerate a novel treatment approach for glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer.

Glioblastomas make up most malignant brain tumours and are among the most aggressive cancers. On average, patients survive just 12–18 months after diagnosis, with fewer than one in three living beyond a year. Despite decades of research and a better understanding of the disease, treatment options remain limited and survival outcomes have barely improved.

The new project, led by scientists at KCL and MDC, aims to address this challenge by combining advanced technologies to overcome one of the biggest barriers in brain cancer: delivering drugs safely and effectively into tumours.

A personal story behind the science

For families living with the devastating impact of glioblastoma, the stakes could not be higher. In 2021, 19-year-old Niall Kavanagh died just three weeks after being diagnosed. His mother, Claire, has since campaigned passionately for greater research funding.

“Investment in research into brain tumours is so important to help prevent other families from going through the pain and heartbreak of losing loved ones who should be here with us,” she said.

Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive primary brain tumour originating from glial cells. It is marked by rapid growth, cellular heterogeneity and diffuse infiltration into surrounding tissue. Standard treatment combines maximal surgical resection with radiotherapy and temozolomide. Image credit: Crystal Light / Shutterstock

ActNano: a new kind of precision

At the centre of the project is ActNano, a theranostic nanoparticle developed by researchers at KCL. This ‘two-in-one’ platform can both deliver anticancer drugs and provide diagnostic information, offering a more precise and potentially less toxic approach to treatment.

ActNano can encapsulate multiple drugs and transport them into brain tumours, where it is activated by focused ultrasound – a non-invasive technique that temporarily opens the blood–brain barrier, allowing medicines to reach the tumour site more effectively.

MDC will contribute its expertise in focused ultrasound and its advanced preclinical brain tumour model, which simulates the clinical reality of tumour resection and recurrence. Together, these technologies will enable rigorous testing of ActNano against the current standard of care – surgery and the chemotherapy drug temozolomide.

If successful, the research could enable ActNano and its drug combinations to move into human trials more quickly than traditional pathways allow.

Translation from lab to clinic

The project has been selected as one of the first recipients of The Brain Tumour Charity’s new Translational Award, launched in 2024 to back promising technologies and accelerate their path to patients.

Dr Simon Newman, Chief Scientific Officer at The Brain Tumour Charity, explained: “We have developed our bespoke Translational Award to ruthlessly evaluate and drive the best concepts forward. Our aim is to accelerate success or fail ideas faster if they cannot be translated. Through partnerships, we will develop industry-like standards of drug development to maximise the chances of success and future funding.”

For MDC, the award strengthens its mission to de-risk early-stage ideas and help them break through into commercial reality.

Dr Paul Sharp, Lead Scientist for Translational Imaging at Medicines Discovery Catapult, said:
“Glioblastoma remains one of the most aggressive and challenging cancers, with current treatments having limited impact on survival rates for patients. More needs to be done. Thanks to the support of The Brain Tumour Charity, our new partnership with King’s College London marks a pivotal step forward that will allow us to combine and scale our proprietary technologies. Bringing this transformative technology to patients faster is something the team at MDC is passionate about.”

For King’s, the funding provides vital support to move ActNano closer to the clinic.

Dr Maya Thanou, Professor in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology at KCL, said: “This funding marks a crucial step in advancing ActNano, our precision oncology technology, from the lab towards the clinic. It enables us to conduct the preclinical studies needed to demonstrate its targeting accuracy and to evaluate how it can work alongside existing treatments. This will give our team the opportunity to develop a more precise and less toxic approach that could ultimately improve outcomes for both adult and paediatric patients, bringing us closer to offering real hope where it’s urgently needed.”

A shot at real change

The collaboration reflects growing recognition that innovative drug delivery methods could be key to advancing brain cancer research, an area that has lagged behind other fields of oncology.

By breaking through the blood–brain barrier, researchers aim to develop therapies that extend survival and improve quality of life. For families like the Kavanaghs, progress in this area is urgently needed.