Latest news with #DavidKerr
RTÉ News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
A Year At Kylemore Abbey - how we made the new documentary series
Director David Kerr introduces The Hills Are Alive: A Year At Kylemore Abbey, a fascinating new three-part RTÉ documentary series coming to RTÉ One this August, exploring life at the iconic Connemara location, home to a Benedictine order of Nuns for the past 100 years. My partner, Sarah, and I were shooting a previous travel series around Ireland with the presenter Julia Bradbury when we first came to Kylemore Abbey back in 2022. We'd seen a lot of amazing sights in the preceding weeks, from the stark stony plain of the Burren to the majestic mountains of Wicklow. Connemara, though, was something else and, for a combination of built heritage and natural beauty, Kylemore Abbey was simply breathtaking. Our first sight of that great castle perched on the wooded mountainside above the clear blue lake was one of those moments that you never forget, but beyond the obvious physical grandeur there was also an ethereal sense of tranquillity when you entered the estate. As two separate people said to us, when you enter Kylemore your shoulders just drop, and like Sister Magdalena, one of the nuns in our series, we pretty much fell in love with the place on the spot. About eighteen months later, we were looking to make an observational series set in a specific place - or 'precinct' as TV folk call it - and Kylemore came back to mind. It was stunning to look at, but was that enough? We realised, of course, that a few great drone shots don't make a series - what about the characters and their story? Here we had evidence. We'd already met artisanal soap and chocolate maker Sister Genevieve on our first trip, and knew the estate was owned and run by a group of Benedictine nuns who had turned this once crumbling estate into a hugely successful heritage site with over five hundred thousand visitors a year, most of them from overseas. The fact that they had done all this inbetween a rigorous daily routine of private and collective prayer made their story even more fascinating. Add the 150-or-so lay management and staff who make the place tick day by day, plus a wide range of different locations from the castle to the Victorian Walled Garden to the huge woodland, and we felt there would be no shortage of people and activities to observe. We decided to approach marketing manager Jessica Ridge, who'd looked after us on the previous shoot, to see if there would be interest in a series. To our delight, she and the board were keen to talk further, but she was clear that ultimately the go-ahead would have to come from the sisters of the Benedictine order, so we set off for Connemara to meet the senior figures within this 360-year-old community. Mother Maire Hickey was no longer Abbess, but we were told she had been a key instigator of Kylemore's transformation into a popular heritage site - her verdict on our proposal would be critical. We pottered over to the old farmhouse that was then home to many of the sisters and met Mother Maire in a small room. She was a wonderfully warm and wise woman in her eighties, who spoke slowly and deliberately as if every word carried weight. She had also done a bit of homework…. "So your company - Cornelia Street." she said. "Is it named after the Taylor Swift song?" Luckily the answer was no, though we never actually asked Mother Maire if she was a Taylor Swift fan. We had a much more 'traditional' motive, and told her Cornelia Street was where Sarah and I had our wedding reception (funnily enough, it was in the same New York street Swift writes about). We felt like we'd passed the first test, but we needn't have worried as Mother Maire was so charming and engaged that it was the best possible start. After that, we met more of the senior sisters along with the management team and staff over a whistle-stop two days. From the sister who told us she still loved a glass of champagne to the nun who kept saying 'Oh My God', we could see that the uniformity of the nun's habits masked an incredible diversity of backgrounds, personalities and skills. They'd run a school here for years and many of them were highly educated in different subjects from languages to the environment, an area they were obviously passionate about. To our surprise, they were also far from being reluctant or dubious about being the subject of a TV show as they thought it a great way to attract new vocations to Kylemore (even a monastery needs to embrace media these days!). Soon to open their new monastery, where they could welcome more guests, the sisters saw a potential series as a great opportunity to show the meaning of their way of life to the world too. To spend time in contemplation and to devote so much energy and effort to preserve the natural landscape and the architectural heritage of this stunning site might be something we can all earn from at this stage in the twenty-first century. With a new impetus to the religious