Pancreatic Cancer UK Discovery and Translational Research Forum

Venue: The Spine Building, 2 Paddington Village, Liverpool L7 3FA

Timings:

• Monday 20th May 2024
  • 10.15 – 11.00: Early Career Researcher meet and greet
  • 10.30 – 11.00: Registration, teas & coffees
  • 11.00 – 18.00: Main event
  • 18.30 – 21.30: Evening social (venue to be confirmed)
• Tuesday 21st May 2024
  • 9.00 – 09.30: Registration, teas & coffees
  • 09.30 – 14.30: Main event (including light lunch)
  • 14.30 – 16.00: Early Career Researcher session

Catering:

• On Monday, lunch and refreshments will be provided at the event venue. In the evening, there will be a social with food available. More information coming soon.
• On Tuesday, refreshments and lunch will be provided at the event venue.
• All dietary requirements will be catered to. Please ensure you let us know any dietary requirements when you book your place.

Travel:

• If travelling by train, Liverpool Central station is approx. 20 minute walk, 12 minute public transport or 12 minute drive. Liverpool Lime Street station is approx. 20 minute walk, 13 minute public transport, or 6 minute drive.
• If travelling by car, we will share more information soon on parking at or near the venue.

Agenda: the full agenda will be shared nearer the time but the event themes are listed below in the Topics of discussion section.

Pancreatic Cancer UK Discovery and Translational Research Forum Agenda

We will hear from researchers across the UK who will share their work-in-progress across these topics, deepening the community’s knowledge of the current work being carried out across the UK.  We will discuss the opportunities and challenges the community faces to help us understand how we can put in place the resources, collaborations and investment needed to further build significant momentum in discovery and translational research in the UK. If you are interested in presenting your work, please do submit a short summary of your research with your registration form.

1. The interface between technology and biology
   • What biological questions could be uniquely answered by emerging technologies, or engineering and physical science approaches?
   • What can we learn from other cancer sites and how do we best leverage these learnings?
2. Targeting secondary disease
   • What are the initial molecular drivers of metastasis, and how does this, and subsequent outcomes, differ between different sites of metastasis (e.g. lung vs liver)?
   • Should we shift our focus to treating pancreatic cancer as inherently metastatic, and what can we learn from the lab in regard to this?
3. Therapeutic resistance mechanisms
   • What do we know about the molecular mechanisms driving the progression of disease and resistance to treatment in pancreatic cancer (e.g. senescence, apoptosis, tumour mass dormancy etc)?
   • What holds the greatest potential in developing targeted treatment strategies to overcome this?
4. Metabolic dysfunction and cachexia
   • Where has the most progress been made in our understanding of metabolic reprogramming in pancreatic cancer, and what potential exists for new treatments?
   • How can we combine our molecular and clinical understanding to effectively address one of the biggest challenges (cachexia) in supporting people with pancreatic cancer?
5. Addressing disparities
   • What do we know about the biological mechanisms contributing to disparities in pancreatic cancer?
   • What are the greatest disparities seen clinically and how can we work together to drive progress in addressing these?

• Showcase discovery & translational research occurring across the UK to give the community a better understanding of what research is happening where
• Enable connection and collaboration between the discovery and translational researchers
• Discuss shared challenges and potential ways to overcome them
• Provide networking and development opportunities for early career researchers
• Identify ways for Pancreatic Cancer UK to better support the research community

Next door to the venue is the Novotel Liverpool Paddington Village (3 Paddington Village, Off Grove Street, L7 3FA) who have offered a discounted rate to our delegates.

How to book

• You can book onto the group allocation by using the discount code: 602818
• The code is valid until 25th March 2024 so please make your booking before this date.
• A card will be required at the time of booking.
• Unfortunately, the discounted rate cannot be booked online. Guests must contact the hotel reservations team directly in order to make a reservation. The reservations office is open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm and can be contacted at 0151 245 6694 / 6697. If trying to book outside of this time, please email HB737-RE@accor.com and one of the team will be in touch as soon as possible.

Other hotels

There are also a selection of affordable hotels nearby (and near to the stations) including:

• Premier Inn Liverpool City Centre (Lime Street)
• Premier Inn Liverpool City Centre (Liverpool One)
• Travelodge Liverpool Central

We appreciate that it may be difficult to cover the costs of attending this event and we’d like to help where we can. We are pleased to offer a limited number of bursaries to assist with travel and accommodation for post docs living outside of Liverpool.

If you feel you would benefit from a bursary, please tick the box when you register. We will send you further information and you will need to complete an application form.

If you would like to apply for bursary you must have registered your interest by 4th March 2024.

If you are not a post doc, but are struggling to find funding to cover your accommodation and travel costs, please get in touch with the Research Team.