Tag: Public health

Beyond survival: Why cancer survivorship matters

Professor Pernilla Lagergren

This festive period, Three Wise Women from the Faculty of Medicine will be giving us the gift of wisdom.

When cancer treatment ends, a new journey begins—one filled with unique challenges. Professor Pernilla Lagergren, Chair in Surgical Care Sciences at the Department of Surgery and Cancer, explores what life is like after cancer treatment. Drawing on her clinical experience with oesphageal and gastric cancer patients, she shares how her survivorship research is helping to shape better outcomes for patients, their families, and the healthcare system. 

When people think about cancer, they often focus on the illness itself—the diagnosis, the treatments, and the fight to survive. But once the treatment ends, another important challenge begins: what happens after cancer? As a researcher in cancer survivorship, my focus is on understanding what life is like for people who have been treated for cancer, and how we can improve that life for them. 

Here, I’ll explore the significance of cancer survivorship research, the insights we’ve gained, and what drives my commitment to this field. I‘ll also highlight how my work contributes to improving the lives of cancer survivors, supporting their families, and strengthening the healthcare system. 

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When science meets serendipity: How accidental discoveries could revolutionise women’s health

Professor Aylin Hanyaloglu

This festive period, Three Wise Women from the Faculty of Medicine will be giving us the gift of wisdom.

Aylin Hanyaloglu, Professor in Molecular Medicine in the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, reflects on the role of serendipity in both scientific discovery and her own 17-year research career at Imperial. She explores how unexpected findings—like those in her team’s research on G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs)—can lead to breakthroughs that shape the future of medicine. From fertility treatments to the quest for more precise drugs, Aylin discusses how curiosity and embracing the unexpected have driven her team’s progress.

Serendipity—the fact of finding valuable or interesting things by chance—has long been a key element in scientific research. This is exemplified by Sir Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin, which revolutionised medicine: “I did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by accident.” With this definition, serendipity for me has played a significant role in both the discoveries in our research as well as my career journey. This time of year offers opportunities to reflect on different areas in our lives, and I have often used the term serendipity for describing my journey. But what do I mean by this? Is it needed or just a normal part of the discovery process? And with the rapidly evolving landscape of how science is conducted, will this continue? 

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World AIDS Day 2024: ‘Take the rights path’

Sarah Fidler and Jonas Bergmann Poulsen

To mark World AIDS Day, Professor Sarah Fidler from the Department of Infectious Disease, and student, Jonas Bergmann from the University of Amsterdam, reflect on the evolution of HIV treatment and the ongoing challenges. They discuss the impact of stigma, the importance of accessible medication, and the role of community-led initiatives in supporting those living with HIV. 

Professor Sarah Fidler

My first experience of HIV was in 1988 when I was 24 years old. I had just qualified as a junior doctor.  As I started work on the respiratory ward, there were several young people who were inpatients. This was unusual for an acute medical ward, which treats patients with urgent medical conditions. Our patients were a similar age to me, but these young people – who should have had their whole lives ahead of them were isolated, sick and dying.  

 Not only were they dying, but they were dying with a health condition that also affected their partners, all while  facing fear, judgement and stigmatisation. As a result, many had no family with them to help ease their passing – just prejudice, homophobia and ignorance. We had no medicines that could reverse the medical complications, nothing that could make them better. All we could do was to care for them as best we could, providing empathy, kindness and medical support to ease their journey.  

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How medicine and medical research has contributed to HIV stigma–and how we challenge it

Alan Winston

World AIDS Day is a vital opportunity to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and honour those whose lives have been affected by the disease. Professor Alan Winston from the Department of Infectious Disease explores how language and scientific definitions have contributed to the stigmatisation of those living with the disease and emphasises the need for person-centred language and thoughtful scientific communication to reduce discrimination in medicine and medical research. 

The initial fear 

Since AIDS–Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome–was first identified in the 1980s, along with its underlying cause–the Human Immune Deficiency virus (HIV)– people living with HIV have encountered immense discrimination and stigma. Whilst this was partly driven by fear of the disease itself and the devastating clinical consequences of HIV without treatment, we should acknowledge that both physicians and scientists have contributed to this stigma. Here, I highlight how this has been mediated through language and scientific definitions. Although these contributors have likely not been intentional, going forward, we need to learn from past experiences and carefully consider how, as clinicians, clinical researchers and scientists, our work can focus on reducing the stigma and discrimination that has surrounded HIV for so many decades. 

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Completing the jigsaw: can milk banks contribute to transformed perinatal health in the UK?

Dr Natalie Shenker MBE

This week marks World Breastfeeding Week, a global campaign dedicated to informing, engaging, and galvanising action on breastfeeding and related issues. Dr Natalie Shenker MBE from the Department of Surgery and Cancer reflects on the progress made in related maternal health research in 2024, and explores how milk banks can help in the much-needed transformation of perinatal healthcare in the UK.

2024 has already been a remarkable year for human milk and lactation science. As interest grows globally in the sector, our understanding of the complex and ancient evolutionary physiological strategies involved, and their impact on infant and maternal health, deepens. The maternal health impacts of lactation and how to best support families are the key focuses of my research, and like much of the work across women’s health, has been largely ignored by mainstream science.  

