Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics (LIGHT)

Jenna Strathdee, a student from Winter Springs in America, has been awarded the highly prestigious Tetley & Lupton Scholarship for International Students for the academic session 2013/14.

This sought-after scholarship will cover the cost of Jenna’s tuition fees as she joins LIGHT to complete her MSc with Paul Baxter (Programme Lead for the MSc Epidemiology and Biostatistics) in September.

This is a great success for Jenna; less than a dozen of these scholarships are awarded to the ‘best of the best’ each year, and Paul and his teaching team are very much looking forward to welcoming her onto their MSc Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Lina Alrefaai has just been awarded a prestigious Leeds International Research Scholarship (LIRs) which will support her as she studies for a PhD in LIGHT with George Ellison, Graham Law and Eleanor Scott as supervisors.  Although students from the School of Medicine have been on the reserve list before, Lina is the first to actually secure the award so this is a major achievement.

After schooling in the Emirates, Lina went to the University of Kalamoon in Syria where she gained a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Food Science.  She then came to Leeds to study for the MSc Nutrition, Obesity and Health, which she completed last year.

Lina is very much looking forward to starting her PhD later this year, which will examine gestational diabetes in relation to diet and patterns in lifestyle.

“I really like the community here in Leeds” Lina told me.  “We can find friendly people everywhere.  I feel proud for my country.  I am proud that I have come here from Syria at such a difficult time and have been able to achieve a great thing.  I think that is really special, and my family are very proud of me.”

Prof Mark Kearney, from the Division of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research, has been highlighted as a ‘BHF Top Researcher’, in an article published about the ground-breaking work he and his team are undertaking which could lead to new treatments for people with type 2 diabetes.

You can read the full article on the BHF website.

Rumour also has it that Mark will be appearing on our TV screens on Saturday night so we’ll definitely be keeping a look out for him!

It has been informally announced that George Ellison (Division of Biostatistics) was nominated lecturers for the Leeds University Medical Students Representative Council ‘Teacher of the Year’ award.  George Ellison was one of seven nominated lecturers for this wonderful award.

George has also been nominated for the ‘Extra Mile’ Partnership Award, in particular for the Summer School he set up last year for medical students from a variety of years to attend.  A student describes George’s summer school:

“George has only been at the Med school for a year or so, and last year he helped a group of 15 students from different years in Medicine with a summer school project. This was a research based project, on completely new data, and out of it we have not just learned different statistical methods of analysing data, but also have been to poster presentations, prepared oral presentations and hopefully in the next month or so will be publishing an article in a peer-reviewed journal. And this is just our group! there were four groups, and he's doing the same again this year.”

Two fantastic accolades which we are extremely proud to promote.

Congratulations George!

Title: Mechanisms of Fibrin Structure in Thrombosis

PI: Robert Ariens, Co-I: Helen Philippou, Ramzi Ajjan, Victoria Ridger (Sheffield), Simon Connell (Physics Leeds)

This award will allow the research team to study the architecture of blood clots that lead to heart disease.

One in three people in the developed world have heart disease. Ultimately it is the generation of a blood clot that results in death or severe damage to health. The structure of the blood clot that is formed will determine the risk of having a bad or good health outcome. 

This research aims to discover the mechanisms that change the structure of the blood clot. A molecule in the blood called fibrinogen forms the scaffold of a blood clot. Robert and his team will investigate how altered fibrinogens affect the development and structures of blood clots as well their ability to be broken down.

The team will also identify how they influence clot elasticity and the incorporation of cells involved in the blood clot. This will inform them about how sites on fibrinogen change the structure of the blood clot and enhance its ability to be broken down.

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) began publishing an e-magazine last year (‘Faculty World’) which focuses on NIHR Faculty members and their achievements.  Last month’s edition included a glowing article about Dr Chris Gale, from the Division of Epidemiology. 

Entitled ‘Making Research Happen; An NIHR Researcher’s Experience’, the article highlights Chris’ recent research into national variations in cardiovascular care, as well as his ability to juggle a multitude of projects!

Read the full article (pages 12 and 13)

Evidence has been found suggesting that Syria’s military used chemical weapons against its own people last month. Professor Alastair Hay (Division of Epidemiology, LIGHT) was asked to examine video footage of alleged victims of an attack in Homs, and suggests that their symptoms are consistent with a type of chemical agent called sternutators.

Richard Cubbon (Division of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research) and co-applicants Mark Kearney (also Division of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research) and David Beech (Faculty of Biological Sciences), have been awarded a five year British Heart Foundation Intermediate Clinical Research Fellowship commencing Feb 2013.