aspect of the project, we pitched the idea to Roger Childs, Head of Religion at RTÉ. Roger liked it, but wanted to make sure that this wasn't just another 'Inside A Country House' show and that we would put a lot of focus on the Benedictines' way of life. Despite their enthusiasm for the show, we were still a little worried that the sisters' enthusiasm might be stretched by our intruding into their 'enclosed' monastery and going 'behind the veil' with a video camera, thinking they would prefer us to stick to covering their more public activities. Again, the sisters surprised us and they were only too delighted to oblige our interest in the often less-covered spiritual aspects of Kylemore and its community. Their openness and enthusiasm were even more remarkable given the age of most of them. Of the 15-strong community, many are over 65 and a good few in their seventies and eighties. They've managed to keep up numbers in recent years by going overseas for younger recruits who are needed to keep both the monastery and the estate running. With sisters from India, the Philippines and China amongst others, this is an increasingly international community. Nevertheless, it still makes you ponder their future in Connemara, especially with the Church being so damaged in Ireland in recent years by terrible scandals. Clearly not that many young Irish women want to become nuns anymore. Both ourselves and Roger felt there was a strong theme here, alongside all the frenetic activities on the estate, of an ageing order trying to preserve its way of life in a changing country and a changing world. That theme became an important part of our pitch to the prestigious Sound and Vision fund, and we were thrilled when CnaM (Coimisiún na Meán) also helped to back the project alongside RTÉ. Consequently we were given a remarkable level of access to the nuns way of life, from before dawn to well after dusk. At times it was hard keeping up with them, and they would be asking us if we were the ones who were tired! We shot the series in bursts over the course of a year, from high summer season through a magical Christmas to the spring bloom and religious climax of Easter. We covered everything from the arrival of 5000 American college football fans during a massive storm to the planting of new oak trees in a forest devastated by winter storms. Along the way, we followed characters ranging from soap and chocolate maker Sister Genevieve to Head Gardener Anja to Snowy, the estate's most popular Connemara pony. It was a time of huge change for the community too, from the highs of moving into a brand-new monastery and the election of a new Abbess to the sad loss of one of the community's most senior figures. Through it all, the sheer beauty of the place shone through, and seeing it through the seasons was a privilege. This was a pretty spectacular 'office' and we wanted to make the estate itself a 'character' in the show. Our Director of Photography Raja Nundlall did a wonderful job in showing it in all its glory; the bleaker beauty of autumn and winter in the Connemara Hills was particularly stunning. One key decision we made was to shoot a lot of the material in the monastery using a hand-held camera, with a rougher, observational style. So many shows about religious life play on the appeal of formal compositions to capture ritual and tradition. This can be very striking too, but we preferred a less 'stylised', more casual, fluid style to capture the nuns as human beings and reflect the warmth of their personalities and the group as a whole. Whether they were deep in prayer or playing games together in their recreation room, we hope that we have captured that. Ultimately, it is the people of Kylemore who made this a special series. CEO Conor, Marketing Manager Jessica and the rest of the team couldn't have been more warm, welcoming and helpful . The nuns gave us everything and more in terms of time and openness in interviews and all the staff were incredibly patient - especially when they were trying to feed thousands of people in the restaurant in the space of a few hours or just attempting to get a Connemara pony and her foal to stand in the right place for the perfect mum and baby shot! Whilst we had never considered a contemplative, religious life ourselves, we came to see that the nuns commitment to each other and to live for their community; to spend time in contemplation and to devote so much energy and effort to preserve the natural landscape and the architectural heritage of this stunning site might be something we can all learn from at this stage in the twenty-first century. Kylemore Abbey is open all year round. Not because its profitable to do so, but because this is a monastery first and foremost and it is part of their Benedictine ethos to welcome everyone whenever they turn up, from high summer season to the dead of January. As Sister Josephine told us, St Benedict believed that to welcome a visitor was to welcome Christ. We hope that viewers feel that special welcome too.
