A TEAM of Southampton researchers has been awarded more than £130,000 in the hunt for new treatments for breast cancer.

Experts based at the University of Southampton's School of Medicine successfully applied for the cash from the Breast Cancer Campaign (BCC), a charity which specialises in funding independent breast cancer research throughout the UK.

The £131,522 grant will fund a three-year project run by Dr Jeremy Blaydes and his team at the university's cancer sciences division.

The news has been welcomed by Nicky Williams, who has battled breast cancer for the last nine months.

Mum of two Nicky, who works at Southampton General Hospital, discovered a lump the size of a satsuma in her breast last October but thankfully doctors appear to have caught the cancer in its early stages.

Nicky, 45, from Otterbourne near Winchester, said: "This is great news."

Dr Blaydes said: "I am delighted we have been successful as I believe only 15 to 20 per cent of grant applications were approved.''

Medical research has already shown many systems work to prevent breast cancer cell death and encourage cell growth. Two molecules - CtBP and p53 - have been shown to be involved in this process, with p53 vital in causing cell death.

Scientists have shown that in breast cancer cells one way CtBP acts is to prevent p53 from doing its job, so breast cancer cells don't die and instead continue to grow.

The aim of the Southampton study is to look at exactly how and why CtBP keeps breast cancer cells alive and then to develop a way of experimentally changing CtBP so that p53 can continue to do its job and promote the death of breast cancer cells.