The project, entitled “Does cellular insulin signalling modulate endogenous vascular repair and endothelial progenitor cell function via interaction with VEGF signalling?” will involve Richard spending a year in the lab of Peter Carmeliet in Leuven, Belgium.

The work will look at how the response to a molecule critical in promoting blood vessel growth and repair (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) is altered in the context of type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes and obesity.

It is hoped that the findings will guide the development of novel strategies to improve vascular repair, either in the form of drug therapy, or improvements in the efficacy of future progenitor cell based therapies.

Dr Laura Hardie and Dr Sarah Fleming were two of the authors on a recent paper published as part of the European Union funded NewGeneris study exploring the relationship between levels of acrylamide (a chemical formed in fried starchy foods such as crisps and chips during cooking) and birth weight.

The study measured acrylamide levels in 1,100 infants across England, Denmark, Greece, Norway and Spain.  The babies from England were part of the Born in Bradford birth cohort.

The results received national press coverage including the BBC News, the Daily Mail and the Telegraph in which Dr Hardie was quoted.

Dr Sikha Saha and Professor Peter Grant have been working collaboratively with Dr Gin Jose (from the Institute for Material Research) to develop non-invasive glucose-sensing technology.  Their product has been so successful they were nominated finalists in the Medical Devices and Diagnostics category of Medipex’s 2012 NHS Innovation Awards.

You can read more about their achievements on the Medipex website via this link. 

The Independent on Sunday published an article entitled ‘Iraq records huge rise in birth defects’, in which Professor Hay (from the Division of Epidemiology) commented on the findings of a new study which has linked an increase in military action by Western forces to a rise in birth defects and miscarriages in Iraqi cities.

The following day, the New Zealand Herald replicated Professor Hay’s comments in their article entitled ‘Living with the legacies of war’, and the news was also featured in the Huffington Post.

Read the article in the Independent on Sunday.
Read the article in the New Zealand Herald.

Read the article in the Huffington Post.

Karen Porter, from the Division of Cardiovascular and Neuronal Remodelling, has been awarded a project grant from the Dunhill Medical Trust with co-investigators Neil Turner (from the same Division) and Ian Wood (from the Faculty of Biological Sciences). 

The project is entitled “Investigating epigenetic and molecular control of metabolic memory in vascular cells from Type 2 diabetes patients” and the award was for £113,705 over 2 years.  The funds will provide continued employment for post-doc Kirsten Riches, who currently works within Karen's research group.

Kirsten and Karen also just published an invited review article in the online journal “Cholesterol”, entitled “Lipoprotein(a): Cellular Effects and Molecular Mechanisms”

Congratulations to Chris Peers and Jason Scragg, from the Division of Cardiovascular and Neuronal Remodelling, for successfully securing a British Heart Foundation studentship for the sum of £102,540.

The PhD studentship, entitled “Thioredoxin, T-type Ca²⁺ channels and vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation”, will take place over the next 3 years.

Professor Allan House (PI), Ramzi Ajjan (co-investigator) (Division of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research) et al. have been awarded £769,000 by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

The study will investigate Type 2 diabetes in individuals with learning difficulties through a clinical observational/ interventional study over 3 years. This portfolio work is in the set up stage and due to start recruiting in February 2013.

Congratulations go to Stephen Wheatcroft, from the Division of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research, who has successfully secured a 1.5 million euro European Research Council Starting Grant entitled ‘BP-CarDiO - IGF and IGF Binding Proteins in Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes and Obesity’.  The work will take place over the next 5 years, which Stephen is aiming to start on the 1^st November 2012.  

The project builds on research carried out through Stephen’s BHF-funded Intermediate Clinical Research Fellowship between 2007-2011. It combines complimentary molecular, cell-based and in-vivo approaches to investigate the potential for modulating the insulin-like growth factor / binding protein axis as a strategy to prevent cardiovascular disease in the setting of diabetes and obesity. The emphasis is on exploring key players in the IGF/IGFBP axis as putative therapeutic agents in preventing the development of insulin resistance, diabetes and atherosclerosis.

ERC Starting Grants aim to support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish a proper research team and to start conducting independent research in Europe.  The scheme targets promising researchers who have the proven potential of becoming independent research leaders.  It will support the creation of excellent new research teams.