Medscape
5 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
Misinterpreting Words and Gestures in Medicine
This transcript has been edited for clarity. Hello. I'm David Kerr, professor of cancer medicine at University of Oxford. Today I'd like to talk about words and gestures, and how we can communicate unconsciously with patients in ways where we can end up being misunderstood. In the clinic on Friday, one of our patients, somebody we looked after for quite a long time, had evidence of oligometastatic recurrent colorectal cancer. By that, I mean the tumor had come back in three small spots within the peritoneal cavity. She's had multiple chemotherapies and we've done hepatic resections. We looked after her for 4.5 years with her metastatic disease and she's remained remarkably well, fully fit and active, and has been taking care of her young family and so on. What we thought that we would do for her treatment would be to offer, with my specialist colleagues in Oxford, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). This is very highly focused radiotherapy — spot welding, if you like — that can be delivered, with fantastic accuracy, safely to small areas of disease. We had arranged for her to see one of my senior colleagues in Oxford. The way that our NHS communicates with our patients is: A letter goes out saying, 'You have an appointment to see Professor Kerr and Dr Muirhead,' a fantastic radiotherapy colleague. Of course, our literate, clever patient looked up who Dr Muirhead was, and she saw the word "palliative" splashed across all the work that Rebecca does. Immediately, because that word was used, she assumed that she'd come to the end of the road, that there was nothing effective that we could offer for her treatment. Quite the opposite was the case, but the use of the word "palliative," to her mind, meant palliative care, end of care, and imminent death. For those of us who were somehow forced to do Latin to get into medical school, it comes from palliare, the Latin word for "to cloak" or "to hide." This was a word that was just utterly, completely misinterpreted, and the 2 weeks between receiving a letter and meeting me in a clinic had been the worst 2 weeks of the patient's life over the past 4.5 years. You can imagine the tears of joy when we explained exactly what it was we were going to do. It reminded me of another time, when I was a very young doctor in Glasgow, a senior registrar in my mid-twenties. I had looked after a young woman about the same age as me with metastatic ovarian cancer, along with my boss, Stan Kaye, another fantastic oncologist. We looked after her well and continually, but the disease caught up with her eventually. We were very active at that stage, one of the first centers in Europe to be involved in phase 1 trials with the National Cancer Institute. I wanted to explain that we could offer her a position in one of the phase 1 trials that we were doing, but of course, as a prelude to that, I had to explain that we had no more conventional treatment to offer. I come from the west of Scotland. We're not a very naturally tactile group of male human beings, but I leaned over, held her hand, and explained the situation, thinking really nothing of that small gesture. Later in her illness, as she did inch closer to death, we continued to look after her and to palliate — that word again. She said that the single scariest thing that she remembers of all the journey that we'd been over for all those years was when I held her hand, because she thought it must be very, very bad indeed for that young doctor to reach out, to hold her hand, and just to be gentle and kind. Words and gestures need to be chosen carefully. But, clearly unconsciously, whether aware of it or not, we're sending subliminal messages out to our patients. We may not be able to control them, but it's interesting how patients can interpret and misinterpret what we see and sometimes do. I'd be really interested in your own experiences, if you've come across anything even remotely similar. As always, thanks for listening. For the time being, Medscapers, ahoy. Thank you.
