Swiss prize for UCLH clinician scientist

UCLH oncology consultant Charles Swanton has been awarded the 2024 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Translational Medicine for his ground-breaking discoveries in cancer genetics and evolution.

Professor Swanton, who is also deputy clinical director at the Francis Crick Institute, has made discoveries which have led to insights into how tumours evolve, spread, and develop resistance to drugs.

“Charles Swanton’s research has yielded unprecedented insights into the driving forces and constraints that act on an evolving cancer. He demonstrated that tumour heterogeneity is driven by branched evolution and shaped by genome instability, therapy and immunity. His work transforms our understanding of cancer and how to treat it more effectively in the future,” said the Board of Trustees and the Scientific Committee of the Louis-Jeantet Foundation in a statement.

On learning of the prize, Professor Swanton said: “I am delighted to hear this excellent news, which is testament to the extraordinary commitment of UCLH and UCL to clinical academic research. The work that has led to this prize was made possible by the staff of the world class Thoracic Oncology Unit and Lung Cancer Service at UCLH who I count as friends as well as colleagues.”

UCLH chief executive David Probert said: “Professor Swanton has, quite rightly, been recognised many times by several prestigious bodies for his work in oncology. 

“We are extremely proud of the contribution that the work of Professor Swanton and his team have made to research in a way which has produced meaningful results that directly benefit human health.

“We strongly believe in the need for research and clinical practice to work hand in glove so that science discoveries are put into practice more quickly and efficiently.”

Founded in 1983, the Louis-Jeantet Foundation is the legacy of Louis Jeantet, a French businessman and a citizen of Geneva by adoption. The Foundation’s aim is to move medicine forward and to defend the role and identity of European biomedical research vs. international competition.

Established in Geneva, the Foundation is part of an open Europe and devotes its efforts to recognizing and fostering medical progress for the common good. It allocates some CHF 2.5 million each year to promoting biomedical research. 

The prize is an endowment of CHF 500,000, of which CHF 450,000 is intended to finance the continuation of the of the prize-winners' research and CHF 50,000 is for their personal use.

An award ceremony will be held in Geneva on April 17.