On the 28^th June the LIGHT Early Careers Group invited three speakers; Dr Hélène Wilson, British Heart Foundation; Dr John Wilkinson, National Institute for Health Research; and Dr Stephen Muench, an MRC funded career development fellow based in the Institute of Membrane and Systems Biology, to present a summary of the fellowship and grant schemes each organisation has available.  Each speaker also gave tips on what they look for in a successful application including the importance of the 3 Ps: person, project and place. They also highlighted that the project needed to have clear aims and objectives, achievable outcomes and be suited to the expertise available in the institution you were applying from.

This was followed by a question and answer session where members of the audience were able to ask for more details on the schemes and how to apply. Further links for information from the three funding bodies and the schemes they have available can be found in the Early Careers Group section of the Sharepoint site.

The event was also an opportunity to launch the LIGHT early careers group grant competition – further details are available in the 'launch' news article.

·      Got a new idea you want to test through laboratory experiments, data analysis or another technique in a pilot study?

·      Interested in receiving up to £2,500 to purchase, for instance, lab consumables, access to a specific data-set or piece of software to carry out the work?

·      Will the work be important as part of your future career plans such as a fellowship or grant application?

The LIGHT ECG grant completion is open to all LIGHT postdoctoral and early career researchers, and involves completing a short application summarising the research project, what the funds will be spent on and how it will further your future career plans with a grant available for up to £2,500 for the successful applicant.

All applications will be judged through external peer review. The deadline for completing and submitting the application form is 5pm, Wednesday 31^st October. Your completed application should be forwarded to Matt Gage (M.C.Gage@leeds.ac.uk) and the successful applicant will be announced at the ECG Christmas party and the official award presented at the Post Graduate Symposium in March 2013.

Further details are available including the application form on the ECG section of the LIGHT sharepoint site.

Over 40 delegates from across the University of Leeds and beyond attended the WUN Bioinformatics workshop on the 26^th June 2012, in which invited speakers presented examples of the application of several new methodologies for the analysis of high dimensional data.

Subjects covered a range of statistical techniques being applied to –omics and mass spectrometry data-sets including machine learning, Bayesian networks, penalised logistic regression, partial least squares and self-organising maps. Several posters were also presented giving different examples of research results in the area and the workshop gave the opportunity for researchers in the area to network and discuss ideas for future collaboration. The event was supported by funding from the World Universities Network.

The organising committee for the meeting included: Prof Mark Gilthorpe, Dr Yu-Kang Tu, Dr Graham Law, Dr Sarah Fleming, Mr Thomas Fleming (Biostatistics, LIGHT) and Dr Leeds Hazelwood (BHRC Bioinformatics Group, FBS).

Following the successful meeting in 2010, the Royal Statistical Society and LIGHT are jointly organising another two-day conference on Statistical Challenges in Lifecourse Research on 17 and 18 July 2012 at Hinsley Hall in Leeds.

The conference will bring together researchers from epidemiology, statistics, and the social sciences to exchange ideas on how to analyse longitudinal lifecourse data to identify the critical phases related to social, psychological and physiological wellbeing in later life.

The conference will be preceded on 16 July by a half day workshop "Lifecourse Analysis: Pitfalls and how to Avoid Them". This will comprise a critical review of current lifecourse methods facilitated by researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Bristol.

Speakers at the conference will include:

Bianca De Stavola (LSHTM),

Fiona Steele (University of Bristol),

Fiona Matthews (MRC Biostatistics Unit)

Jos Twisk (University Amsterdam),

Tim Cole (UCL),

Clive Osmond (MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit), Kate Tilling (University of Bristol), Darren Dahly (University of Leeds) and Yu-Kang Tu (University of Leeds).

Registration for the conference is now open at:

www.rss.org.uk/eventforms

For further information please contact Paul Baxter

(p.d.baxter@leeds.ac.uk) or Paul Gentry (p.gentry@rss.org.uk).

Professor Peter Grant, Division of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research, has been elected as a Fellow of the prestigious Academy of Medical Sciences from April 2012. 

The Academy of Medical Sciences promotes advances in medical science and campaigns to ensure these are translated into healthcare benefits for society.  Fellowship of the Academy is based on exceptional contributions to the medical sciences either in the form of original discovery or of sustained contributions to scholarship.

The following paper has recently been accepted for publication in the Journal, Diabetes (impact factor 8.89):

"Novel role of the IGF-1 receptor in endothelial function and repair: studies in endothelium-targeted IGF-1 receptor transgenic mice".

