News

Sabeeha Malek, MIBTP Warwick 2019 student, has had two papers published as a result of her PhD research:

The first was a collaboration with external academics, and reviewed the Beighton Score and looked at its appropriateness for the diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS).

“The Beighton Score as a measure of generalised joint hypermobility” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00296-021-04832-4

The second was an extension of Sabeeha's 2nd mini-project with her supervisor Dr Darius Köster. This review led to the identification of a potential diagnostic biomarker for EDS.

“The Role of Cell Adhesion and Cytoskeleton Dynamics in the Pathogenesis of the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders” https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2021.649082/full

Both papers were really well received and gained a lot of attention on social media. They are now in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric!

Harper Adams MIBTP2020 student Camilla Preece helped to write a how to guide for the International Journal of Dairy Technology while on PIPS with the Society of Dairy Technology – it has now been published to Wiley:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-assets/IDT%20-%20First%20Paper%20Guide%202.0-1616765345093.pdf

Birmingham MIBTP2 student Chris Harding, who graduated in 2018 has recently been named as first author on a paper as a result of his PhD research.

The paper can be viewed here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21528-2

Holly Shropshire, 2017 Warwick MIBTP students, is named 2nd author on a recent paper entitled: Phosphorus stress induces the synthesis of novel glycolipids in Pseudomonas aeruginosa that confer protection against a last-resort antibiotic. You can view the paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-021-01008-7 

Dr Harun Rashid is a graduate of the very first MIBTP cohort at Warwick, graduating with his PhD in 2016.

As well as publishing the following papers as a result of his PhD research, he was also recently selected and awarded the Prestigious Fulbright Visiting Scholarship 2021-2022 for Postdoctoral Study in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

1. Rashid, M.H.A., Cheng, W. and Thomas, B. 2019. Temporal and Spatial Expression of Arabidopsis Gene Homologs Control Daylength Adaptation and Bulb Formation in Onion (Allium cepa L.). Scientific Reports, 9: 14629. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51262-1

2. Rashid, M.H.A. and Thomas, B. 2019. Diurnal Expression of Arabidopsis Gene Homologs during Daylength-Regulated Bulb Formation in Onion (Allium cepa L.). Scientia Horticulturae, 261: 108946. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2019.108946

MIBTP students Niamh Harrington and lyas Alav have published an open access protocol for testing susceptibility of Pseudomonas Staphylococcus biofilm to antibiotics in a model of Cystic Fibrosis with Dr Esther Sweeney, John Moat and Dr Freya Harrison in the JoVE journal. Read the paper.

Birmingham final year student Ilyas Alav has had a number of publications as a result of research relating to his PhD. These can be viewed on the following webpages:

• https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?rev=2&id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1008101
• https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/abs/10.2217/fmb-2019-0235
• https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.02319/full
• https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.ac2020.po0095

Final year Warwick student, Hadyn Parker, attended the Acid Fast Club Winter 2021 meeting on 8th January. The conference consisted of predominantly UK based Tuberculosis researchers and experts, of which approximately 140 people were in attendance. His abstract on ‘Asymmetric trehalose analogues to probe disaccharide processing pathways in mycobacteria’ had been selected for a talk and he presented a 20 minute presentation (Via Zoom). Hadyn's talk was voted by members as being the best early career presentation of the conference.

Birmingham 3rd year MIBTP student Gabrielle Christie (and her lab group) has published a paper, in the journal Virulence entitled, Antimicrobial resistance and gene regulation in Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli from Egyptian children with diarrhoea: Similarities and differences. This is Gabrielle's second publication during her PhD.

Birmingham final year MIBTP Jake Carter is one of the scientists behind the development of the worlds fastest covid test, delivering results in just 5 minutes.

The development, hailed as a world first, could be the breakthrough to help get more people safely back to work and play, and control outbreaks more effectively.

Jake's supervisor, Professor Tim Dafforn, praised Jake for leading the breakthrough by working 'incredible hours' through the pandemic.

Prof Dafforn added: "He said he wanted to make a difference, and create a Covid assay, he went into the lab on his own and, though we provided the intellectual support, he has been incredible. He drew on his family to help him, with the data analysis by his dad, who runs an IT firm.

"He completely went into this with his whole heart and deserves every praise. We are the professors behind it but he has put in incredible hours."

The test is on course to be fully tested and ready by Easter.

Final year Leicester student Kellie, won the best poster prize and sponsor choice best research image at the Molecular and cell biology PhD student symposium in September this year.

Kate Lewis, a Warwick final year student, published a paper in Frontier in Veterinary Science about the impact of farm management practices on prevalence of lameness in lambs.

Sophie Edwards, Birmingham final year student, was awarded the 2020 American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) International Student Award, based upon her publication in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

MIBTP Birmingham student Jake Carter has published a paper entitled Combining bacteriophage engineering and linear dichroism spectroscopy to produce a DNA hybridisation assay in the journal RSC Chemical Biology.

Second year Birmingham student Libby Anthony, along with the Sadler Group, has published a Chemical Science review paper as a result of work undertaken during her first mini-project.