Category: Research grants

GRANTfinder 4 Education – new provider for research funding information

The College no longer subscribes to Research Professional and has moved to a new provider for research funding information, called Idox GRANTfinder 4 Education, offering a searchable database of funding opportunities and the option to subscribe to alerts.

GRANTfinder 4 Education allows academic institutions in the UK to service all their funding search requirements in one place: GRANTfinder for wider projects such as capital investment and spin-offs, RESEARCHconnect for research projects and POLICYfinder to keep track of relevant policy to support funding applications. This resource offers the ability to search for up-to-date funding opportunities and share information across defined groups and the wider communities at Imperial College and to deliver these in a cost-effective manner.

How to use GRANTfinder 4 Education

Information regarding how you can access and effectively use GRANTfinder 4 Education can be found in the Research Office bulletin (12 Nov 2018) and the quick start guide for RESEARCHconnect.

There will be a training session will be on 12 December. Antony McKay from Idox will deliver the training and there will be 3 sessions, all in room SKEM 315. Registration is via Eventbrite. The second session of the day will be tailored for research managers and the other two sessions are open to all College staff. Please register for the session you would like to attend. If you are unable to attend these sessions there will be more scheduled for the early part of 2019. (more…)

The Francis Crick Institute: Opportunities open for application

The Crick and its partner universities are launching two initiatives for staff from all departments:

  • The call for the 2018 round of attachments is now open with a deadline of 10 April 2018. The programme of attachments offers Imperial staff the opportunity for their research group to be seconded to the Crick, to establish a satellite group in a Crick lab or to spend up to a year with the Crick on sabbatical. Find out more and apply.
  • The new Networking Fund call for applications has a rolling deadline, the first of which is 23 February 2018. The Fund supports staff to develop connections across disciplinary boundaries with researchers in related fields and other world-leading biomedical scientists at the Crick. Find out more and apply.

Faculty Fellowships and Wellcome Trust visit

Faculty Fellowships

Faculty Fellowships are a new Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund opportunity, providing flexible funding for up to 18 months for early career researchers who have not yet submitted a Fellowship application but for who an award is in the pipeline because of the quality of the applicant, supervisor and project.

These fellowships are open to researchers across all Faculties. Postdoctoral researchers from disciplines outside of biomedicine can apply for funding to apply their expertise to the goals of understanding health and disease, provided the proposed area of research is within the remit of the Wellcome Trust.

The closing date for applications is 12.00 on 19 June 2017. Please note that within the Faculty of Medicine, the Departmental deadline is 1 June. Further details regarding these Fellowships can be found on the ISSF webpage. (more…)

Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) Scheme Awards Funding to 25 projects

The Faculty is delighted to report the outcome of the fourth Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) competition to support the College-wide development of novel devices, diagnostics and therapeutics for areas of unmet clinical need. A fund in excess of £1.6million was made available from the MRC (Confidence in Concept fund), NIHR Imperial BRC, Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund, EPSRC and BBSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts, as well as support from NIHR BRC at The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research. The ICiC scheme provides vital pilot funding to bridge the potential gap between discovery research and well-developed applications for MRC Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme / Developmental Clinical Studies Funding Scheme support.

The Panel, including external members and chaired by Professor Roberto Solari, was delighted with the high quality and wide range of applications. Examples of the breadth of funded proposals include: ‘Preclinical assessment of a lead NMT inhibitor as a novel anticancer agent’ (Tate); ‘Development and validation of a 2 gene RNA test to detect bacterial infection’ (Levin); ‘A ‘smart’ ultrasonic focus for brain drug delivery’ (Choi); ‘GM-CSF gene therapy for pulmonary alveolar proteinosis’ (Griesenbach). We are also pleased to announce two co-funded projects with our colleagues at the NIHR BRC at The Royal Marsden and ICR; ‘The development of a high-throughput breathomics platform for oeosophago-gastric cancer’ (Hanna) and ‘The use of innovative spectroscopy technologies (i-Knife and DESI) for the improvement of the management of women with abnormalities in cervical screening’ (Kyrgiou). The first project is a collaboration between Prof George Hanna (ICL), Dr Andrea Romano (ICL), Prof David Cunningham (ICR), Mr Asif Chaudry (ICR), and Prof Paris Tekkis (ICR). The second project led by Dr Maria Kyrgiou involves collaboration with the Royal Marsden gynaecological oncology team (Mr Butler, Mr Ind, Mr Barton).