Helen Imrie, Hema Viswambharan, Piruthivi Sukumar, Afroze Abbas, Richard M Cubbon, Nadira Yuldasheva, Matthew Gage, Jessica Smith, Stacey Galloway, Anna Skromna, Sheik Taqweer Rashid, T Simon Futers, Shouhong Xuan, V Kate Gatenby, Peter J Grant, Keith M Channon, David J Beech, Stephen B Wheatcroft, Mark T Kearney

Andrew Davies (Division of Medical Physics) has been awarded a three year grant of €312k as part of the ENIAC JU scheme.  Andrew is the Principal Investigator for this project, and has recently returned from Eindhoven where they had their first meeting.

The grant project is called 'PANORAMA - Ultra Wide Context Aware Imaging' and is a EU consortium project.  The project aims to introduce intelligence into image acquisition devices by taking into account image content and imaging context, and to more intelligently deal with data from a number of sources.  

The application areas that will be explored are medical, broadcast and surveillance imaging.  Andrew in particular is looking at improving X-ray dose control systems, to optimise image quality based on the current clinical task, at the lowest possible radiation dose to the patient.

More information about ENIAC JU can be found at www.eniac.eu/web/index.php.

Dr Richard Feltbower (Division of Epidemiology) has been awarded a small project grant of £7000 from the Candlelighters Trust to screen for molecular diagnostic markers among children and young adults with Central Nervous System tumours in Bradford.

The aim of the work is to test whether there are particular molecular markers which differ in protein expression between south Asian and non-south Asian populations, specifically those proteins which can be detected by PMS2, MLH1, MSH2, and MSH6 antibodies.  Differences in protein expression between ethnic groups will enable early diagnosis for children and young adults, and other family members, who may be at an increased risk of cancer.

The work complements the epidemiological research programme of the Yorkshire Specialist Register of Cancer in Children and Young People, also held within the Division and which will be used to identify the patients with CNS tumours.  The Register itself is also supported by the Candlelighters Trust.  The study involves collaboration with molecular and genetic scientists in LIMM (Dr Sean Lawler and Dr Eamonn Sheridan), clinicians and neuropathologists from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (Dr Sue Picton and Dr Aruna Chakrabarty).

Angela Carter (Division of Cardiovascular & Diabetes Research) has had a paper accepted for publication with collaborators from College of Medicine at the National Taiwan University (NTU), and Yu-Kang Tu (Division of Biostatistics) has two papers with collaborators at the College of Public Health.

These collaborations arose as a direct result of the Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Leeds and NTU and a joint meeting between LIGHT and NTU held in Taiwan last April aimed at developing collaborative research.  Both Angela and Yu-Kang attended the meeting and delivered workshops to students and staff at NTU.

Jung-Nan Wei, Hung-Yuan Li, Fung-Chang Sung, Chau-Ching Lin, Chuan-Chi Chiang, Angela M Carter, Lee-Ming Chuang. Obesity and Clustering of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors are Associated with Elevated Plasma Complement C3 in Children and Adolescents. Pediatric Diabetes; 2012: in press.

Ke-Vin Chang, Ssu-Yuan Chen, Wen-Shiang Chen, Yu-Kang Tu, Kuo-Liong Chien. Comparative Effectiveness of Focused Shock Wave Therapy of Different Intensity Levels and Radial Shock Wave Therapy for Treating Plantar Fasciitis: a Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2012; in press.

Yi-Tsen Tsai, Jen-Pei Liu, Yu-Kang Tu, Meei-Shyuan Lee, Pei-Rong Chen, Hsiu-Ching Hsu, Ming-Fong Chen, and Kuo-Liong Chien. Relationship between dietary patterns and serum uric acid concentrations among ethnic Chinese adults in Taiwan. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012: in press.

Sven Plein, Azhar Maqbool and Justin Ainscough, together with colleagues from the School of Chemistry and the Faculty of Biological Sciences, have been successful in securing a £300k BHF grant entitled ‘Gadolinium labelled aptamers as targeted contrast agents for use in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging – Targeting Tenascin C at sites of cardiac injury and remodelling.'

John Greenwood and Sven Plein, from the Division of Cardiovascular and Neuronal Remodelling, and Martin Conway (from the Institute of Psychological Sciences) have been awarded £233,754 by the British Heart Foundation for “Cardiovascular MR evaluation of the safety and efficacy of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation compared to surgical Aortic Valve Replacement”.

The 2012 LIGHT Postgraduate Research Symposium on 24th January was a resounding success.

