February 2013 - Faculty of Health and Life Sciences - Oxford ...

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News inBriefPhD Student Award WinnerSuzanne Watts, second yearPhD student in the Departmentof Psychology, Social Work andPublic Health has been awarded theRoyal College of Nursing MarjorieSimpson New Researcher Award2013. The award covers the costof conference fees, travel andaccommodation for Suzanne toattend the annual Royal Collegeof Nursing International ResearchConference to be held in Belfastlater this year. At the conferenceSuzanne will be presenting a posterdetailing how she addressed theethical challenges in the design ofher research which is a multiplecase study exploring child protectionreferrals from primary health care tochild social care. Suzanne, who is amember of the Children and FamiliesResearch Group is supervised byDr Jane Appleton and ProfessorMargaret Harris and is supportedby a Faculty funded studentship onthe Interdisciplinary Doctoral TrainingProgramme for Children and YoungPeople.Senior Lecturer Awarded TravelScholarshipObrey Alexis, Senior Lecturer in AdultNursing, has been awarded a SantanderTravel Research Scholarship to exploreglobal health care and its developmentin the United States of America. Whilstthere, he will visit the University ofPennsylvania, The John Hopkins Universityand the University of Columbia and willgain insights into global health care fromacademics and those who are part of theglobal health care community. Obrey aimsto disseminate the findings in the form ofa seminar session to staff and students atOxford Brookes University enabling themto have a better understanding of globalhealth care. This award will no doubtdevelop Obrey professionally and theexpert knowledge gained will enable himto inform the nursing curriculum within theAdult nursing programme.Climate Change and the Accliphot ProjectAccliphot is a major and exiting new project funded as part of the European Union’sMarie Curie Initial Training Network scheme. The overall aims of the project are toidentify how plants might alter their biochemistry in response to climate change, whetheror not it is possible to accelerate this adaptation via specific interventions, and whethersuch understanding can be applied for practical purposes (e.g. obtaining higher biofuelyields by engineering organisms that can take advantage of higher light levels).The network is comprised of thirteen international academic and industrial partnerseach of whom will be employing one or more early stage researchers to work on variousaspects of the project. The Cell Systems Modelling Group will be appointing two ofthese researchers to develop metabolic models of the relevant organisms. These willthen be used as an aid to experimental design and interpretation.Further details can be found on the project website -http://www.accliphot.euDr Ross Sadler has been awardedan NIHR grant for “Predictingcardiovascular risk in Rheumatoid arthritispatients: Addition of microparticle andimmunological biomarkers to currentcardiovascular risk scores”Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronicautoimmune disease that affects approx600,000 people in the UK. Rheumatoidarthritis currently has no cure and theimmunological mechanism by whichthe disease develops remains unclear.Interestingly, the biggest cause ofdeath in these patients is heart orcardiovascular disease (CVD). ThoseRA patients who are diagnosed withcardiovascular illness are twice as likelyto die within 1 year of their cardiovasculardiagnosis that someone who has CVDbut no RA.Currently, CVD is predicted according toa patient’s ‘risk’. This risk is calculatedfrom a number of different factors aboutthe patient including smoking history,body mass index (BMI) and cholesterollevels. These factors are compiled into aformulation that can predict the likelihoodof the patient developing CVD, known asthe Framingham risk score (FRS).Microparticles are small cell-derivedmembrane-bound vesicles producedby cells in the vascular system at timesof physiological stress to the body.Previous studies have shown thatincreases in particular microparticlesare associated with various groups ofpatients who suffer from a cardiovascularcomplication and that these can increasethe accuracy of a risk score for thesepatients when predicting cardiovasculardisease. The second biggest cause ofco-morbidity and mortality in RA patientsis infection and this has been shown tobe independent of immunosuppressivemedication, indicating a wider effectof immune dysregulation in thesepatients than simply their autoimmunemanifestations.In this study, levels of microparticles andimmune function will be assessed inpatients with established RA who alsohave cardiovascular disease and thesewill be compared to relevant controls.We will try to establish if signaturemicroparticle and immune function profilefactors exist that appear to be presentsignificantly in this RA + CVD group.These candidate biomarkers will be thenassessed for their clinical value, eitheron their own or integrated into existing‘risk’ scores, in predicting cardiovasculardisease in newly diagnosed RA patients.With this work, it is hoped that moreaccurate evaluation of early RA patientscould lead to earlier intervention andbetter management of patients leadingto a decrease in both morbidity andmortality ‘Sexuality in life-limiting illness: apenomenological study’ bridget taylor6 Research News
