Funding of research

The Dr Elman Poole legacy

We are delighted to share the news that student Yi Zhou has been awarded the Dr Elman Poole legacy, funded by Occtopus, for a three year DPhil research fellowship which looks at epithelial cells and their surrounding environment to find the markers that turn normal cells into cancer cells at the very earliest stages. She will be working with Professor Simon Buczacki from the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals.

The Elman Poole legacy has also funded an exosome project and a robotic registry and we are incredibly grateful to Dr Elman Poole for his generous legacy.

Thanks to Charitable Trusts and philanthropists, a substantial project to make surgery even safer launched in 2021. Neil Ashley, Occtopus patron, together with the Ashley Charitable Trust, are enabling a UK wide joint charity effort to establish an international registry into robotic surgery.  The study will look at how surgeons are trained to work with robots.  Evidence and data collected from robotic-assisted colorectal surgery will help reduce complications and improve outcomes for patients.  With this project, Occtopus is establishing an international registry in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the Ashley Charitable Trust and Imperial College, London.

Exciting new research into cancer cell behaviour

The Oxford research programme is ready and Occtopus is seeking funding to commission this new and exciting research into how biologically-active molecules can re-programme cell behaviour.  An initial study has shown that these molecules could be an important driver of tumour development in colorectal cancer.  Results from this study will advance scientists’ understanding of how cells behave across a wide range of cancers. Occtopus gave pump-prime funding to initiate the project and the positive results mean we now seek philanthropic support to develop the research.