Over 70 students and staff attended sessions at various stages throughout the day to hear presentations from 7 students preparing to submit their theses, and to discuss posters displayed by 13 students mid-way through their projects.

Emma Spary kicked off the Symposium with advice about courses in generic and transferable skills run by the Faculty for postgraduate research students and early career staff. For more information please see their website.

Jovita Castelino was awarded the Best Oral Presentation award for her paper on: "The effect of aflatoxin exposure on child growth and cancer development" with Simon Lines a worthy runner-up for his paper on: "The influence of vitamin E bonded haemodialysis membranes on erythropoiesis stimulating agent requirements, fibrin clots structure and function, oxidative stress, inflammation and clinical outcomes".

Andrew Davies won the best poster prize for: "Assessment of myocardial perfusion with X-ray angiography" and Lorna Blackwell's poster on: "The optimisation of a two-step serum-free culture system enabling the development of ovine oocytes from early preantral follicles" was awarded best poster by second-year MBChB students, 250 of whom attended the extended afternoon poster viewing session as part of their I&P2 course.

The day culminated in a reception hosted by the LIGHT Early Career Researchers Group (ECG), with a "speed-networking" event giving students and staff a chance to learn more about each other’s research. Further information about future ECG meetings - which will be held on the last Thursday of each month at 4pm - will be placed on the LIGHT intranet (http://tinyurl.com/light-ecg).

Anyone interested in getting involved with the ECG should contact Sarah Fleming (S.J.Fleming@Leeds.ac.uk) or Matthew Gage (M.C.Gage@Leeds.ac.uk).

Many thanks to all the students and staff who participated in the Symposium, and especially to Sou Sit Chung for helping to organise the event.

Next year's Symposium will be held on 26th March 2013 - do make a note in your diaries!

Please contact George Ellison (G.T.H.Ellison@Leeds.ac.uk) if you would like to find out more, or offer suggestions for topics or events to include next year.

Over the festive period John Greenwood, from the Division of Cardiovasular and Neuronal Remodelling, appeared on ITV and BBC news programmes describing the results of his ground-breaking research, which was then also reported in the Yorkshire Post and the Telegraph.  John explained that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan for coronary heart disease is better than the most commonly-used alternative.

The five-year study led by John, involving 752 patients, has now shown that an MRI scan is a reliable way of detecting signs of significant coronary heart disease (CHD). The researchers also showed that MRI was better than SPECT at diagnosing CHD and at ruling out heart disease in patients who did not have the condition.

The findings by John and his colleagues could change the way that people with suspected heart disease are assessed, potentially avoiding the need for tests that are invasive or use ionising radiation.

Full results of the study, which was funded by a £1.3 million grant from the British Heart Foundation (BHF), were published online by The Lancet medical journal on the 22^nd December.

To read the official University of Leeds press release please follow this link.

Dr Kristina Standeven in the Division of Cardiovascular & Diabetes Research has recently made an oral presentation at the Young Life Scientists of Ireland (YLSI) meeting at University College, Dublin.  Her talk on on transglutaminases in the heart won her a personal prize of 125 Euro.

Young Life Scientists Ireland was founded by Postgraduate Students to bring young researchers together to present their work, learn valuable new skills and techniques and network with other young researchers.

Professor Chris Peers, from the Division of Cardiovascular and Neuronal Remodelling, has been working collaboratively with academics from the Universities of Edinburgh and Dundee on research that could lead to new treatments for patients who are at risk of stroke because their energy supply from blood vessels feeding the brain has become compromised.

Yesterday their work on the way our brains protect us from harm was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and was also referenced in the Yorkshire Post and on the Science Daily website.

Our media office has published a full press release, which you can read via this link.

Yu-Kang Tu, from the Division of Biostatistics, has just been awarded a research workshop fund grant from the Fund for International Research Collaborations (FIRC). The project is to organise an international workshop on high-dimentional data analysis in bioinformatics.

Speakers from the UK, Europe, US and Taiwan will be invited to give presentations on how to analyse this type of data at the event, which will be hosted at some point during the summer of 2012.  

Details on the event will follow nearer the time.

Following the publication of their annual report, which scrutinised the standards of care in children's intensive care units, the work of the PICANet team (within the Division of Epidemiology) was featured in an article entitled "Too few qualified nurses in children's intensive care units" in the Independent on Monday 10th October.

To read the University of Leeds official summary of the annual report please follow this link.

And to read the article in the Independent click here.

Darren Greenwood has been providing expert advice on the statistical methods on research being led by Imperial linking waist size to bowel cancer risk. 