Medscape
15-07-2025
- Health
- Medscape
The Global Applicability of Oral Metronomic Chemotherapy
This transcript has been edited for clarity. Hello. I'm David Kerr, professor of cancer medicine at University of Oxford. Today, I'd like to discuss a really interesting paper published in JCO Global Oncology by an outstanding cooperative Indian group that was led by Akhil Kapoor. They were interested in looking at platinum-refractory advanced head and neck cancer. We know that it has a terribly poor outcome with very limited treatment options. Remember, if we're looking at low- and middle-income countries, access to immune checkpoint inhibitors is difficult, given the relative expense of these drugs. They performed a randomized clinical trial, I think rather beautifully, and I think this is a trial which will be very impactful, perhaps predominantly in low- and middle-income countries, although it would definitely be applicable in some salvage settings in the north and in the west. They randomized against triple oral metronomic chemotherapy, so this is low-dose continuous chemotherapy. The theoretical basis for this, which we've discussed many times before, is a means of delivering a combination of treatment relatively safely — more on the combination in a moment. They evaluated triple oral metronomic chemotherapy, which is deliverable in a large complex country such as India with [a large rural poor population], and that was randomized against chemotherapy of physicians' discretion. They randomized 214 patients using a conventional 11-to-11 [ratio]. The metronomic chemotherapy was erlotinib, celecoxib, and methotrexate, given in a low dose weekly. For physician-determined treatment, the dominant drugs used were capecitabine and gemcitabine, but paclitaxel and docetaxel were used also. Both arms were very well balanced in terms of demographic and prognostic factors, and more than 95% of patients in each arm received the chemotherapy that was promised. They demonstrated that overall survival, the primary endpoint of the study, was 5 months in the oral metronomic chemotherapy arm compared to 3.1 months in the physician-selected, conventional salvage chemotherapy arm, with a hazard ratio of 0.63 and a very high P value. I think this is a really important piece of work. Importantly, overall survival counts. Nevertheless, the metronomic chemotherapy improved global health status, physical function, fatigue, and insomnia, and it was well tolerated, with fewer grade 3 or higher adverse events — 28% vs 40% compared to conventional salvage chemotherapy. This is an important randomized trial. There are many phase 2 trials of metronomic chemotherapy, but this is a cooperative group with a number of important Indian leaders in the field who designed and delivered a trial, which I think will be impactful throughout the world. The doses and the relative safety of the oral metronomic chemotherapy mean that it can be delivered potentially in district hospitals rather than in fully well-established, central, large cancer centers, and given its relative safety, delivered with a relatively light touch in terms of the blood tests required and so on. It's a really nice piece of work. Have a look at it and see what you think. As I say, I think this is a message not just for low- and middle-income countries, but as a potential salvage therapy in those countries that are relatively more affluent. Congratulations to the team on this piece of work.
Medscape
01-07-2025
- Health
- Medscape
CISH-Targeted TILs Show Promise in GI Cancer Trial
This transcript has been edited for clarity. Hello. I'm David Kerr, professor of cancer medicine at University of Oxford. I'd like to talk a little about a phase 1 trial that has just been published in the May edition of Lancet Oncology , a beautiful paper by Emil Lou and colleagues, in which they all looked at an extraordinarily complicated regimen of gene editing and then reinfusing tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). This just shows how remarkable modern cancer medicine can be. I'd like to talk a little about the procedures involved, given the route of complexity. Initially, for patients in the phase 1 trial with metastatic advanced gastrointestinal cancer, the first step was to receive a non-myeloablative lymphocyte-depletion chemotherapy. This is cyclophosphamide and fludarabine. This is then followed by high-dose interleukin-2. The process of producing the gene-edited TILs is absolutely fascinating. The gene-editing target, the gene that we wanted to knock down, was a novel, internal immune checkpoint protein gene, CISH , which encoded a cytokine-inducible SH2 domain-containing protein. This is an internal immune checkpoint target and quite an interestingly novel one. That's the target to knock down. The process of building the therapy is completely fascinating. Autologous TILs were generated from tumor biopsy fragments from each