A BLACKBURN PhD student has been awarded a $30,000 grant to research chemicals which could cure Alzheimer’s and cancer.

Jack Robinson, 24, who is a student from the University of Central Lancashire, has won the prestigious scholarship to research the biodiverse secrets of the Red Sea which could hold vital clues to treating a number of diseases.

The Rotary Foundation Global Grant Scholarship fund of $30,000 (about £23,000) will help Jack work on a nine-month project alongside fellow researchers at the Cairo National Research Centre and the University of Benha, Egypt.

Jack, under the supervision of Dr Jioji Tabudravu from UCLan’s School of Natural Sciences, will collect fungi, derived from Red Sea marine sponges.

These will be grown in laboratory conditions as sources of chemical compounds with the potential to combat diseases such as Alzheimer's, cancer and malaria.

The aim is to discover at least one compound that possesses the correct drug-related profile to undergo initial pre-clinical development.

Jack said: “I never thought when I was sponging down the tables in my uncle’s café on Blackburn Market that one day I’d be working with sponges in a completely different context.

“It’s a very exciting project with so much potential to make a difference to people’s lives and I can’t wait to start.

“Fungi associated with marine sponges often harbour novel and unique chemical compounds that can lead to medical applications for human health.

“Perhaps the most famous examples of fungal-derived compounds are penicillin and the immune-suppressive drug, cyclosporine, used to help prevent rejection in organic transplant patients.

“It’s widely believed the next generation of life saving drugs will be derived from the sea which in this respect is a vastly untapped resource.”

Under the terms of the scholarship Jack will also contribute to a new charitable funding model for drug development that can make the purchase of drugs cheaper and more affordable.

UCLan’s Dr Tabudravu added: “This is the problem we have today.  Drug development is under an investor-funding model where the aim is to make profits.

“A good example is the COVID-19 vaccine where poor countries have had a bad deal throughout the current pandemic.”