A review of research into the links between bowel cancer and body fat has shown that carrying fat around your waist is particularly harmful.

The review, carried out on behalf of World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) by researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Leeds, has updated the findings of WCRF's landmark 2007 report, which found convincing evidence that being overweight increases bowel cancer risk.

Leeds University news article here

External coverage:

Fat around the waist adds to the risk of developing bowel cancer, say scientists (Independent, 13/09/2010)

Research by Imperial College London and University of Leeds says for every inch on the waist above a health measurement, the risk of bowel cancer grows 3 per cent.

Bowel cancer risk increased by fat around waist (Yorkshire Post, 12/09/2010)

The YP picks up on research, mentioned above, on waist size and bowel cancer

Waist size ‘linked to cancer risk’ (Mirror, 13/09/2010)

The Daily Mirror joins others in reporting on research regarding waist size and cancer

Bigger waistlines increase bowel cancer risk (The Scotsman, 13/09/2010)

The Scotsman reports on research by experts at Imperial and the University of Leeds

Big waist ‘increases bowel cancer risk’ (ITN, 13/09/2010)
ITN picks up on research undertaken by University of Leeds academics

Helen Imrie

"Novel role for Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptors (IGF-1R) in endothelial function and repair: Studies in an endothelial IGF-1R overexpressing transgenic model"

**This has also been put forward for the ATVB Council Award for Outstanding Research by an Early Career Investigator**

Hema Viswambharan

"Enhancing endothelial Insulin Sensitivity Reduces NO bioavailability: a role for NADPH oxidase-derived Reactive Oxygen Species"

Piruthivi Sukumar

"NADPH Oxidase - a Therapeutic Target to Restore Endothelial Function in Insulin Resistance"

Undas A, Ariëns RA. Fibrin Clot Structure and Function: A Role in the Pathophysiology of Arterial and Venous Thromboembolic Diseases.  Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology 2011; in press.

Scott DJA, Prasad P, Philippou H, Rashid ST, Sohrabi S, Whalley D, Kordowicz A, Tang Q, West R, Johnson A, Woods J, Ajjan RA and Ariëns RAS.  Clot architecture is altered in abdominal aortic aneurysms and correlates with aneurysm size Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology 2011; in press.

Congratulations to Ramzi Ajjan and members of the Division of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research for their paper recently accepted for publication in Diabetologia:

“A novel mechanism for hypofibrinolysis in diabetes: The role of Complement C3”

K Hess, S Alzahrani, M Mathai, V Schroeder, AM Carter, G Howell, T Koko, MWJ Strachan, JF Price, KA Smith, PJ Grant and RA Ajjan

This work describes a novel mechanism for impaired fibrin clot lysis in diabetes. It provides evidence for increased incorporation of complement C3 into the fibrin network in diabetes, thereby modulating fibrinolysis potential.

Robert Ariens and Helen Philippou were authors on a paper recently published in Blood:

Factor XIIa regulates the structure of the fibrin clot independently of thrombin generation through direct interaction with fibrin.

Konings J, Govers-Riemslag JW, Philippou H, Mutch NJ, Borissoff JI, Allan P, Mohan S, Tans G, Ten Cate H, Ariëns RA.

Blood. 2011 Aug 9. [Epub ahead of print]

In a collaboration with the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, the team discovered that activated factor XII, a contact activation protein, directly regulates the structure of the clot, bypassing the role of thrombin. This is a novel pathway in blood coagulation which contributes to our understanding of the role of FXII in thrombosis.

The Division of Medical Physics has had success in having two abstracts accepted by the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology Congress to be held in Leipzig this year.

The Division is especially proud as both first authors, Su Wei Lim and Joseph Ledsam, are fourth year medical student intercalating with Medical Physics. The ESMRMB is the second largest meeting on Magnetic Resonance Imaging world-wide, bringing together an estimated 2000 clinicians and scientists to discuss the latest developments in the field.

http://www.esmrmb.org/

Both Neil Turner and Sikha Saha have had papers accepted for publication. Neil’s publications are as follows:

Porter KE, Turner NA. Myocardial remodelling and statins: cell and molecular pathways. Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine. Scheduled publication date: July 2011

Turner NA. Therapeutic regulation of cardiac fibroblast function: targeting stress-activated protein kinase pathways. Future Cardiology. Scheduled publication date: September 2011.

