The story of the Swansea team on the road to curing cancer

It was a moment of pure triumph. Professor Paul Dyson can still vividly picture the excitement on Dr Miranda Whitten’s face as she walked towards him, lab results in hand: it had worked. 

They had created birth control for insects.  

That might sound like a rather left-field invention, but it’s one with incredible applications. Dyson and Whitten were endeavouring to combat the spread of Chagas disease, endemic to the Americas. Potentially life-threatening, it’s spread to humans by the so-called ‘Kissing Bug’ (a misnomer if ever there were one). Working with symbiotic bacteria – bacteria living inside the insect – the researchers aimed to deliver information to render the female Kissing Bug largely infertile. 

Dyson and his team significantly reduced the threat of Chagas with their method. This is the news Whitten had come to deliver, clutching the hard-won proof.

Dyson smiles: ‘It was a eureka moment.’ 

This discovery in itself would have been enough to hang a worthy career on, but that’s not in the nature of a scientist. ‘You never stand still with research. You’re always looking to the next step,’ Dyson says. 

After Swansea University decided to patent the technology, a technology transfer officer suggested Dyson use it for something ‘even more impactful.’ 

Those words stayed with him. It would be some months later that everything would click into place. Dyson was on a train back from Bristol, reading New Scientist magazine. An article predicting technologies of the future caught his eye: one of the areas mentioned was preventing the growth of tumours.  

Professor Paul Dyson and collaborator Dr Lee Parry, of Cardiff University.

Professor Paul Dyson and collaborator Dr Lee Parry, of Cardiff University. They stand in the lab, dressed in their Cancer Research UK lab coats.

This was a second eureka moment. Dyson wondered: was it possible to find bacteria to colonise tumours using the same technology he’d used in insects? ‘I put the idea down on paper and won a grant from Cancer Research UK to do the preliminary work…the results were very positive.’ 

His team began pre-clinical trials. Dyson recalls: ‘We had some other tricks up our sleeves.’ One of these was engineering bacteria to produce light, to enable non-invasive imaging to monitor the bacteria colonising the tumours. 

The results have been nothing short of ground-breaking. Using their patented technology to introduce bacteria that feed on the nutrients in cancer cells, the team have managed to shrink tumours in a matter of weeks. With further funding, this research could provide better, kinder cancer treatments. The targeted nature would mean only cancerous cells were attacked, leaving healthy ones alone. A treatment free of the harsh side-effects of conventional therapies like chemo.  

But of course, Dyson’s still on the hunt for his next big discovery. Now he’s tackling the global challenge of antibiotic resistance. Dyson is conducting research on types of bacteria that can produce antibiotics, potentially offering a solution to the problems with existing, over-used medicines.  

More than thirty years on from joining Swansea University, Dyson retains the singular ambition that’s allowing him to continue to change the research landscape – and the world. Of course, he hasn’t done it alone: his partnership with Whitten was the foundation for some of the most exciting work of his career. Then there are the other valued and important colleagues at Swansea. They may have changed over the years, but their impact remains. Research is also facilitated by collaborations with colleagues as local as Cardiff and as far as Lanzhou in China. This is global research at its finest.  

What’s next for Dyson and his team at Swansea? ‘Getting research funding is very competitive,’ he acknowledges. ‘Any donation is going to a very good cause.’ If funding allows, Dyson and his team’s tumour-targeting treatments will be remembered as a turning point in the race to cure cancer.