Prof George Hanna is lead author of a study published today looking at a breath test that can help doctors diagnose the early signs of oesophageal and gastric cancer in minutes.
The test has produced encouraging results in a clinical study, and will now be tested in a larger trial involving three hospitals in London.
The Surgery and Cancer Lifestyles page brings together information on the following areas:
Congratulations to Edward St John, Clinical Research Fellow supervised by Prof Ara Darzi, Prof Zoltan Takats and Mr Daniel Leff who has won a prestigious prize from the British Journal of Surgery for best oral presentation at the Association of Breast Surgery (ABS) Conference 2015.
The presentation was entitled: Intra-operative Rapid Evaporative Ionisation Mass Spectrometry: A Future Intelligent Knife (iKnife) for Oncological Margin Control? The authors of the research were: St.John ER, Balog J, Muirhead LJ, Speller A, Jones EA, Shousha S, Ramakrishnan R, Darzi A, Takats Z, Leff DR.
The Department’s first Athena SWAN Lecture will be delivered by Miss Clare Marx, President of the Royal College of Surgeons. Please put the date in your diary:
5.00 for 5.30 pm start on WEDNESDAY, 2ND DECEMBER 2015 – to be held at South Kensington
The Lecture will be followed by a Reception and more information will be sent out nearer the time regarding the title and confirmation of venue and to note, we will be arranging crèche facilities to facilitate those of you with childcare responsibilities to attend.
Genesis Research Trust Director of Marketing and Communications shares her experience of the 1000 mile cycle challenge she recently took part in, to raise money for the for the Genesis Research Trust. The charity is the largest UK-based collection of scientists and clinicians researching the causes and cures for conditions that affect the health of women and babies.
It all started following a conversation with our Patron Fern Britton, novelist and presenter, whose ambition was to cycle from John O’Groats to Lands End – yes, this way round, and they say it’s tougher. The ride would be themed around the number 57: Fern was born in 1957, she is 57 years old and would cycle approximately 57 miles per day. Our target would be to raise £57,000 for research into miscarriage.
The whole challenge would take 21 days, and after several months of planning a complex itinerary provided by our brilliant tour operator Classic Tours, the ride was launched in October 2014. To our amazement, around 80 riders joined us, 23 of whom cycled the whole way. Social Media started buzzing with excitement, nerves and encouragement from those supporting us.
Most days were damp and cold with huge downpours of rain and biting winds. It seemed like we were following the elements rather than leaving them. Our route took us through the breath-taking Highlands with its endless hills, including the famous 5 mile Rest and Be Thankful; the specular Lake District including the summit of Shap where we had to be rescued by our trusted ground team as the group was struggling to stay on their bikes battling against 48 mph winds; and finally the most difficult stage, from the beautiful, but unforgiving moorlands of Dartmoor to our destination – Land’s End.
Despite the exhaustion and aching muscles, there was always laughter and plenty of smiles. The acts of kindness, encouragement and donations given along the way were simply overwhelming. Our laundry was taken care of by wonderful supporters meeting us at our hotels and returning early the next day, delicious Scottish tablet in Fort William; Rocky Roads and beautifully decorated cakes; teams of massage therapists; a team of cyclists chaperoning us en route; even a police escort into Weston-Super- Mare; dance music in Manchester on the A538 with sounds of supportive horns. What a treat it was when World Champion Silver medallist, Tony Gibb turned up at a service station in Abington to cheer us on and gave our bikes a once over. We were then joined by Chris Mancho an experienced cyclist and Director of our major sponsor Emma’s Diary patrolling and advising on cycling technique.
The challenge was a true test of endurance, but every pedal push meant that we could and would make a difference to those who suffer the tragedy of miscarriage. The enthusiasm, camaraderie and teamwork led by our wonderful Patron Fern Britton were enduring. Fern ensured that everyone stayed motivated and lifted our spirits with her engaging anecdotes and cheer. No one ever worried about feeling alone and the words ‘are you OK?’ were the mantra for the group.
Time passed by quickly and everyone was apprehensive about the last day. The event was working like a military operation and we all had our routine for 3 weeks, eat- cycle – eat – cycle – take pictures– eat – pack – sleep – etc. We were a family and would shortly have to say goodbye and go back to our normal lives. However, we cycled to the finish line together, just how we started – as a team. The feeling of success and achievement was immense and seeing Professor Winston greeting us at the finish line was just the icing on the cake. It was a truly unforgettable experience .
