Double success for Regenerative Medicine partners

Two members of the Research Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine have received new grants through Keele’s partnership in the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine.

Dr Yvonne Reinwald (Left) & Dr Ying Yang (Right)

Dr Ying Yang has been awarded £29,999 fund for her project on Development of a novel assay to predict stemness potency and osteogenic potential in the bone marrow derived stem cells of individual donors. This project is investigating a facile technique to offer information for better cell-therapy.

Dr Yvonne Reinwald together with Prof Alicia El Haj, Dr Ying Yang, and Dr Pierre Bagnaninchi at Edinburgh University received £35,999 for a project of Online monitoring of mechanical properties of three-dimensional tissue engineered constructs for quality assessment. This project aims to develop a new real-time and non-destructive modality for living objectives before for clinical application.

The EPSRC Centre is a long-term collaboration between Loughborough, Keele and Nottingham universities, and a set of hospital and industrial partners in the Midlands. It has supported a range of cutting-edge research and training projects over the last five years.

Invited Talk at Groningen University

Dr. Ed Chadwick was recently invited to give a talk at the Centre for Human Movement Sciences, Groningen University, the Netherlands.

Ed is the Theme Lead for Rehabilitation Research at ISTM. His research aims to understand and restore upper limb function in neuromuscular disorders such as spinal cord injury and stroke. One of his main tools is computer modelling, which allows him to investigate pathologies and design interventions in silico.

His invited talk focused on his modelling work, and the role it can play in understanding movement and designing assistive devices. He described the state of the art in shoulder modelling, and gave two examples of innovative use of modelling by his group: estimation of dynamic shoulder stability, and design of neuroprosthetic systems for spinal cord injury.

The audience of about 100 people consisted of medical students, biomedical engineers and human movement scientists. His talk was very well received, and was described as informative and entertaining.

Dr. Ed Chadwick (left) and Dr. Alessio Murgia 
in front of the Martinitoren in Groningen

While in Groningen, Ed had the opportunity to visit the laboratories at the Centre for Human Movement Sciences, meet several researchers, and discuss plans for collaboration with his host, Dr. Alessio Murgia. He also had a tour of the historic city of Groningen, including the Martinitoren, a 500-year old church steeple and Groningen’s tallest building.

ISTM PhD student recognised in national Parkinson’s research competition

‘Blazing Neurons’ by George Joseph

This remarkable image, taken by Keele postgraduate research student, George Joseph, has been recognised in ‘Picturing Parkinson’s’, a national competition held by Parkinson’s UK to celebrate the beauty and art in the research they fund.

George, ISTM & School of Computing and Mathematics, was shortlisted for his image ‘Blazing Neurons’, which depicts the complexity of developing brain cells. His research investigates the environmental elements that contribute to growing stem cells for therapeutic treatments for people with Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s UK funded researcher George said: "I’m extremely flattered to be recognised by Parkinson’s UK and excited to share my research in a different way. I’m very lucky as not everyone gets to go to work and see amazing things like this on a daily basis.”

The annual competition is held in memory of scientist Dr Jonathan Stevens, who had Parkinson’s and passed away at the age of 34 in 2013. 127,000 people are living with Parkinson’s in the UK – and there is currently no cure. Parkinson’s UK has invested more than £70million in ground-breaking Parkinson’s research to improve treatments and find a cure.

Parkinson’s UK Director of Research Dr Arthur Roach said of the winners: “Irish writer Jonathan Swift once said vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others – this is what our Parkinson’s researchers are doing each day in the lab, discovering new scientific breakthroughs and taking us closer to a cure.

“It’s great that our researchers unpick the complexities of Parkinson’s science and provide images that give us a different perspective on how we’re working to develop new and better treatments. They prove that science is beautiful.”

George's supervisory team is Theo Kyriacou, Rose fricker and Paul Roach, with funding support from the EPSRC CDT in regenerative medicine.

Czech visitors check in to ISTM

The Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine welcomed visitors from the Czech Republic for collaborative work on Select Ion Flow Tube Mass Spectrometry. As one of the leading centres for applications of trace gas analysis, ISTM has worked in long term collaboration with the J Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, part of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.

Prof Patrik Španel, who chairs the Board at the J Heyrovský Institute and is also Keele’s Professor of Chemical Physics, was accompanied by postdoctoral scientists Dr Kristýna Sovová, a chemist, and Dr Violet Shestivska, a biologist, who are both interested in the use of SIFT-MS technology in the monitoring of cell growth. They conducted a series of discussions and experiments during their visit and were accompanied by ISTM's Prof David Smith.