individual patient, and samples of the TILs were then cultured with patient-derived lymphoblastic cell lines, ormonocyte-derived dendritic cells loaded with pools of synthetic 25-mer peptides containing tumor-specific mutations that were detected from whole-exome sequencing from the patient's tumor. Think about that for a second. The patients undergo biopsy. The TILs are taken off for culture — more on that later — but they were co-cultured with a source of patient-specific tumor-associated antigens, which were generated by whole-exome sequencing. Then, using 25-mer fragments of what they felt were the key tumor-specific antigens, were plumbed into the patients' own dendritic cells so that these antigens would be presented to at the time of co-culture with a patient, so in TILs. It boggles the mind. The TILs with demonstrated reactivity to the neoantigens in this co-culture experiment were selected and they were then subjected to the CRISPR gene editing in vitro. They knocked down CISH , the target that they were aiming for. Then the edited TILs underwent a rapid expansion protocol. They were cryopreserved, and then via some very sophisticated molecular quality control, infused back into the patients. Goodness gracious — I mean, it's extraordinary when you think about it. It was a phase 1 trial, so dose-escalating the number of cells. It's pretty well tolerated. As you would expect, there was some fatigue and some fever. Nobody died in the back of any of the treatment that was given in that way. In terms of effectiveness, these were patients with advanced disease who had undergone multiple previous lines of treatment. There were no severe cytokine-release syndromes, nothing of grade 3 or worse. No neurotoxicity. Six of 12 patients had stable disease by day 28. Four (33%) had stable disease ongoing at 56 days. One young adult who had microsatellite-unstable and mismatch repair-deficient MSI-high tumors — therefore they've already got an existing high neoantigen load — had a complete response. That was very pleasing. I say, again, this is an extraordinary piece of work, to think about the complexity involved in every step of that process — before the patients' own cells, the autologous cells, were manipulated and reinfused with moderately acceptable toxicity, I would say. It's a phase 1 trial, so you're not really looking for a big efficacy readout, but the one younger patient who had, if you like, a genetic predisposition to responding to immunotherapy anyway, had a complete response. I'd be really interested in what you think about it. Who knows what the cost of that would be in terms of the complexity — I keep using that word, don't I? — of every single step. Modern cancer medicine — don't you love it? Well done to the team for producing this phase 1 trial result. How generalizable it will be remains to be seen, given the multiple different steps that are required. It just shows you how, in my lifetime as a cancer doctor, four decades, remarkable progress has been. I'm very interested in any comments you'd have to make. As always, thanks for listening. For the time being, Medscapers, ahoy, and over and out.
Associated Press
02-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Oxford Cancer Biomarkers partners with Mira Precision Health to advance its ToxNav® test for predicting patient toxicity to 5FU/capecitabine treatment in the USA
OXFORD, England and MASON, Ohio, June 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the 2025 American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, Oxford Cancer Biomarkers Ltd (OCB), a leader in molecular precision cancer diagnostic tests, has today announced a new partnership with Mira Precision Health Inc to advance OCB's proprietary ToxNav® test in the USA. ToxNav® is a revolutionary precision oncology test that identifies patients most at risk of undergoing severe toxicity upon treatment with 5FU/capecitabine, which, in extreme cases, can lead to the patient's death. Mira Precision Health, headquartered at the Mason 5155 BioHub—a dynamic biology and technology center in Mason, Ohio, USA—is dedicated to advancing precision medicine by delivering innovative solutions that empower clinics, health systems, and independent providers to enhance patient care and streamline clinical workflows. OCB and Mira Precision will collaborate to advance ToxNav® in the United States, establishing a substantial future market and sales presence. Dr. David Kerr, Founder and Director of the Board of OCB, and Professor of Cancer Medicine at Oxford University, commented, 'We developed our ToxNav test to identify cancer patients that have a high likelihood of undergoing extreme toxicity to 5FU/capecitabine treatment, which is one of the most widely used cancer drugs in the world. We have already clinically proven that ToxNav identifies patients that are susceptible to extreme toxicity and are excited to have partnered the test with Mira