Grant successes

Congratulations to Sophie Staniszewka for her successful grant, Developing high quality commissioning of PPIE in NIHR of £40,698.

The movements of cell muscles in the form of tiny filaments of proteins have been visualised at unprecedented detail by scientists from Warwick Medical School and the Department of Physics.

Staff and students from WMS and across the University are helping to respond to the pandemic in many ways including with ventilators, visors, volunteering and testing.

WMS final year students are from today (1 April) supporting health services across Coventry and Warwickshire to help fight COVID-19. Our students will be helping to deliver vital support to existing medical and other clinical staff to help with the response to Coronavirus.

Many of our WMS research staff are now focusing entirely on their clinical roles to help tackle COVID-19. WMS have also made laboratories facilities available to support COVID-19 work and are helping to distribute sanitiser to Midlands NHS organisations.

In this study, UHPLC-MS/MS lipidomics was used to measure the dynamic changes in lipid composition as a function of age and gender throughout the lifespan of genetically identical male and female D. magna. The collaborative study between Mirbahai and Viant groups demonstrated that more than half of all lipids measured, including triglycerides and diglycerides are statistically different between female and male D. magna with age. This study provides a benchmark dataset to enhance our understanding of the significant role of lipids in regulation of health and disease. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62476-z.

Phil Auckland (McAinsh lab) reveals how the human kinetochore protein CENP-F helps hold onto microtubules with one hand, while limiting the motorised stripping of corona components with the other (see figure). We find that over stripping leads to inefficient chromosome biorientation - a key step in accurate chromosome segregation. doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201905018

How can membrane bound actin and myosin motors form contractile platforms without being in each other's way? The solution lies in their self-organization into layers on top of each other. The collaboration between experiment (Mayor group and Koester) and modeling (Rao and Skrepnek groups) of minimal, membrane bound acto-myosin networks provided new insights into this phenomenon that is important for our understanding of the cell cortex dynamics in close proximity to the plasma membrane. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay6093

Following the dynamics of molecular motors in minimal actin cortex systems is usually performed by fluorescence microscopy which poses heavy limits on the recording frequency due to phototoxicity. In a collaboration between Koester and the Kukura group in Oxford, label free interferometric scattering microscopy was employed to circumvent these limitations providing unprecedented high frequency data of myosin filament dynamics. Together with a new single particle tracking routine developed by Lewis Mosby (Straube group) and Marco Polin the results revealed intriguing changes in myosin II filament dynamics upon ATP depletion and driving actin network contraction. This work provides new tools and approaches for the study of active processes and molecular motors.  doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2020.02.025.

The storage and transport of cells is crucial for fundamental biological studies and to ensure cell-based therapies can be delivered to the patient intact and functional. The Gibson Group has developed a semi-automated method to rapidly make 100’s of new polymers, which allowed them to identify new design rules to help make more active materials. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.0c00044

A new study from Warwick Medical School and the University of Oxford reveals a breakthrough for sportsmen and women in the treatment of Achilles tendon rupture.

A team of four third year MB ChB students, the 'Titanic Swim Team', have been crowned winners of this year's WMS Game Show Jamboree - for the third year in a row!

A new tool developed by Warwick Medical School to help carers manage the daily challenges of life when caring for a friend or loved one has been presented to the Minister of State for Care at Westminster.

The 2020 MB ChB Prizegiving Evening took place on 30 January, celebrating the fantastic work and achievements of our medical students over the last year and recognising teaching and personal tutoring excellence amongst our staff.

Nathan Pearson has been awarded a PhD in Health Sciences for his PhD on ‘Improving the Assessment of Fatigue in Axial Spondyloarthritis: improving patient outcomes’. Nathan was supervised by Kirstie Haywood, Jon Packham and Liz Tutton in the Division of Health Sciences.

Congratulations to Professor Colin Macdougall (Warwick Medical School), who is honoured with a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship award at graduation this week.

Our 2020 winter graduation ceremony took place on 21 January, celebrating the fantastic achievements of our new Master's, PhD and Orthodontic Therapy alumni.

Dr Sarah Hillman of WMS has highlighted how the medical profession’s historical focus on men has left a legacy of male-orientated medicine today in a talk for TEDxNHS.

We used high-throughput single-cell RNA sequencing to reconstruct the decidual pathway in human endometrium in vitro and in vivo. This work has revealed a novel mechanism of breakdown of the feto-maternal interface in pregnancy and identified endometrial biomarkers which can be used to assess the risk of miscarriage prior to conception.
Lucas, Vrljicak et al., Communications Biology 2020, https://rdcu.be/b0zvm

Professor Matthew Gibson from the Department of Chemistry and Warwick Medical School has received €150,000 to develop methods to store and transport cells used in toxicity testing.

A drug designed to tackle diabetes could also be repurposed as the first treatment to prevent miscarriage by targeting the lining of the womb itself, according to a clinical trial led by Warwick Medical School.

Women who were overweight at the start of their pregnancy would welcome support after they have given birth in the form of commercial weight management groups, Warwick Medical School-led research has found.

The Division of Biomedical Sciences are now signatories to @DORAssessment - we are working to develop and promote best practice in the assessment of scholarly research.