New TSB calls – Infectious Diseases, Crop Protection


The Technology Strategy Board has announced new calls this month, one focussed on fighting infection. This call aims to fund feasibility, fast track and full R&D studies to support the development and uptake of diagnostic devices that will reduce the social and economic impact of infectious agents in animals and humans. Expressions of interest need to be submitted by the 25th February. SIKTN has already been approached by an academic group looking for partners. Please contact Mark Littlewood if you are interested in finding partners for this call. A second call relates to new approaches in crop protection. Funding of £13 million has been allocated to support collaborative projects that help growers respond to the dual challenges of increasing the productivity of crops while reducing the environmental impact of crop production. This competition is looking for proposals for projects lasting up to five years that will develop novel technologies, products and/or services that can be deployed across the crop-growing supply chain, and include new approaches for pest detection through optical sensing and monitoring technologies.


National Institute for Health Research


Opening soon – i4i Future Product Development Stream 1 (FPD1) – Feasibility study The NIHR will shortly open the 5th FPD1 call. This fund seeks proposals of up to 12 months to investigate first whether a piece of prior basic research or an innovative use of an existing technology could provide a solution to an existing or emerging healthcare need, and to identify the barriers that would need to be overcome before implementation. There must be a potential for any device based on the technology investigated to be developed through further applied R&D. These projects should be academic or clinician led. Funding to a total of £100k is available.


For further information please visit www.nihr-ccf.org.uk where details of new calls are issued for all streams of the programme every 3-4 months. For details on any of the above calls please contact Mark Littlewood, Mark.littlewood@sensorsktn


TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. 507


Agar Scientific present Micrograph Prize at Leeds Conference on Cement &


Concrete Science


Tackling the Cancer-Causing Stomach Bug


Researchers in the Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre Biomedical Research Unit (run jointly by the University and NHS) have been awarded nearly £216,000 by Cancer Research UK to investigate how some strains of the bacterium ‘Helicobacter pylori’ can produce a potent toxin which can potentially cause the pre-cancerous changes which underlie stomach cancer. Often picked up in childhood the bacteria lives in the stomach throughout peoples’ lives unless treated. Many will have no symptoms from it; however in some people the inflammation caused by the bacterium can lead to ulcers or cancer in later life. The ultimate aim of this research is to identify the particular strains of the Helicobacter pylori bacterium which tend to cause cancer so that people carrying these strains can be given antibiotics to get rid of the infection.


Leading the research, Professor of Gastroenterology, John Atherton said:


“Helicobacter pylori is in fact the main cause of stomach cancer, the second biggest contributor to cancer deaths worldwide. This piece of research is vital because if the cancer-causing strains of the bacterium can be identified, and we can understand how they predispose to cancer, then we are hopeful that we can eventually prevent this killer disease by targeted antibiotic treatment.”


Dr Julie Sharp, Science Information Manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “We’re very pleased to be supporting this work. About half the world's population is infected with H-pylori but how chronic H-pylori infection influences cells in the stomach to turn cancerous is not fully understood. Infection rates are particularly high in poor countries, so anything we can do to prevent the onset of cancer in people with H-pylori is hugely important work, and we await the results of this research project with interest.“


TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. 508 Second Collaboration with Top Regenerative Medicine Centre


The Automation Partnership (TAP) is to continue its partnership with the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine at Loughborough for a second five year phase. This follows the recent announcement by Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson, UK Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills of a £5.33 million grant to the centre.


The new partnership will mean further development and testing of the CompacT CellBase™ system for culturing clinically applicable stem cells in a GMP environment and to begin new research with the centre to develop ambr™, TAP’s microscale bioreactor.


This collaboration is a continuation of the work TAP began as part of the remedi (regenerative medicine – a new industry) EPSRC Grand Challenge consortium in 2005 and has contributed to remedi achieving three world firsts in automated cell culture, including production in a CompacT CellBase of a clinical grade neuronal stem cell line.


TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. 509


Continuing its support of science activities in academia during 2009, the Agar Scientific Prize was recently presented at the 2009 Cement & Concrete Science Conference, which was organised by Dr Leon Black from the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Leeds,


The winner, Ms Rachel Taylor of the School of Civil Engineering, is a PhD student studying with Professor Ian Richardson with whom she is using mainly quantitative EM and solid state silicon & aluminium NMR for the characterisation of cement systems. The winning entry was a micrograph of water activated 50% White Portland cement and 50% fly ash blend taken on a Philips CM20 TEM at 20,000x magnification. The sample was prepared on the Fischione Instruments Model 1010 Argon Ion beam miller.


Ms Taylor’s overall project is entitled the Characterisation of C-S-H in early and late age systems containing additives. With an increase in the usage on grout containing superplasticizers, and a lack of knowledge of aged systems containing them, a better understanding of the behaviour of polycarboxylate superplasticizers in grouts is needed.


By assessing the affects the


superplasticizers have on the microstructure and nanostructure of cement systems containing both ground granulated blast furnace slag and pulverised fuel ash, a greater understanding should result.


Commenting on the standard of the competition, Agar’s Technical Support Specialist, Dr Heather Dyson, said we are very pleased to offer our support to young microscopists, the standard of entries was extremely good and keeps improving year on year.


TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. 510 Spinal Cement may Provide Real Support for Cancer Patients


New technologies used to repair spinal fractures could soon be helping patients suffering from the bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma. A research project led by engineers at the University of Leeds will focus on the disease – an incurable cancer of the bone marrow that causes destructive lesions in bones and makes them more susceptible to fracture. The study will analyse whether techniques such as injecting cements into the spine to stabilise the bone, or using plates to fix fractures can be adapted for affected patients.


Although incurable, improvements in treatment mean that patients with multiple myeloma are surviving for longer, with up to a third surviving for at least five years. However, a better prognosis means that secondary symptoms, such as painful bone deterioration, have more time to take effect.


“Our aim is to give people suffering from this disease a better quality of life. If the spine becomes weakened or fractures, patients can do little more than stay in bed and try to deal with the pain,”


said Professor of Spinal Biomechanics, Richard Hall, who is leading the research at Leeds’ Faculty of Engineering. “The majority of multiple myeloma patients are in their sixties or older, but even simple things that we take for granted, such as sitting your grandchild on your knee, can become impossible for them.”


The work will combine laboratory experiments with computer modelling to predict the impacts of various treatments on patients. Professor Hall will be collaborating with researchers at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, housed at one of Canada’s largest hospitals in Toronto, and clinicians from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.


The project team includes Mr Jake Timothy, Consultant Neurosurgeon in Leeds, who has developed an award winning clinical vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty service that can help to fix painful vertebrae and spinal compression fractures associated with osteoporosis. He has seen the dramatic improvement that


such procedures can have on the pain scores of patients affected by vertebral myeloma.


“There is still so much unknown about the positive and negative effects of these procedures,” he said. “This money will undoubtedly aid our understanding and help us select which patients will benefit the most from these procedures, improving their quality of life even further.”


The £600,000 project has been funded through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and will run for four years. The work is part of the £50M research portfolio led by the Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (iMBE) aimed at giving people ’50 active years after 50’.


Professor Hall is also leading a €3 million EU-funded research


project involving academic and industrial partners from Germany and Austria, looking at new ways of diagnosing and treating spinal fracture caused not only by disease, but by age and trauma.


TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. 511


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