Highlights from French President Macron's introduction to LhARA, 2025 LhARA Collaboration meeting
Welcome to the latest LhARA newsletter. We are pleased to share recent updates, upcoming opportunities, and highlights from across the collaboration.
In This Issue
● Message from the LhARA Team
● Highlights from Recent Activities
● Upcoming Events
● Collaborator Spotlight
● Stay Connected
Message from the LhARA Team
Welcome to the LhARA initiative. Our ambition is to transform cancer treatment with radiotherapy by delivering particle beam therapy tailored to each individual patient. Using laser-driven technology to generate high-energy particles, we are developing compact, automated systems that will enable more precise, efficient, and accessible treatment.
The LhARA collaboration is multidisciplinary and increasingly international. Our vision is to work towards realising our transformative ambition as a partnership of researchers, clinicians, engineers, technologists, and entrepreneurs. The vision was shaped through the CNRS/Imperial International Research Centre, where Yolanda Prezado and I launched a joint programme between Institüt Curie and Imperial College London, and our growing partnership with Leo Cancer Care. This foundational partnership reflects our commitment to international collaboration and industrial co-creation—an approach that was powerfully showcased when LhARA was featured during President Macron’s recent visit to Imperial College, celebrating a new era of UK–France scientific cooperation.
Engagement with the French and UK scientific delegations was a proud moment for the LhARA team and a timely reminder that multinational, multidisciplinary collaboration is key to delivering the breakthroughs patients need. Our clear joint purpose has allowed the LhARA to team to grow; we will be pleased to introduce our collaborators in upcoming issues.
– Professor Kenneth Long
Recent Highlights
EPS‑HEP Conference Presentation
Date: 10 July 2025
Location: European Physical Society High Energy Physics Conference, Ken Long presented LhARA in the Accelerator Parallel session.
State Visit of President Emmanuel Macron
Left to Right: Emmanuel Macron, Pat Price, Calvin Dyson, Josie McGarrigle
Date: 5 July 2025
Location: Imperial College London
LhARA and Leo Cancer Care joined the exhibition, highlighting UK–France scientific collaboration. Thanks to our LhARA representatives, pictured here, who presented the initiative to dignitaries, including President Macron. This event created valuable connections across academia, government, and industry. Read more from Imperial College here.
SCAPA Beamline Progress
Location: University of Strathclyde (SCAPA)
The LhARA team achieved >9 MeV beam transmission through the quadrupole system. Though challenges remain with beamline alignment and pellicle aging, the results align well with simulation and mark significant progress.
Left to Right: Sreejith Sadan, Calvin Dyson, Christopher McQueen, Robbie Wilson, Ben Torrance, Ewan Dolier, Nela Sedlackova
Left to Right: Kai Gregory, Josie McGarrigle
RAL Access Day
Date: 1 August 2025
Location: STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (PPD Exhibition Room)
LhARA representatives welcomed visitors during this outreach event, hosting more than 400 attendees. It was a great opportunity to demonstrate and showcase LhARA’s innovations to a broad public audience.
LhARA Collaboration Meeting
Date: 18–19 September 2025
Location: The Medical School at The University of Birmingham
This biannual meeting brought researchers across physics, engineering, biology, and clinical translation to review progress, discuss strategy, and foster collaboration on LhARA’s scientific roadmap.
Left to Right (In Person): Xiangyi Chen, Josie McGarrigle, Matt Pereira, Calvin Dyson, Stuart Green, Jason Parson, Tony Price, Emma Melia, Richard Amos, Peter Hobson, Will Shields, Tim Greenshaw, Colin Whyte, Poram Ruksasakchai, Narender Kumar
Zoom, Top Row: Pat Price, (Jason) Alfredo Fernandez-Rodriguez
Middle Row: Amato Giaccia, Maria Maxouti, Nicholas Dover
Bottom Row: Dirk van der Werf
Broadening our Collaboration
Opportunity: engagement with the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE), Quy Nhon, Vietnam
Following an exciting ICISE conference on the nature of matter, the possibility of developing a conference/workshop series – and perhaps a post-graduate education and training school – focused on transformational approaches to biomedical research is being discussed. Together, the LhARA collaboration and the ICISE would seek to advance trans-regional collaboration in transformative biomedical research.
Upcoming Events
Imperial Lates Exhibition
Date: 23 October 2025, 6-9 pm
Location: Imperial College London, College Main Entrance Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
In this free event, Imperial College will introduce the public to the fascinating ways light helps people understand the world, from sunlight’s effect on skin to the vast reaches of space. LhARA will feature as an exhibitor. Please note, Imperial Lates is intended for an 18+ audience.
FRPT (FlashRadiotherapy and Particle Therapy Conference)
Date: 10–12 December 2025
Location: Clarion Congress Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic (also online)
FRPT 2025 is the fifth multidisciplinary forum dedicated to FLASH Radiotherapy and Particle Therapy. The conference will feature keynote lectures, oral and poster presentations, expert panels, and industry symposia covering topics from basic science through preclinical studies to clinical trials and treatment modalities. Sessions will include FLASH mechanisms, dose monitoring, treatment planning systems, spatial fractionation, and emerging technological innovations.
Collaborator Spotlight
Leo Cancer Care
LhARA is privileged to work with Leo Cancer Care as an industry collaborator. Leo Cancer Care is advancing upright radiotherapy solutions that prioritise patient comfort and accessibility. Their platform enables treatment with patients seated upright—improving accuracy and reducing system cost while facilitating patient–clinician interaction.
“We are committed to collaborating with LhARA in the future to position and image the patient in front of the beam. We believe upright patient positioning and imaging is a more human way to deliver radiation therapy, and we are proud to work with partners like LhARA that want to push the boundaries of care.”
– Sophie Towe, Leo Cancer Care, Director of Marketing
Student Spotlight
A huge part of our success is the engagement of our students in advancing the technology and featuring their work at these events. Get to know a few of our students:
“My research focuses on modulating the beam in space and time to better target cancer while sparing healthy tissue. Collaborating with researchers in France and Europe via CNRS, alongside innovators like Leo, is incredibly exciting.”
- Josie McGarrigle, PhD Student, Imperial College London & CNRS
“Using VR, we’re helping the public visualise LhARA. We take users on a digital tour from particle source through to biological cell to demonstrate how this mission can transform radiotherapy.”
- Chloe Hooper, Student, Royal Holloway, University of London
Thank you
Thank you for your continued interest and support in LhARA. We are very excited about 2026 and look forward to sharing more about this important collaboration in the new year.