The investigators who will receive awards of up to £85,000 are:

  • Professor Eric Aboagye (PI), Dr Laurence Carroll, & Dr Kathrin Heinzmann (Department of Surgery & Cancer)
  • Dr Geoff Baldwin (PI) & Professor Edward Leen (Departments of Life Sciences and Medicine)
  • Dr Andrew Blagborough (PI) & Dr Fiona Angrisano (Department of Life Sciences)
  • Dr James Choi (PI) & Dr Matthew Williams (Department of Bioengineering and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust)
  • Dr Armando Del Rio Hernandez (PI) (Department of Bioengineering)
  • Dr Andrew Edwards (PI), Dr Thomas Clarke, Dr Thomas Webb, Dominic Marshall (Department of Medicine)
  • Dr Matthew Fuchter (PI), Prof Simak Ali, & Dr Geoff Baldwin (Departments of Chemistry, Surgery & Cancer, and Life Sciences)
  • Dr Nicholas Glanville (PI) & Professor Sebastian Johnston (National Heart & Lung Institute)
  • Professor Uta Griesenbach (PI) & Professor Eric Alton (National Heart & Lung Institute)
  • Professor George Hanna (PI) & Dr Andrea Romano (Department of Surgery & Cancer)
  • Dr Mark Isalan (PI) (Department of Life Sciences)
  • Dr Angela Kedgley (PI), Ms Donna Kennedy, Dr Tonia Vincent, & Dr Fiona Watt (Departments of Bioengineering and Surgery & Cancer and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust)
  • Dr Maria Kyrgiou (PI), Professor Zoltan Takats, Dr Sadaf Ghaem-Maghami, Professor Phillip Bennett, & Dr David Macintyre (Department of Surgery & Cancer)
  • Dr Gerald Larrouy-Maumus (PI), Professor Francis Drobniewski, Dr Brian Robertson, & Dr Vahid Shahrezaei (Departments of Life Sciences, Medicine, and Mathematics)
  • Professor Mike Levin (PI) & Dr Pantelis Georgiou (Departments of Medicine and Electrical & Electronic Engineering)
  • Dr George Mylonas (PI) & Professor Ara Darzi (Department of Surgery & Cancer)
  • Dr Alexandra Porter (PI), Professor Charles Coombes, Professor Mary Ryan, & Dr Fang Xie (Departments of Materials and Surgery & Cancer)
  • Professor Robin Shattock (PI) (Department of Medicine)
  • Professor Roberto Solari (PI) & Dr Andrew Bell (National Heart & Lung Institute and Department of Chemistry)
  • Professor Ed Tate (PI), Professor Eric Aboagye, Dr Andy Bell, & Dr Laura Kenny (Departments of Chemistry and Surgery & Cancer)
  • Dr Vasso Terzidou (PI), Dr David Macintyre, & Professor Phillip Bennett (Department of Surgery & Cancer)
  • Dr Ross Walton (PI), Professor Sebastian Johnston, & Dr Aoife Cameron (National Heart & Lung Institute)
  • Professor Peter Weinberg (PI) & Dr Mengxing Tang (Department of Bioengineering)
  • Professor Ramesh Wigneshweraraj (PI) & Dr Daniel Brown (Department of Medicine)
  • Dr Lan Zhao (PI) & Professor Martin Wilkins (Department of Medicine)

Dr Kimberley Trim
Research Strategy Coordinator
Faculty of Medicine

New research to investigate models of child health care in Europe

Professor Mitch Blair and Professor Michael Rigby from the Section of Paediatrics of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial, together with European colleagues, have been awarded almost 7 million Euro by the European Commission – Directorate General for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 programme to study and evaluate models of child primary care in Europe.

Professor Mitch Blair
Professor Mitch Blair

The project: MOCHA Models of Child Health Appraised will see Imperial College project staff working with 19 scientific partners from 10 European countries, plus Switzerland, the United States and Australia; as well as with country agents in 30 European Commission and European Economic Area countries.

The project began on 1st June with a three-month preparation phase, including creating a project website, prior to an active research programme commencing on 1st September 2015 continuing until the late autumn of 2018.

Principal Investigator Professor Blair explained:

“Children are an important population group in their own right, but also are the future of Europe, its society and its workforce. Thus children’s health is vital to children and for a healthy Europe”.

