Medical Institute 50th Anniversary Research Awards

At an evening presentation as part of its 50th Anniversary celebrations, the North Staffordshire Medical Institute announced the results of its competition to support two high quality research proposals to be undertaken in North Staffordshire. The funding totalling almost £0.5million comes from a generous legacy to the Institute.

LtoR - Prof Shaughn O'Brien (Newly elected NSMI Chairman) , Prof Alicia El Haj,
Dr Nicholas Forsyth, Mr Duncan Gough,(past NSMI chairman) & Dr Mohammed Harris

Prof Mamas Mamas, Keele’s newly appointed Professor of Cardiology in ISTM, leads a project submitted by the Cardiovascular Research Group, which was awarded £249,983. Entitled “Major bleeding complications following acute myocardial infarction, site, frequency and impact; insight from a national and primary care perspective”, the work will use national heart attack registry data that captures all heart attack admissions to NHS hospitals in the UK, plus analysis of post admission events in primary care in Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester. The team includes Profs Umesh Kadam and Kelvin Jordan from Keele, Prof Iain Buchan and Drs Evangelos Kontopantelis and Matthew Sperrin from the Farr Institute in Manchester.

Dr Nick Forsyth, ISTM, leads a group comprising Prof Monica Spiteri, Dr Mohammed F Haris from UHNM’s Respiratory Directorate, and Prof Alicia El Haj and Dr Ying Yang at the Guy Hilton Research Centre for “A tissue engineering approach to improve lung function and clinical outcome in patients with emphysema”, awarded £249,659. The restoration of normal lung tissue will be achieved by using novel biologically-compatible materials to fill the emphysematous air sacs, displacing trapped air and allowing restoration of normal breathing cycles.

Dr Shing Kwok (Centre left) & Prof Umesh Kadam (Right) receiving their award from
Prof Shaughn O'Brien (Left) and Mr Duncan Gough (Centre Right)

On the same evening a presentation was made to Dr Susan Sherman, School of Psychology, awarded a grant of £8,511. The award for Keele University medical student best overall performance in year 2 2014/15 went to Sara Day and Keele University medical student best overall performance in year 4 OSCE 2014/15 was given to Michael Eastwood.

The NSMI Research Awards Committee has increased the upper limit for its grants to pump-prime medical research projects to £20,000 per project, the closing date for peer-reviewed applications is 27 November, details at: http://nsmedicalinstitute.co.uk/grant-applications-2/.