Our laboratory focuses on identifying novel therapeutics and biomarkers for high grade adult and paediatric brain cancer. The Ninewells Cancer Campaign funds soon allowed us to establish a research programme in brain cancer which led to my successful and highly prestigious UKRI Future Leader Fellowship in 2022.
Our laboratory has since gone from strength to strength and established the first brain tumour fresh tissue collection programme at Ninewells in collaboration with NHS Tayside Neurosurgery team which was eventually supported by Tenovus Scotland. In parallel, our brain tumour drug discovery programme was started in collaboration with the University of Arizona spearheaded by the Ninewells Cancer Campaign-funded PhD student, Vasudha Tandon.
“Multiple international patents were filed, and I co-founded Branch Therapeutics in November 2024, a Dundee-Arizona joint venture that immediately raised $4,000,000 seed funding to push our novel brain tumour drug towards the clinic.
Branch Therapeutics has since won the ‘Best Start-Up of the Year’ in Arizona, and has been nominated for Scottish Life Sciences Award 2026.”
Dr Sourav Banerjee Senior Researcher , University of Dundee
Vasudha successfully defended her PhD in 2023, carried out a short post-doctoral stint at the University of Cambridge and then joined as Principal Scientist with translational research organisation Pharmidex in London.
The funding from NCC was the critical seed fund that allowed me to setup a trail-blazing research programme at Dundee which enabled the expansion of our academic understanding of brain tumours while also translating our research commercially. I am currently a tenured senior lecturer and have been recognised as an ‘Emerging Leader’ by the British Journal of Cancer. I have had the honour to be invited to give multiple keynote addresses and participate in seminars by various institutes and conferences worldwide.
Sourav’s published papers
Dr Sourav Banerjee’s published papers with acknowledgement of Ninewells Cancer Campaign funds:
Van, A-A.N., Kunkel, M.T., Baffi, T.R., Lorden, G., Antal, C.E., Banerjee, S., Newton, A.C*. (2021) Protein kinase C fusion proteins are paradoxically loss-of-function in cancer. JBC 296, 100445.
Worby, C.A., Mayfield, J.E., Pollak, A.J., Dixon, J.E.*, Banerjee, S*. (2021) The ABCs of the atypical Fam20 secretory pathway kinases JBC 296, 100267.
Tandon, V., de la Vega, L., Banerjee, S*. (2021) Emerging roles of DYRK2 in cancer. JBC 296, 100233.