Dr Violet Shestivska, Dr Kristýna Sovová, Prof Patrik Španel and Prof David Smith FRS in the SIFT-MS laboratory at the Guy Hilton Research Centre (Mark Smith)

ISTM Translate - Issue 3: Rehabilitation

The latest issue of the ISTM Translate magazine is now available in digital and print format.  The theme focus for this issue is rehabilitation.

There are contributions from Dr Dimitra Blana, Dr Ed Chadwick, Professor Peter Ogrodnik, Professor Anand Pandyan, Dr Claire Stapleton and Dr Caroline Stewart, among others.  Articles include...

• Long term results in novel surgery:  Improving walking in children with cerebral palsy
• Moving forward in partnership:  Updating the clinical biomechanics & movement lab
• The Internet of Orthopaedics:  Developing a faster and cheaper alternative to fracture clinics
• Personalising rehabilitation:  Computer models designing personalised interventions
• Visualising blood flow:  Working towards a clinical tool using ultrasound
• Rehabilitation Science Launches Innovative, new programme
• Spotlight:  The people behind ISTM
• Global outlook:  Developing closer ties with Saudi Arabia
• Local outreach:  Promoting research in the local community

By clicking here you can access the online digital version of Translate Issue 3.  Alternatively you can request a paper copy by contacting:
Joseph Clarke (+44 (0)1782 674998  |  j.clarke@keele.ac.uk) 

MAGNEURON project attracts €750,000 to Keele

Dr Neil Telling, Prof Alicia El Haj and Dr Rosemary Fricker.

A new funding award to the Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine through the Horizon FET–OPEN programme aims to tackle neurodegenerative diseases, using innovative cell replacement therapies. Titled “Hijacking cell signalling pathways with magnetic nanoactuators for remote-controlled stem cell therapies of neurodegenerative disorders", the 4-year project is known by the short name "MAGNEURON”. Co-ordinated by Dr Maxime Dahan at the Marie Curie Institute in Paris, MAGNEURON is one of only 11 projects funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program out of 650 applications that supports early-stages of the science and technology research and innovation around new ideas towards radically new future technologies. The aim of the project is to introduce and apply a fundamentally new concept for remote control of cellular functions by means of magnetic manipulation of nanoparticles functionalised with proteins involved in key cellular signalling cascades. This technology has been developed within ISTM for orthopaedic applications and this new project explores applications in the field of brain repair following degenerative diseases.

The project lead by Prof Alicia El Haj collaborates with Dr Neil Telling and Dr Rosemary Fricker who together bring world-leading expertise in regenerative medicine, nanosciences and neurobiology. Other partners contributing international expertise in physical chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics are the University of Osnabrueck and University of the Ruhr, both in Germany, the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Efficient Innovation, which are both in France.

Health Foundation grant to improve scan results

The Health Foundation’s Innovating for Improvement Programme has made a grant of £74,996 to Dr Fahmy Hanna and Prof Tony Fryer to improve the way unexpected test results are handled in the NHS.

Dr Fahmy Hanna

The three-year study focusses on Adrenal Incidentalomas, or AIs. As scanning with CT and MRI becomes more common, unexpected additional masses called AIs are increasingly being discovered. Whilst some may not need further testing and require no treatment, others could develop into cancer.

The team based at University Hospital of North Midlands Diabetes and Endocrinology Department will work in partnership with the University Hospital of South Manchester, and aims to find a new way of working that could be used across hospitals all over the UK.

Professor Anthony Fryer

Prof Fryer, Keele’s chair of Clinical Biochemistry in ISTM since 2008, said: “There is currently no recognised pathway for treating people with AI and it varies from hospital to hospital. This is a really innovative research project in that it could potentially change practice in the NHS because it is looking at ensuring the right tests are done at the right time and the right people get the information they need to help their patient.”

A new practical system to improve ways of working will be developed with a key innovation of an electronic management system (eAIMS) built in so that the project could then be rolled out in other NHS organisations.

Dr Hanna, Keele Honorary Clinical Lecturer and a UHNM Consultant and Endocrinologist said: “At UHNM there has been a four-fold increase in the number of scans over the last few years. The main benefit of having an electronic results system is that we hope to reduce what is an extremely stressful situation for patients who have found themselves in a potentially nightmare scenario of having a test for one condition that has then found something else for them to worry about.”