Academia & Industry: What are the Ingredients for Successful Collaborations

‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ is a series of educational talks where experts will bring their perspectives to encourage and challenge wider thinking within the cancer imaging research community.

Kieran Murphy, former President & CEO of GE Healthcare, has been involved in the life sciences and healthcare industry for more than 30 years. Prof. Evis Sala is the Professor of Oncological Imaging at the University of Cambridge, and co-leads the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre Advanced Cancer Imaging Programme and the Integrated Cancer Medicine Programme.

In this online lecture, with interactive Q&A, Kieran Murphy and Prof. Evis Sala will discuss their experiences of a successful collaboration between GE Healthcare and The University of Cambridge. They will reflect on the drivers for success and the fundamental components that lead to effective cross-functional partnerships. They will also discuss what can academia bring to the world of industry, and what does industry need from academia, and highlight how we as researchers can work together with industry to drive successful collaborations to accelerate research and transform the diagnosis, treatment and care for cancer patients.

About the speakers

Kieran Murphy is the former President and CEO of GE Healthcare, a leading global medical technology and digital solutions innovator*. He joined GE in 2008 and led the Life Sciences business between 2011 and 2017. GE Healthcare Life Sciences provides a broad range of industry-leading technologies and services for drug discovery, pre-clinical and clinical development and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, as well as molecular tools for diagnostics, therapy selection and treatment monitoring in patient care**. A graduate of University College Dublin, Kieran has been involved in the life sciences and healthcare industry for more than 30 years.

* https://www.gehealthcare.co.uk/about/about-ge-healthcare-systems

** https://www.ge.com/news/press-releases/kieran-murphy-appointed-ceo-ge-healthcare-succeeding-john-flannery

Prof. Evis Sala is Professor of Oncological Imaging at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (UK) and co-leads the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre Advanced Cancer Imaging Programme and the Integrated Cancer Medicine Programme. Professor Sala’s research focuses on the development and validation of functional imaging biomarkers to rapidly evaluate treatment response using physiologic and metabolic tumour habitat imaging. Her research in the field of radiogenomics has focused on understanding the molecular basis of cancer by demonstrating the phenotypic patterns which occur as a result of multiple genetic alterations that interact with the tumour microenvironment to drive the disease in several tumour types. Her work integrates quantitative imaging methods for evaluation of spatial and temporal tumour heterogeneity with genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. She is also leading multiple research projects focusing on the development and implementation of artificial intelligence methods for image reconstruction, segmentation, and data integration.

Prof. Sala is an outstanding educator, orator and mentor. In recognition for her contribution to education and research in oncological imaging she received the Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) Honoured Educator Award in 2014, 2017 and 2020. Her leadership extends to the most important international bodies in the field, as Fellow of the International Cancer Imaging Society, Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Fellow of the European Society of Urogenital Radiology and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

NCITA ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ lecture series

o April 2022: ‘Screening for Cancer: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ with Prof. Michael Baum. Link to blog & recording: https://ncita.org.uk/recording-available-for-professor-baums-ncita-lecture-screening-for-cancer-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly

o May 2022: ‘Is Pursuing “a Passion for Science” a Position of Privilege?’ with Dr Heather Williams MBE. Link to blog & recording: https://ncita.org.uk/recording-available-for-dr-heather-williams-ncita-lecture

o 19 July 2022: Guest speaker Prof. Tom Treasure. Save the date - further details TBC.

For further information about NCITA please visit https://ncita.org.uk/