In partnership with The George Institute, the new Women’s Health Network at Imperial College London is seeking to correct these crucial gaps. Excitingly, our study into the mechanisms through which breastfeeding can reduce the risk of certain types of cancer has received further funding from Breast Cancer Now. Yet, there is still so much to discover. Just last month an entirely new hormonal response that explains how breastfeeding protects against osteoporosis was described by scientists at UC Davis. They found bone metabolism increases during lactation to keep up with the large amount of calcium required to produce milk, at the same time as levels of the protective hormone oestrogen fall. Scientists were therefore previously stumped as to how breastfeeding prevents rather than causes maternal osteoporosis. The work, published in Nature, found that during breastfeeding, certain neurons in the brain called KISS1 neurons release a protein called CCN3. This protein helps increase bone repair, boosts the activity of skeletal stem cell activity and even speeds up how quickly fractures repair.

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The importance of annual reviews for COPD care

Man at COPD review

Currently, there are considerable gaps in the care of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Parris Williams, PhD student at the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), highlights why improving the access, delivery and quality of annual COPD reviews is crucial to supporting 1.4 million patients in the UK with the condition.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a chronic condition causing restricted airflow and breathing problems, is the second most common lung disease in the UK. Currently 1.4 million people in the UK have a COPD diagnosis. Recommended by the British Thoracic Society and NICE guidelines, annual COPD reviews are a key element in COPD care. These reviews are an opportunity for the patient to discuss their condition with their medical team, alongside inhaler/medication revisions and opportunities for onward referrals if needed. When delivered correctly, COPD annual reviews increase the health and reduce exacerbation risk for patients.

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Bladder problems: Can we be less shy about having a pee?

Prof Marcus Drake

Bladder problems affect millions of people around the world, yet they remain shrouded in silence and embarrassment. Professor Marcus Drake, Chair in Neurological Urology, explores why society continues to be shy about this topic, and highlights why more medical research is needed to improve bladder care.

People do not generally spend a lot of time thinking about their bladder. After all, each pee only takes about 20 seconds. Since we might go for a pee just six times a day, that means only a couple of minutes are given over to the bladder daily.

As well as not thinking about it much, we also seem to be reluctant to talk about it. This may be a reflection on society, since peeing is a vital function yet talking about it seems to be discouraged. Perhaps this does not matter so much for most people. But it does matter for anyone with a bladder problem. This reluctance means that people can leave it very late to get help. For many it makes the experience of getting help difficult too.

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Psychedelics – how modern neuroscience research is leading to new treatments for brain disorders

Psychedelic therapies have the potential to vastly improve the treatment of mental health disorders such as depression. The Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research is paving the way in exploring these innovate treatments using psilocybin – the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. Here, Professor David Nutt from the Department of Brain Sciences discusses. 

When most people think of psychedelics, the first thing that comes to mind is LSD-inspired Flower Power during the 1967 Summer of Love in the USA, with its associated revolution in art and music. This explosion of use was seen to be fuelling the protests against the war in Vietnam and so rapidly led to LSD and related psychedelics such as psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushroom) being banned, first in the USA and then later globally. This ban still exists today and has effectively censored research for over 50 years. The ban is very unfortunate as prior to this there were hundreds of studies that showed psychedelics were effective treatments for a range of mental illnesses as well as some other brain disorders. Millions of patients may therefore been denied access to potentially life-saving treatments.

This situation is beginning to change with several universities setting up psychedelic research groups including the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial, which was the first and is now five years old. The impetus to these new research centres is twofold. First, today we have much more powerful neuroimaging methods to examine the impact of psychedelics on the brain and second, these neuroimaging studies have revealed possible mechanisms underpinning the therapeutic activity of psychedelic drugs, so encouraging more clinical research. This research has revealed remarkable efficacy in a number of patients who have not responded to prior conventional treatments and may be the start of a whole new phase of novel therapies for mental illnesses.

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Closing the Gender Health Gap: A Call for Sex and Gender Equity in Biomedical Research Policies

When it comes to healthcare, there are clear and stark inequalities between women and men. Marina Politis, Alice Witt, and Kate Womersley explain how, at its root, this gender health gap derives from a research and data gap, and how the MESSAGE project is working to improve accounting of sex and gender dimensions in medical research.

Everyone aspires to receive gold standard treatment when seeking medical care. What if, however, this standard, was only ever set out to be gold for one group of people? Much of our medical evidence base has been based on a male norm, with women underrepresented at all stages of the research pipeline. Subsequently, when a woman suffers an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, she is less likely to receive bystander CPR than a man. Once in the hospital, she continues to be less likely to receive optimal care than her male counterpart.

The gender health gap in cardiovascular disease – poorer outcomes women experience due to the “male default” in health research and healthcare – is just one of many conditions for which there are disparities between women and men. From dementia to diabetes, and osteoporosis to obesity, sex and gender differences and similarities remain neglected in UK and international research.

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The one with a Nobel prize winner

Hadi Sallah, PhD student in John Tregoning's lab, working on RNA vaccines.
Hadi Sallah, PhD student in John Tregoning’s lab, working on RNA vaccines.

Dr John Tregoning, Professor in Vaccine Immunology, recounts his experience of working with Dr Katalin Karikó, Nobel Prize winner and the tenacious force behind the mRNA vaccines that helped change the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their recently published study investigates how RNA modifications impact the body’s immune response to infection, with the hopes of aiding the development of more effective mRNA vaccines.

Science is collaborative, we work with lots of different people to understand the world around us. Working with other people is one of the joys of the job. In our recently published study, Reducing cell intrinsic immunity to mRNA vaccine alters adaptive immune responses in mice, we had the privilege of working with Dr Katalin Karikó, joint winner of the 2023 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine.

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