Rather than protecting us from disease, cancer vaccines aim to harness the power of the immune system to eradicate tumours.
All in Cancer
Meet the DNA Detectives hunting the causes of cancer
We’re chasing down the perpetrator of a scientific Whodunnit, joining the DNA detectives on the hunt for the causes of cancer.
João Pedro de Magalhães: Old whale, new tricks
João Pedro de Magalhães studies some of the longest lived animals in the world, like the bowhead whale which can live for 200 years, to understand how we can improve human ageing.
Linda Goodman: Stealing secrets from sleepy squirrels
Dr Linda Goodman tells us about the research Fauna Bio are doing into the hibernation adaptations of 13-lined ground squirrels, and how it might help humans recover from heart attacks.
Doug Williams: Taming the toxicity of cancer drugs
By targeting drugs directly to tumours, exosome therapies can reduce side effects from cancer treatment
Davide Zocco: From Petri dish to patients
Exosomes are exciting treatments of the future - but how are they made?
Rossella Crescitelli: What are exosomes and what can they do?
Once thought to be little more than ‘dust’, exosomes are tiny biological mailbags that travel around the body.
Does cancer care about sex?
Presenter Kat Arney tells the story of how biomathematician Kristin Swanson discovered that cancer cells with XX chromosomes behave differently to cancer cells with XY chromosomes.
Why don’t elephants get cancer? The curious case of TP53
A family trip to the zoo led Josh Schiffman to uncover the reason why elephants hardly ever develop cancer
Sam Behjati: The placenta is a genetic dumpster fire
Sam and his colleagues have discovered that the placenta is packed with genetic mutations, many of which are found in cancer.
Go big or go home
From giant dinosaurs and blue whales to oversized capybaras, some animals are built on a bigger scale. But how have they evolved to be so huge?
Steve Rees: Homing in on the right targets
Steve Rees and his team at AstraZeneca are focusing on the first step of the drug discovery journey: coming up with the new ideas and targets that could lead to the new medicines of tomorrow.
Patchwork of mutation - Raheleh Rahbari
Raheleh Rahbari from the Wellcome Sanger Institute explains why our bodies are patchworks of mutation, right from the very start of life, and the impact this has on ageing and diseases like cancer and dementia.
If I could turn back time - Andrew Steele
Andrew Steele, author of Ageless talks about the science of ageing and why your toothbrush might be more useful for preventing ageing than that fancy moisturiser.
The Story of HeLa and Henrietta Lacks
Growing cells in the lab isn’t as easy as you might think. We explore the story of how Henrietta Lacks’s immortal cells (known today as HeLa cells) became the go-to human cell line for biomedical research, and the impact they’ve had as a result.
Fusion genes and cancer cures: The story of the Philadelphia Chromosome
We tell the story of the ‘Philadelphia chromosome’ (a key cause of chronic myeloid leukaemia), how it was discovered and how it’s discovery influenced the search for a cure.
The seamstress and the scientist: Pauline Gross and Family G
A chance encounter between a seamstress and a scientist starts a 25-year long crusade to understand the nature of hereditary cancer.
Storm-driven: Maud Slye and her dancing mice
Maud Slye was one of the first people to investigate how cancer susceptibility could be inherited, with the help of 150,000 mice.