By Heather Hobbs BRINGING YOU THE LATEST RESEARCH & EVENTS NEWS FROM THE SCIENCE INDUSTRY Big Data Mining Enhances Disease Database
Researchers at the University of Liverpool are building the world’s most comprehensive database describing human and animal pathogens, which can be used to prevent and tackle disease outbreaks around the globe.
The Enhanced Infectious Diseases (EID2) database has been developed by the Liverpool University Climate and Infectious Diseases of Animals (LUCINDA) team and is funded by a BBSRC Strategic Tools and Resources Development Fund grant. Effectively mapping the relationships between human and animal diseases and their hosts, disease-causing pathogens and the ways in which pathogens are transmitted can offer
huge benefits when it comes to knowing what the disease risks are in a population or geographical area and how best to manage and eliminate them. The EID2 team realised that there was a potential treasure trove of data already available in the scientific literature and in pre-existing databases, which was just waiting to be mined for useful insights – a ‘Big Data’ approach. ‘Big Data’ is about utilising large datasets which may already have been collected, but which may be unstructured and not fit into a conventional data-frame, by using often high performance and/or complex computing technologies. The emphasis on Big Data has increased recently because people have realised
Dundee Imaging Competition Inspires Arts and Science Discovery
A ’Visions of Discovery’ image credit: Dundee University
The Visions of Discovery exhibition, featuring images that reflect ground-breaking biomedical research being undertaken at the University of Dundee, travelled to venues in London and Cambridge during summer. Made up of winning images from a competition open to research staff and post- graduate students in the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing and the College of Life Sciences, the resultant awe-inspiring display showcased ad- vances in molecular and cellular biology as well as novel clinical applications. The exhibition went on show at the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention from August 14th at the ExCel London Exhibition and Conference Centre in London’s Docklands, a huge international annual gathering where Sci-Fi fans, writers, artists, and scientists come together for a celebration of science and literature. This year’s Convention was expected to attract as many as 8000 attendees over five days. Speaking at the event Dr Jenny Woof, exhibition organiser and Reader in Im- munology in the Division of Cancer Research, College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing said: “This international Convention provides an excellent op- portunity to present our biomedical research to many members of the wider public in an accessible and appealing format, The Visions of Discovery images provide insights into important medical and biological issues as well as being beautiful in their own right.” The image collection from Dundee was shown
alongside science displays from several Universities as well as art installations reflecting a scientific theme. At the close of the Convention, the exhibition transferred to the ArtCell Gallery within the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. The ArtCell Gallery is run by Stefanie Reichelt, a researcher and photographer who also runs the Light Microscopy Laboratory at the Institute; Stefanie aims to bring art that reflects scientific research into the Institute, for the mutual benefit of researchers, hospital patients and the general public.
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First Gene Therapy Trial for Heart Patients with Mechanical Pumps
For the first time in the world, a patient with a mechanical heart pump has received a new gene therapy for heart failure at Harefield Hospital, London. This is the start of a new clinical trial that will assess gene therapy for patients with heart pumps and provide detailed insight on its impact on the heart muscle. The new trial, led by Imperial College London and funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Celladon Corporation, will explore whether this gene therapy could help these patients’ hearts recover and potentially provide an alternative treatment. It is the first study of gene therapy in this patient group. The work was initiated with support from the Leducq Foundation.
This particular gene therapy is designed to increase the levels of SERCA2a protein in heart muscle cells. SERCA2a plays an important role in heart muscle contraction. Genes are inserted into the heart muscle cells to increase the level of SERCA2a using a harmless engineered virus that is based on a naturally
occurring virus. In this study the research team will take small biopsy samples of the heart muscle six months after treatment to measure if the gene is present, detectable and functional in the patients’ hearts. Professor Sian Harding, Professor of Cardiac Pharmacology and Head of the BHF Centre of Regenerative Medicine in Imperial College London, who helped develop the treatment, said: “We will be using state-of-the art methods to gain detailed information on how and where the gene therapy takes effect, which will potentially help us develop and improve the therapy. It’s important to remember that the therapy is not correcting a gene defect. We are working much more downstream, which means that no matter what the cause of the heart failure, the therapy should be equally beneficial for patients whether their heart problems stem from genes, lifestyle or the environment or a mixture of all of these.”
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that the data that they have collected routinely, if used cleverly, can contain much more useful and potentially extra information than previously thought. By using openly accessible information in a new way, data from EID2 has been used in work to trace the history of human and animal diseases, to predict the effects of climate change on pathogens, to produce maps of which diseases are most likely in some areas and to categorise the complex relationships between human and animal carriers and hosts of numerous pathogens.
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University Secures £2.6 Million Contract to Remain as Centre of Excellence
The University of Southampton has been awarded significant funding to remain at the forefront of how clinical guidance and policy is made. The £2.6 million grant, to be given over five years, has been awarded to the Southampton Health Technology Assessments Centre (SHTAC) by the Department of Health National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Through systematic reviews, economic evaluations and critical assessments of evidence, SHTAC provides independent assessments of the benefits, harms and costs of trials, treatments and
tests.The work directly informs key NHS decision-making bodies and other policy customers, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in developing clinical guidance.
The new contract will run from 2016 to 2021 and is the fourth five-year contract SHTAC has secured to act as an NIHR centre of excellence, raising over £14 million in research funding for the University of Southampton.
Professor Andrew Clegg, Director of SHTAC, commented: “The success in securing a fourth five-year contract is a reflection of the quality and rigour of our research. It is underpinned by the skills and endeavour of the group and the community of clinicians, service providers, academics and patient representatives that advise and support us.
“Our role in providing independent research and advice is essential. It helps ensure that decisions regarding the use of health technologies by the NHS, and their public funding, reflects an unbiased assessment of the evidence of their clinical and cost effectiveness. SHTAC’s position as a centre of excellence is important to the Faculty of Medicine and the University of Southampton, providing recognition of its world-leading research in health technology assessment.”
More information about SHTAC is available at
http://ilmt.co/PL/WBX.
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