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Professor Kate Seers achieves prestigious NIHR Senior Investigator Award

We are delighted to announce that Professor Kate Seers, Director of Warwick Research in Nursing, and Deputy Head of Warwick Applied Health (Research) at WMS has received a highly sought after NIHR Senior Investigator award

Fri 15 Mar 2024, 13:54 | Tags: news HealthSciences

WMS joins UHCW for official opening of clinical research facility

We were delighted to attend an event at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire last week for the official opening of their new clinical research facility.

Thu 14 Mar 2024, 15:55 | Tags: news, Community

Long-range formation of the Bicoid gradient requires multiple dynamic modes that spatially vary across the embryo

Morphogen gradients provide essential positional information to gene networks through their spatially heterogeneous distribution, yet how they form is still hotly contested, with multiple models proposed for different systems. Here, we focus on the transcription factor Bicoid (Bcd), a morphogen that forms an exponential gradient across the anterior-posterior (AP) axis of the early Drosophila embryo. Using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy we find there are spatial differences in Bcd diffusivity along the AP axis, with Bcd diffusing more rapidly in the posterior. We establish that such spatially varying differences in Bcd dynamics are sufficient to explain how Bcd can have a steep exponential gradient in the anterior half of the embryo and yet still have an observable fraction of Bcd near the posterior pole. In the nucleus, we demonstrate that Bcd dynamics are impacted by binding to DNA. Addition of the Bcd homeodomain to eGFP::NLS qualitatively replicates the Bcd concentration profile, suggesting this domain regulates Bcd dynamics. Our results reveal how a long-range gradient can form while retaining a steep profile through much of its range. Read the paper here.

Tue 12 Mar 2024, 08:45 | Tags: BMS BMS_newpub

TimeTeller: A tool to probe the circadian clock as a multigene dynamical system

More and more evidence suggest that circadian clock disruption or misalignment is a feature of many diverse chronic diseases including metabolic syndrome, depression but also a number of cancers. For the latter, recent mechanistic studies in cancer models have established an understanding of how the circadian clock influences onset, progression and therapeutic outcomes. Moreover, it has been proposed that tumours might have disrupted circadian oscillators. In patients, however, this is more difficult to establish as usually only single samples, e.g., tumour biopsies, are available. Therefore, novel tools to measure the functional state of the molecular circadian clock are needed.

Here, we introduce TimeTeller, a machine learning tool that analyses the clock as a system and aims to estimate circadian clock function from a single sample’s transcriptome by modelling the multi-dimensional state of the clock. We demonstrate TimeTeller’s utility for analysing experimental in vitro and in vivo, as well as healthy human and patient samples from various platforms (microarray, RNA-Seq and NanoString) and highlight TimeTeller’s potential relevance for advancing circadian medicine. The project is an inter-disciplinary collaboration including significant work by Warwick’s MRCDTP students Laura Usselmann and Vadim Vasilyev and is setting the stage for further applications of TimeTeller in experimental models and human breast tumours.
Read the paper hereLink opens in a new window.

Tue 05 Mar 2024, 09:08 | Tags: BMS BMS_newpub

Group physical and mental health rehabilitation improves life quality for people with long covid

A new study led by our Clinical Trials Unit has found that an online rehabilitation programme improves quality of life for adults with long Covid.

Thu 08 Feb 2024, 09:47 | Tags: news WCTU

Digital pathology cleared for use in cancer screening programmes

New research supported by our Clinical Trials Unit has led to the UK government approving the use of digital pathology to help speed up analysis of cancer screening samples.

Thu 25 Jan 2024, 12:57 | Tags: news

Personalized Chronomodulated 5-Fluorouracil Treatment: A Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Precision Dosing Approach for Optimizing Cancer Therapy

This work is based on the discovery of diurnal variations impacting cancer therapy. Especially, use of chronomodulated treatment with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) has gained significance. Studies indicate high inter-individual variability in diurnal variations in dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) activity – a key enzyme for 5-FU metabolism. However, the influence of individual chronotypes on chronomodulated therapy was unclear but is needed to optimize precision dosing of chronomodulated 5‑FU. Lead by the Thorsten Lehr's PKPD group at the University of Saarland, this collaborative paper is taking a treasure trove of patient 5-FU PK data amalgamated with DPD enzyme activity data from health people to establish a novel PKPD model of 5-FU that captures the extent of diurnal variations in DPD activity and can help investigate individualized chronomodulated 5-FU therapy through testing alternative personalized dosing strategies. Read the paper here.