Biotech Partnership with India inSearch for Sustainable FuelsOxford Brookes University has joinedforces with the International Centre forGenetic Engineering and Biotechnology(ICGEB) and Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) in Delhi to develop cheap andsustainable biofuels in a project funded byan Indian Partnering Award from the UK’sBiotechnology and Biological SciencesResearch Council (BBSRC).The project mayexpand to involvepartner institutionselsewhere inIndia and theUK. It follows asuccessful fouryearcollaborationbetweenProfessor DavidFell (pictured) from the Department ofBiological and Medical Sciences at OxfordBrookes and Dr Sudip Kundu, from theDepartment of Biophysics, MolecularBiology and Bioinformatics at theWe are delighted to bedeveloping this partnership andhope to win further fundingfor more extensive researchcollaborations. This type ofpartnership provides tremendousadvantages for all parties: we take acomputational modelling approachwhilst our Indian colleagues have theexperience and facilities to test out ourpredictions, rather than just relying onproof of principle. David FellUniversity of Calcutta which focussed onthe metabolic properties of rice.Prof Fell was in a visiting party fromUK universities, funded by the BBSRC,that met with the Indian Government’sDepartment of Biotechnology (DBT) andIndian scientists in Delhi in October 2011to promote and facilitate collaborativebioenergy research by researchersand academics from both the UK andIndia. They agreed to explore threepossible sources of biofuels: planktonicalgae, seaweed and the by-products ofrice production - rice straw - to avoidcompetition between biofuel and foodproduction. It was here that he met DrShams Yazdani (ICGEB) and Professor K JMukherjee (JNU).David returned to Delhi in November2012 with colleagues to deliver a weeklongpractical course for 12 postgraduateresearchers and staff. (See next page.)During the week, students were selectedto visit the UK in 2013 to work at OxfordBrookes and the University of Abderdeen.The latest project aims to build computermodels of the metabolism of bacteria andthen design and implement changes thatcould help provide a credible biofuel forIndia.How We Find What We Are Looking ForWhat we know about an object we are looking for plays animportant role in how effectively we find it.According to research from Early Career FellowDr Giles AndersonThe series of eye-tracking studies, to be published in the journalVision Research under the title ‘Top-down Guidance of EyeMovements in Conjunction Search’, indicate that knowingsomething’s colour allows us to spot an item (such as yourkeys) far quicker than prior knowledge of other attributes (e.g.,its visual orientation). Such differences in the functioning of thevisual system have real-world applications, particularly whenimprovements in visual processing are of paramount importance(e.g., emergency or traffic signage).Thyroid Hormone Deficiency andTesticular Structure in the OvineFetusAlison Forhead has been awarded anAcademic Scholarship Award of £5550from the Society for Reproduction andFertility.Her project will examine the effectsof low levels of thyroid hormones(hypothyroidism) before birth on thestructure and function of the fetal testis.Development of the testis in the fetusand newborn can influence reproductivefunction and fertility in adult life. Thyroidhormone receptors are present in the fetaltestis, and congenital hypothyroidism,the most common congenital endocrinedisorder, has been shown to impair malefertility in both clinical and experimentalanimal studies.This study will provide novel pilot data forfuture research proposals to explore themechanisms of thyroid hormone actionin the fetal testis, and the findings maycontribute to the understanding andmanagement of long-term reproductivefunction in congenital hypothyroidism.Richard Newton, celebrating hissuccessful PhD Viva, on Friday 11January. He is with the two examiners,Prof Ed Elbers, University of Utrecht,The Netherlands, and Dr Mary Wilde,Oxford Brookes School of Education(and his Director of Studies – Guida deAbreu).Richard was supported by a UniversityScholarship from the Doctoral Trainingin Children and Young People, andhis research programme involvedcollaboration between Psychology &Education.His thesis was titled ‘Parent-childmathematical interaction: experiences,identity and activity’. He was supervisedby Professor Guida de Abreu(Psychology, director of studies) andGeorgina Glenny (Education, secondsupervisor).March 2013 7
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