This was the first ever UK challenge for Genesis Research Trust and a true test of courage and determination particularly on the part of those who cycled the whole tour. The amount raised exceeded expectations – an estimated £150,000.
Thank you to Fern and all the riders, to the sponsors and those who donated and supported us along the way – together we are going to beat miscarriage.
Charity Representatives: Yvonne Konieczna and Nicolle Grace (staff at Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus), to join a challenge or for more information about Genesis Research Trust click here http://www.genesisresearchtrust.com/ or call 020 7584 2192
The NIHR Clinical Research Network, which supports researchers and clinicians across Imperial College and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, have helped recruit the first global patient into a surgical study. The trial, which is being conducted by Mr Ahmed Ahmed (Clinical Senior Lecturer in Bariatric Surgery), will compare types of surgical stapler, to investigate whether a newer device will be more efficient and reduce complications for patients.
For more information on the Clinical Research Network, visit their website, follow them at @nihrcrn_nwldn or email kate.wighton@nihr.ac.uk.
Professor Jeremy Nicholson:
• has been appointed a Visiting Professor at the University of New South Wales
• delivered a lecture: Systems medicine: facing personalised and public healthcare: challenges in a changing and dangerous world – Institute of Foundational Medicine, Austin Texas, 28 – 30 May
Professor Bob Brown and Dr. Luca Magnani are part of an ambitious European consortium working on breast cancer drug resistance and were awarded 2 EU funded PhD positions
Professor Vivette Glover is giving the Victor Horsley Lecture at the annual meeting of the BMA on “Prenatal mental health- how supporting the mother can have long term benefits for the child.”
Dr Hector Keun just took part in a panel debate on “How life affects your genes” (the exposome and epigenetics) at the Cheltenham Science Festival last Weds, together with Prof Frank Kelly (Kings) and chaired by Vivienne Parry (OBE, and MRC Board)
Dr Sadaf Ghaem-Maghami has been appointed as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
A Scientific Afternoon, chaired by Prof Phil Bennett, was held on 1st June to mark the retirement of Professor Malcolm Parker.
Dr Luca Magnani, JRF working with Prof Charles Coombes, was invited for a talk at the prestigious Gordon Conference “Hormone-Dependent Cancers” http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=13373
Dr. Monica Faronato won the best poster award at the BSCB Spring Meeting in Warwick with her work on DMXL2 (paper published 2 weeks ago)
Scientists involved in Breast Cancer research met with breast cancer patients at an “open-house” event organised by Kelly Gleason. The event was a great success and provided scientists and patients with an opportunity to engage directly and further insight into translational research and patient benefit.
Ian Flindall’s abstract Structured cues or modafinil for fatigue amelioration in clinicians ? A double blind randomised controlled trial of critical clinical information recall in fatigued clinicians has been accepted for an oral presentation in the 2015 Scientific Forum program and has been selected for an Excellence in Research Award for the category of Education.
Dr Steve Brett had a successful publication of a project which involved a collaboration between the Faculties of Medicine, Engineering and industry.
Dame Mary Archer visited CSM and the new Data Visualisation Suite – 11th June 2015.
Professor Ara Darzi was invited to contribute a blog to the Royal College of Surgeons’ recently launched blog site. His blog on ‘Surgery and the Future of the NHS’ went live on their website on the 1st June.
Lord Darzi and the IGHI hosted a visit by senior Burmese health policy advisors to provide them with an opportunity to capture new ideas and priorities in healthcare policy, as well as international expertise as they expand and develop Burma’s future healthcare agenda.
The Surgery and Cancer mentoring scheme is now well underway but we still need to get more mentors signed up across all specialties and at all levels. If you would be interested in becoming a mentor the following training workshops are available:
For more information and to book on please see the Surgery and Cancer mentoring webpages. You will also find details there on getting yourself a mentor.
Congratulations to Sarah Onida (Clinical Research Fellow in Vascular Surgery) who after winning the first prize at the 6th Venous Symposium in April has now won the Pump Priming Grant at the Royal Society of Medicine Venous Forum Annual Spring Meeting.
The prize gives a grant of £5000 to allow a researcher to get preliminary data to support research in venous disease/phlebology. It is an annual award granted by the Royal Society of Medicine to a single trainee each year and is open to vascular trainee specialists under 40 years of age. The results of the research must then be presented at the next RSM annual spring meeting.
