The Medical Research Council Cancer Cell Unit is located in Cambridge and was established in 2001. It is based within the Hutchison/MRC Research Centre, which in turn is situated on the Addenbrooke's Hospital biomedical research campus.
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The MRC Cancer Cell Unit was established in 2001 by Professor Ron Laskey CBE, who was also appointed as the Unit's first Director. Professor Laskey retired from the Unit in 2010.[1] His successor, and the Unit's current Director, is Professor Ashok Venkitaraman. As well as his position as Director of the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, Professor Venkitaraman is also the Ursula Zoellner Professor of Cancer Research within the University of Cambridge.
The Unit has a general research focus on investigating the early stages of epithelial cancers, with an overall goal of improving the detection and treatment of these cancers. There are currently five active research programmes in the Unit, which cover the following areas: chromosomal instability, Barrett's oesophagus and oesohago-gastric carcinoma, cell fate and cancer, lung tumour evolution, and lymphatics and the tumour microenvironment.