Last month, the Met Office reported that July was the UK’s sixth wettest on record, and unsurprisingly the UK had 19% fewer hours of sunshine than average over the month, with 140.3 hours in total.

Researchers at Warwick Medical School say that light is the most important environmental cue for synchronising our biological clock and regulating sleep, which if interrupted can have a detrimental effect on our mood and wellbeing.

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Congratulations to Professor Andrew McAinsh, Pro Dean for Research at WMS, who has just been awarded a Wellcome Discovery Award and Research Grant of over £2.5M. The research programme ‘Kinetochore self-correction mechanisms underlying faithful chromosome segregation in humans’ will run for eight years. Read the full news item here.

Congratulations to Dr Helen Nolan, Warwick Medical School, who was selected for an Education Innovation Award by the ASME’s Educator Development Committee (EDC). The ASME EDC Education Innovation Awards have been developed to highlight, promote and disseminate examples of innovative educational practice in healthcare professionals’ education.

Read the full news item here Dr Helen Nolan wins Education Innovation Award (warwick.ac.uk)

Congratulations to Professor Sian Taylor-Phillips who has been awarded a prestigious £1.8m NIHR Professorship to drive national policy for medical screening tests in the UK. She is one of six research leaders to receive this award, and the first at University of warwick, her research will consider the benefits and harms of population screening, which will help support government policy making. Read the full press release here

Warwick Medical School is delighted to welcome the new appointment of Professor Charles Craddock CBE to the Clinical Trials Unit as Professor of Haemato-Oncology. Professor Craddock will take a lead role in developing high-quality research programmes in clinical and cost effectiveness research of cancer therapies and support the University’s work on Innovation particularly in the health theme including the development of the University’s supra-regional health innovation campus Arden Cross and other projects - Read more here.

Dr Hannah James, Specialist Registrar in Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery at UHCW and PhD graduate from Warwick Clinical Trials Unit has been awarded a very prestigious Hunterian Professorship by the Royal College of Surgeons for her ground breaking surgical education research work.

Dr James recently completed an outstanding body of research for her PhD on the impact of cadaveric surgical training on improving patient outcomes. She becomes the first female Trauma and Orthopaedic (T&O) surgeon to become a Hunterian Professor. Read the full article here

Seasonal winter peaks in infectious diseases put significant pressures on national health services, including hospitals and general practitioners. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a common virus which for the majority of people causes mild symptoms like a common cold, but it can be serious for very young infants and older adults. Currently, RSV is a significant contributor to pressures in paediatric intensive care. Find out more about how machine learning can predict the peaks in RSV and ultimately improve patient care - click here for more information

One of nine new Evidence Synthesis Groups (ESGs) has been awarded by the NIHR to a collaborative group, led by Professor Amy Grove and Dr Yen-Fu Chen from Warwick Evidence in Warwick Medical School. Read the full article here.

Congratulations to Dr Cerys Currie, winner of the Science Category in the Women of the Future Awards. She received her award at a ceremony in London on Wednesday 9 November. Two members of Warwick Medical School were shortlisted this year. Alongside Cerys, Postdoctoral Research Fellow and final year medical student Ramat Ayoola, was nominated in the Community Spirit category.