Turner NA, Das A, O’Regan DJ, Ball SG, Porter KE. Proinflammatory cytokines induce human cardiac fibroblasts to express endothelial adhesion molecules and secrete ELR-positive CXC chemokines. International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. In press, doi:10.1016/j.biocel.2011.06.008.

Dr Saha has had the following paper published:

Das KK,  Saha S. (2010) L-Ascorbic acid and alpha tocopherol supplementation and antioxidant status in nickel- or lead-exposed rat brain tissue J Basic and Clin Pharmacol 21: 325-46

In addition, Dr Saha will be joined for three months beginning 1st July by an international researcher from the Uludağ University in Turkey. Here’s wishing the two of them all the best in their research.

Congratulations Neil and Sikha!

In September last year the University signed up for ‘Green Impact’ which is an accreditation scheme run through the National Union of Students (http://www.eauc.org.uk/green_impact). 

We were asked for volunteers within the Faculty and as a result the LIGHT Building Green Team was born.  The members are Karen Hemmings, Kay White and Simon Futers. 

The ‘Green Impact’ scheme is administered through an online workbook with criteria that have to be met. A fair number of the criteria were already being met or partially met, and when the auditor came the team realized that they were very close to achieving the bronze award.  The auditor particularly liked their collection boxes for single side used paper, which they donate to a local Guides troop.

Following the audit the team were given two weeks to meet the outstanding criteria, so there was a final flurry of activity.  This included communication to staff regarding open widows and air conditioning; “switch off lights” stickers and light switches labels being put up (just to name a few things), followed by a final audit by telephone. 

The team were awareded Green Impact Bronze Standard. The certificate was presented by the Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Education, Prof Vivian Jones, which was collected on behalf of the Green Team by Simon Futers (please see atached photo).

If anyone has any comments about existing or new green ideas or would like to get involved in sustainability please contact one of the team.

Dr Yun Yun Gong is organising and speaking at a Mycotoxin research workshop hosted by LIGHT at Weetwood Hall on 25th June.

This one-day workshop entitled “mycotoxin research: impact on human health, agriculture and disease prevention”, co-organised by Dr Gong and Dr Ningtao Mao aims to discuss recent developments in mycotoxin risk assessment and control, including exposure evaluations in sub-Sahara African populations and human health consequences, the impact of environmental changes on both mycotoxin risk and potential intervention methods, and the research on post-harvest intervention on mycotoxin reduction and its importance for agriculture and health.

Speaking at the workshop are Dr Gordon Shephard (Medical Research Council, South Africa), Dr Martin Kimanya (Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority), Prof Fengqin Li (China CDC, Beijing, China), Dr Archileo Kaaya (College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda), Dr Silvia Gratz (University of Aberdeen, UK), Dr Ningtao Mao (University of Leeds), Dr Bastiaan Brak (University of Leeds), Dr Yun Yun Gong (University of Leeds) and Dr Hong Wang (Donghua University, Shanghai, China).

Anyone wishing to register for this workshop should contact Georgina Davis (g.l.davis@leeds.ac.uk).

Here’s wishing Dr Gong all the best with the workshop!

Two Young Investigator Awards will be awarded at the prestigious International Society on Thrombosis & Haemostasis Congress in Kyoto to:

Peter Allan, PhD student, on an EPSRC funded research project led by Dr Robert Ariëns And Dr Majid Ali, Post-Doc, on a BHF funded research project led by Dr Helen Philippou

Both Peter and Maj will be presenting their work in an oral presentation at the forthcoming ISTH Congress to be held in Kyoto, July 2011.

Annalisa Mather, Timothy Fairbairn, Stephen Ball, John Greenwood, and Sven Plein have recently had their article "Reperfusion haemorrhage as determined by cardiovascular MRI is a predictor of adverse left ventricular remodelling and markers of late arrhythmic risk" published in March's edition of Heart

(2011 Mar;97(6):453-9. Epub 2010 Nov).

For more details please have a look at the summary on pubmed.

Li J, McKeown L, Ojelabi O, Stacey M, Foster R, O’Regan D, Porter KE, Beech DJ. Nanomolar potency and selectivity of a CRAC channel blocker against store-operated Ca²⁺-entry and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells. British Journal of Pharmacology 2011, (in press)

Li J, Cubbon RM, Wilson LA, Amer MS, McKeown L, Hou B, Majeed Y, Tumova S, Seymour VAL, Taylor H, Stacey M, O’Regan D, Foster R, Porter KE, Kearney MT, Beech DJ. Orai1 and CRAC channel dependence of VEGF-activated Ca²⁺-entry and endothelial tube formation. Circulation Research 2011 (published on-line March 25^th 2011).

