Research projects aimed at addressing issues such as heart disease in babies and head injuries have been showcased at a special event. Judges selected six researchers at Imperial who are currently undertaking clinical academic training to present their projects as finalists at a conference organised by the Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO), a network established to provide training for clinical staff, and allied healthcare professionals at Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
Dr Rita De Campos Pires Santos E Sousa, Clinical Research Training Fellow (in Surgery and Cancer), for a study that examines how brain damage develops following a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and investigates potential drug treatments such as xenon, a noble gas and general anaesthetic, to tackle this. The latest findings showed for the first time in an animal model that xenon reduces brain injury and improves neurological outcomes in the short and long term. According to the research team, xenon could be used to treat TBI patients in the future.