Thu 25 Jan 2024, 08:50 | Tags: BMS BMS_newpub

Warwick Medical School leads two revolutionary trials

WMS is leading two revolutionary trials that will compare the treatment benefits of traditional physiotherapy rehabilitation with transplanted knee surgeries.

Mon 15 Jan 2024, 09:44 | Tags: news, CTU

Warwick Medical School researcher and orthopaedic surgeon awarded prestigious Hunterian Professorship

Dr Imran Ahmed has been recognised with the Hunterian Professorship from the Royal College of Surgeons for his work at WMS on the treatment, experiences, and outcomes of patients with a meniscal tear of the knee.

Wed 10 Jan 2024, 11:03 | Tags: news

WMS study reveals cardiac arrest figures in England

A national research database led by the Clinical Trials Unit at WMS has revealed stark figures for cardiac arrests in England for 2022, with just 1 in 12 people surviving 30 days after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Wed 10 Jan 2024, 10:50 | Tags: news, CTU

New sleep apnoea diagnostic device could slash waiting times and improve quality of life

A new diagnostic device could help those who experience sleep apnoea get a quicker diagnosis and an improved quality of life, thanks to a trial being led by Warwick Medical School researchers.

Thu 04 Jan 2024, 10:35 | Tags: news HealthSciences

Life-changing technology will be rolled out to people with type 1 diabetes

Thousands of people with type 1 diabetes could be offered wearable technology to help them manage their condition thanks to guidance based on research conducted by WMS.

Wed 20 Dec 2023, 09:56 | Tags: news HealthSciences Warwick Evidence

“Unclear” whether opioids are effective at treating cancer pain

The world’s largest review on opioid medicines for cancer pain, which included WMS researchers, has found it is unclear whether some commonly used opioid medicines are better than a placebo and suggests that non-opioid medicines, including aspirin, may be as effective as opioids.

Wed 20 Dec 2023, 09:50 | Tags: news

Mammography can be reduced for some breast cancer survivors, finds WMS study

Mammography for some breast cancer survivors could be reduced, according to research led by Warwick Medical School’s Clinical Trials Unit.

Thu 14 Dec 2023, 15:27 | Tags: news

WMS wins Innovation of the Year award

A team at Warwick Medical School’s Clinical Trials Unit have won a prestigious award at the Clinical Research Network Awards, alongside colleagues from the West Midlands Ambulance Service.

Thu 14 Dec 2023, 12:37 | Tags: news

Dr Meera Unnikrishnan awarded over £2 million for research into C. difficile infection

Associate Professor Meera Unnikrishnan from the Division of Biomedical Sciences has been awarded a Wellcome Discovery Award from the Wellcome Trust to the value of £2,225,509. Her project, ‘Dissecting Clostridioides difficile-host-commensal interactions at the gut interface’, will take place over eight years.

Wed 06 Dec 2023, 11:54 | Tags: news BMS

Prof Ponnusamy Saravanan appointed editor-in-chief of Clinical Medicine

Congratulations to Professor Ponnusamy Saravanan, who has been appointed as the next editor-in-chief of the Royal College of Physicians' oldest journal, Clinical Medicine.

Mon 04 Dec 2023, 14:42 | Tags: news

Translational control of furina by an RNA regulon is important for left-right patterning, heart morphogenesis and cardiac valve function

Work by recent WMS PhD graduate Agnieszka Nagorska and PDRA Andreas Zaucker shows that translational control of an enzyme, FurinA, is important for normal positioning of the heart, and for cardiac valve function. FurinA cleaves the growth factor signal and morphogen, Nodal. Mutant zebrafish embryos with mis-regulated furina show premature and increased levels of FurinA, ectopic Nodal signalling, and defects in heart positioning and valve development. This is similar to human patients with mitral valve regurgitation. The findings pave the way for potential diagnostic tests for patients with heart valve dysfunctions. The work was supported by grants from the Leverhulme Trust, UKRI-BBSRC, MLSRF, and doctoral studentships from Warwick Medical School, MRC DTP, and Warwick-ARAP.
Read the paper hereLink opens in a new window.