Accepted for publication:

Maqbool A, Keswani A, Galloway S, O’Regan DJ, Ball SG, Turner NA, Porter KE. MMP-3 (5A/6A) polymorphism does not influence human smooth muscle cell invasion. Journal of Surgical Research 2011 (in press).

Congratulations Karen!

Congratulations to Professor Julian Scott, Dr Robert Ariens, Research Nurses Anne Johnson and Janet Woods, and BSc student Priya Prasad for their research on the causes and high risk groups of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA). 

Their study (involving over 1,000 patients and control subjects) was heavily referenced in an article in the Yorkshire Post relating to former professional footballer Ray Henderson.

Dr Honey Prasai (working with Dr Eleanor Scott) has been selected to give an oral presentation at Diabetes UK in March, for her research on circadian rhythms in relation to metabolism and cardiovascular disease. She is funded on a BHF Clinical Research Training Fellowship.

For more information on the event, please see their website: http://www.diabetes.org.uk/apc

Dr John Huntriss was awarded the prize for the best overall presentation at the recent Fertility 2011 conference in Dublin in January.

This meeting, which is held every two years, is the joint meeting for all UK fertility societies. John's presentation was entitled "Global DNA methylation profiling of single human blastocysts on CpG island arrays".

Helen will speak on :

Role of the barrel domains in FXIII A subunit (FXIII-A) (E.L. Smith, P.J. Adamson, R.A.S. Ariens,  K Smith, W.N. Goldsberry, M.C. Maurer, P.J. Grant,  and H. Philippou)

And Robert:

Role of cross-linking by FXIII in fibrin structure and function (Smith EL, Abou-Saleh R, Standeven KF, Connell SD, Weisel JW, Grant PJ, Philippou H and Ariens RAS).

Full details of the meeting are available at the GTH website.

Regular use of mobile phones in pregnancy has been linked to bad behaviour in children – Patricia McKinney is quoted in the Telegraph, Yorkshire Post and MarieClaire arguing that recent research results have been "over-interpreted".

Mobile phone use in pregnancy linked to bad behaviour (read this article in the Telegraph, 07/12/2010)

Risk to babies from mobile phones is ‘questionable’ (Yorkshire Post, 08/12/2010 - article not available online). 

Using mobile phones in pregnancy linked to behavioural problems in children (read this article on MarieClaire.co.uk, 09/12/2010)

The academic vascular surgery group attended the International Meeting on Aoritc Diseases in Liege, Belgium.

Marc Bailey (Academic Clincial Fellow) and Soroush Sohrabi (Clinical Lecturer) presented the following abstracts:

Calcium Channel Blockers Enhance Sac Shrinkage Following EVAR

MA Bailey, S Sohrabi, K Flood, KJ Griffin, A Kordowicz, JV Patel, DJA Scott

The Renal Sequalae of EVAR Revisited

MA Bailey, SW Lines, MJ Bottomley, KJ Griffin, A Kordowicz, AJP Lewington, JV Patel, DJA Scott.

Do Statins Affect AAA Growth Rates?

JA Dunne, C Murray, MA Bailey, KJ Griffin, DJA Scott

Analysis of cardiovascular risk factors in male and female patients with AAA

S Sohrabi, ST Rashid, MA Bailey, A Kordowicz, KJ Griffin, Z Sun, A Johnson, DJA Scott

Analysis of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with diabetes and AAA

S Sohrabi, ST Rashid, MA Bailey, A Kordowicz, KJ Griffin, Z Sun, A Johnson, DJA Scott

At the end of the meeting Marc was awarded the ING Prize (500 Euro) for best short communication.

More evidence of the link between childhood obesity and junk food has been uncovered.  The study shows a link between the number of fast food outlets in Leeds and the likelihood of local children becoming obese, and that such outlets were more likely to open in areas of high deprivation.

Read the University's press release here

Largest study reports on brain tumours and mobile phones

Professor Patricia McKinney took part in a press conference at the Science Media Centre in London on Monday 17th May 10:30am to talk about the results of the Interphone study into mobile phone use and brain tumours.

The Interphone study was coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and carried out in 13 countries, of which much the largest contribution was from the UK. Tricia McKinney co-led the work in the UK with Professor Anthony Swerdlow at the Institute of Cancer Research.

To read more about this study please see the Press Releases and Publications Library or read about it on the University news page.