Precision, who have complementary expertise to advance ToxNav in the USA. We look forward to a long and productive relationship with Mira Precision as we advance ToxNav to widen its clinical utility in the USA and save more patient lives.' Dr. Sandra Gunselman, Founder and CEO of Mira Precision Health, said, 'I founded Mira Precision Health with the vision of bringing the most innovative and personalized diagnostic solutions to healthcare providers and their patients. Our collaboration with Dr. Kerr and the renowned team at Oxford Cancer Biomarkers marks an exciting inflection point for Mira, allowing us to partner with globally-respected academic medical centers and deliver advanced precision medicine directly into clinical practice. Together, we're committed to significantly improving patient care and outcomes across the United States.' Karen Merritt, Co-Founder of Advocates for Universal DPD/DPYD Testing, comments, 'I strongly support the partnership between Oxford Cancer Biomarkers and Mira Precision Health, as it represents a critical step toward safer, more comprehensive pretreatment DPYD screening to prevent avoidable toxicity and save lives.' ToxNav® enhances clinical decision-making through comprehensive genetic profiling, aligning directly with recent NCCN Guidelines updates that recommend DPYD testing for colorectal cancer patients receiving fluoropyrimidine-based treatments. Shaun Peterson, VP of Sales and Marketing at Mira Precision Health, noted, 'The NCCN revision underscores the timely clinical importance of the Mira Precision ToxNav® Test in the US market. Backed by multiple peer-reviewed studies and CE-IVD certification in the UK, ToxNav® significantly improves patient outcomes, reduces healthcare costs, and advances equitable precision medicine. This partnership between Oxford Cancer Biomarkers and Mira Precision Health reinforces our commitment to personalized cancer care innovation.' Michele Blair, Director of Economic Development for the City of Mason, said, 'We are excited to partner with Mira Precision Health to further science partnerships like ToxNav. Using the Mason Living Lab we have been able to connect an educated population with new and growing health technology to achieve faster commercialization. The new Mira Precision ToxNav® Test is an excellent addition to our portfolio of technology.' About Oxford Cancer Biomarkers Ltd (OCB) Oxford Cancer Biomarkers (OCB) is a spin-out from the University of Oxford, developing and commercialising a suite of molecular and AI-enabled diagnostic tools that harness the analytical capabilities of pharmacogenomic markers and digital pathology to optimise cancer treatment pathways. OCB continues to expand its portfolio with novel biomarkers and proprietary algorithms that enable clinicians to make personalized treatment recommendations based on real-world evidence, empowering patients to make better-informed decisions about their own cancer therapy. Its most recent investment came from Plutus Investments Group LLP, which is a multi-family office backing entrepreneurs in Europe and the USA, focused on Life Sciences, Biotech, Fintech, and Tech investments. For more information, please visit About Mira Precision Health, Inc. Mira Precision Health was founded to provide advanced molecular diagnostic testing directly to healthcare providers and communities. Inspired by the empowerment and strength symbolized by the name 'Mira,' Founder and CEO Dr. Sandra J. Gunselman envisioned reshaping precision medicine by equipping clinics, health systems, and independent providers with cutting-edge clinical genomics, pharmacogenomics expertise, and data informatics tools. Mira Precision Health is dedicated to enhancing clinical decision support, improving patient safety, and delivering personalized, data-driven healthcare solutions that significantly elevate patient outcomes. For more information, please visit About The City of Mason BioHub Recognized as a leader in Ohio and the Midwest, the City of Mason BioHub is an established hub for biohealth and biotech life science companies, with focus areas in cardiology, mental health and precision medicine. With $600 million in new investment and more than 1,200 jobs announced in 2024 primarily in this sector, the City's Economic Development arm has created an unmatched model for scaling young growth companies. Through its proprietary Living Lab initiative, the City is able to leverage its diverse demographic population and scientific business community to scale young HealthTech companies, while improving personal health outcomes for residents. For more information about the City of Mason, visit or For further information, please contact: Oxford Cancer Biomarkers Ltd Tel: 0044 7976 708535 Mira Precision Health, Shaun Peterson, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, [email protected] View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE City of Mason