Fri 01 Dec 2023, 17:01 | Tags: BMS BMS_newpub

Genome wide analysis revealed conserved domains involved in the effector discrimination of bacterial type VI secretion system

Gram negative bacterial pathogens use so called Type VI secretion systems (T6SSs) to deliver virulence effectors into target cells (either animal cells or other bacteria). Besides structural and effector proteins, many other proteins, such as adaptors, co-effectors and accessory proteins, are involved in this process. MIX domains can assist in the delivery of T6SS effectors when encoded as a stand-alone gene or fused at the N-terminal of the effector. However, whether there are other conserved domains exhibiting similar encoding forms to MIX in T6SS remains obscure.

In this work, we scanned publicly available bacterial genomes and established a database which include 130,825 T6SS vgrG loci from 45,041 bacterial genomes. Based on this, we revealed six domain families encoded within vgrG loci, which are either fused at the C-terminus of VgrG/N-terminus of T6SS toxin or encoded by an independent gene. Among them, DUF2345 was further validated and shown to be indispensable for the T6SS effector delivery and LysM was confirmed to assist the interaction between VgrG and the corresponding effector. Together, our results implied that these widely distributed domain families with similar genetic configurations may be required for the T6SS effector recruitment process.

Read the paper here.

Thu 30 Nov 2023, 08:44 | Tags: BMS BMS_newpub

New Clinical Education Hub opens its doors to students for the first time

Warwick Medical School’s brand-new £4.2m Clinical Education Hub has opened its doors for the first time to students, offering state-of-the-art, purpose-built spaces for Clinical Anatomy and Clinical Skills.

Mon 27 Nov 2023, 10:15 | Tags: news

WMS commits to trialling sexual violence training for medical students

Warwick Medical School have committed to the addition of specialist training on sexual violence awareness and communication skills for their second-year medical students in the 2023/24 academic year.

Mon 27 Nov 2023, 10:09 | Tags: news

History Repeats Itself: The Relevance of Historical Pandemics to the Medical School Curriculum

The dramatic global impact of the coronavirus pandemic has increased consideration on epidemiological progressions of pandemics. Measures implemented to reduce viral transmission have been largely historical, comparable in nature with the 1918 and 2009 influenza pandemics, demonstrating the importance of clinicians’ awareness on historical pandemics.

Read the paper here.

Fri 24 Nov 2023, 16:10 | Tags: BMS BMS_newpub

Celebrating our highly cited researchers at WMS

Out of the five Warwick academics named in the 2023 Highly Cited Researcher list, we are delighted that three work at Warwick Medical School. Congratulations to Prof Sophie Staniszewska, Prof Jerry Nolan and Prof Dieter Wolke (joint appointment with the Department of Psychology).

Wed 15 Nov 2023, 15:52 | Tags: news

New study shows older and frail patients wait longer for emergency hospital care than younger patients

A new study by Warwick Medical School working with the Society for Acute Medicine has found that younger patients with simpler problems are waiting less time for assessments than frail patients with complex care needs.

Wed 01 Nov 2023, 13:07 | Tags: news

Assay_ready Cryopreserved Hepatocytes for Toxicity Testing

Liver hepatocytes are the front-line cells for screening new compounds for toxicity. However, hepatocytes are stored frozen in vials, not in monolayers meaning they need substantial processing to be ‘usable’ especially for high throughput screening. To solve this the Gibson and Dallman groups have collaborated, so show that immortalised and primary hepatocytes can be cryopreserved whilst attached to 96 well microplates. These can then be taken from the freezer, and simple thawed and are ready to use in under 24 hours. Post-thaw the cells show equal performance to fresh. This was achieved by careful consideration of the molecular mechanism damage during freezing, with the team using patent-pending controlled ice nucleation technology, rather than a traditional re-formulation of cryoprotectants approach. This work was in collaboration with Cryologyx, a University of Warwick Spin out, which has commercialised aspects of this technology.  
Read the paper hereLink opens in a new window.

Thu 26 Oct 2023, 12:57 | Tags: BMS BMS_newpub

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