Click here to view the latest Learning and Development Centre newsletter, with highlights including:
Three STRATiGRAD PhD students have been awarded with travel funding, allowing them to attend and take part in various conferences to share their work.
Luisa Doria has been awarded a travel grant from the Imperial College Trust General Fund. She will be using this grant to attend the 11th Annual International Conference of the Metabolomics Society, after being accepted for a long oral presentation, entitled: “A systems biology approach for the classification of ovarian cancer specimens by desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry” in the session provisionally titled “Systems biology of cancer metabolism”. The title of the paper will be: A systems biology approach for the classification of ovarian cancer specimens by desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.
Jocelyn Tillner has been awarded three travel grants from the ASMS, British Society for Mass Spectrometry and Imperial College Trust General Fund. Jocelyn will be attending the Annual conference of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry in St Louis, Missouri, to present a poster on “Cross-platform applicability of DESI-MSI – effect of ion source setups and atmospheric pressure interfaces on performance and information recovery”.
Nazanin Zounemat Kermani has also been awarded grants to attend talks for both the Metabolomics and ASMS 2015 conferences.
Professor Zoltan Takats was on the BBC news last night speaking about the application of the iKnife in surgery. The news story follows a patient having brain surgery and looks at how the device could help neurosurgeons to identify cancerous brain tumours in real time. It is hoped that this application could allow tumours to be removed more precisely and reduce the risk of them coming back.
Click on the image above to watch the story.
Congratulations to Professor Wendy Atkin who is one of five Imperial researchers recognised for their work in medical science by election to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Wendy Atkin is Professor of Gastrointestinal Epidemiology in the Department. Her research focuses on identifying and testing methods for the early diagnosis of bowel cancer, pathways for the development of the disease, and surveillance of people at increased risk, with the ultimate aim of reducing bowel cancer incidence of and mortality. Her research provided the evidence for a new national bowel screening programme, which is currently being rolled out across England.
“I am delighted and honoured to be awarded this prestigious Fellowship. It is a tribute to the dedication and hard work of current and past colleagues, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude. I look forward to joining other Fellows in furthering the goals of the Academy in nurturing and developing the next generation of medical scientists. It will also provide a fertile environment to develop future collaborations.”
Fran Jackson and Nancy Georgakopoulou, two STRATiGRAD PhD students in CSM have been awarded funds by the Imperial College Graduate School through their Cohort Building Activity Funding Scheme to travel to Cork to attend a symposium.
The symposium is entitled ‘Mining Microbes for Mankind’; University College Cork/Imperial College London Joint Postgraduate Symposium and will be focussing on gut microbiome research using molecular biology and multi-omics technologies.
The event will be held at the end of September in Cork this year, and will be the second annual workshop and networking event between STRATiGRAD cohort Imperial College London (ICL) and microbiome researchers from University College Cork (UCC). 20 postgraduate students from each University will partake in the 3 day symposium which will involve lectures, student oral presentations, training workshops and round table discussions on the role of the microbiota in gastrointestinal health.
Both centres are interested in the interaction of the gut microbiome and host health, this networking event is to integrate knowledge and training between our centres. By interacting at a postgraduate level, it will promote awareness in students from both parties and open up the opportunity for future, and hopefully, lasting collaborations.
The Division of Computational and Systems Medicine (home to the MRC-NIHR National Phenome Centre) hosted a one-day symposium under the title of “Phenomics and Phenomic Networks” on the 30th April 2015 at the South Kensington Campus.
The event proved so popular that registration to attend had to close early and on the back of the symposiums phenomenal success and feedback from the attendees, it was decided that it would now become an annual event.
The purpose was to bring together like-minded individuals to facilitate deeper integration of phenomics into the wider ‘omics community, and develop a Phenomic Network in the UK, bringing together an audience in excess of 100 researchers from the UK and Europe with speakers such as Prof Dame Carol Robinson (University of Oxford), Prof Tony Whetton (University of Manchester), Dr Christoph Steinbeck (European Bioinformatics Institute), Prof Mark Viant (University of Birmingham), Dr Julian Griffin (University of Cambridge) and the Centre’s Director Prof Jeremy Nicholson (Imperial College London).
For updates on future events please follow the National Phenome Centre on Twitter or Facebook.