“However, there is no consensus on the best way of providing primary health care for children. Different countries favour different models, of which two main ones are generalist general practitioners seeing the child in the family context, and primary care paediatricians with focused expertise. Until now there is no research which shows which model is most effective, which also implies that some children are likely to be receiving sub-optimal care.”

MOCHA will obtain and analyse key information on a range of child primary care topics, such as:

  • Models of primary care delivered to children (including urgent care)
  • Delivery of care across organisational boundaries (with secondary care, social care, education and so on) including complex care, and services for child protection
  • School health services, and direct access services for adolescents
  • Identification of innovative measures of quality and outcome
  • Identification of derivatives from large data sets to measure quality and outcome
  • Economic and Skill Set analyses
  • Ensuring Equity for all children
  • Use of electronic records in child health
Professor Michael Rigby
Professor Michael Rigby

An independent Expert Panel from 10 countries and 15 different organisations or paediatric and public health associations will validate the scientific enquiries made of country agents, and review the findings. Views of service users will be sought throughout the project, and there will be an active engagement and dissemination programme.

The project will be managed from Imperial College, coordinating the work of 11 separate work packages run by experts from European research institutions, including researchers from Imperial College.

This will be one of the largest and most ambitious project to look at child health services in Europe. Focusing on prevention and wellness, its results will demonstrate the optimal model(s) of child primary care. Alongside the results, the MOCHA project will analyse the factors (including cultural factors) which might facilitate the adoption of recommendations, and indications for policy makers of both the health and economic gains possible. Throughout its life, the project will have a strong dissemination programme, ensuring that dialogue with the public, professionals, policy makers and politicians is maintained and taken into account during the research.

Within its 42-month timescale, the MOCHA project will deliver major awareness and potential benefit for European children’s health and a healthy society.

For further details contact:

Leaders: Prof. Mitch Blair – m.blair@imperial.ac.uk ; Prof. Michael Rigby – m.rigby@imperial.ac.uk or
Research Fellow (Scientific Coordinator): Denise Alexander – d.alexander@imperial.ac.uk

Antimicrobial Research Collaborative (ARC) Early Career Research Fellowships

The Antimicrobial Research Collaborative (ARC) is a new Imperial network of researchers, primary care specialists and allied health professionals established to advance basic research in AMR and to translate research to novel prevention strategies and healthcare interventions. The ARC Early Career Research Fellowships scheme aims to attract and retain the most promising early career scientists to undertake multidisciplinary research projects in antimicrobial research within the College.

How to apply?

Full details of the ARC Early Career Research Fellowships and how to apply will be announced on 5th June, and will be available from: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/funding-opportunities/internal-funding-opportunities/issf/ There will be an opportunity to ask questions about the Fellowships at the ARC launch on 5th June (please see https://eventbrite.co.uk/event/17028140627/ for details of the event and to register). The closing date for ARC Fellowship applications will be 5pm on 3rd July 2015.

Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) Scheme Awards Funding to 23 projects

The Faculty is delighted to report the outcome of the second Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) competition to support the College-wide development of novel devices, diagnostics and therapeutics for areas of unmet clinical need. A fund in excess of £1.2million was made available from the MRC (Confidence in Concept fund), NIHR Imperial BRC, Imperial Innovations, Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund and as well as support from NIHR BRC at The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research. The ICiC scheme provides vital pilot funding to bridge the potential gap between discovery research and well-developed applications for MRC Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme / Developmental Clinical Studies Funding Scheme support.

The Panel, including external members and chaired by Professor Roberto Solari (NHLI), was delighted with the high quality and wide range of applications. Examples of the breadth of funded proposals include: ‘A wearable sensor for fetal movement’ (Nowlan), ‘Towards a compact proton irradiator for in vitro radiobiological studies’ (Posocco), ‘Donor TCRVa24 iNKT cells in the prevention pf acute-graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic haemopoietic stem cell transplantation’ (Karadimitris), ‘Intranasal diagnostics in food allergy: a feasibility study (INDY project)’ (Turner) and ‘The development of highly specific SIRT2 inhibitors as a novel treatment for Parkinson’s disease’ (Fuchter). We are also pleased to announce two co-funded projects with our colleagues at the NIHR BRC at The Royal Marsden and ICR from Drs Ed Tate (ICL) and Bissan Al-Lazikani (ICR) and Professors Bob Brown (ICL) and David Cunningham (ICR).

The investigators who will receive awards of up to £70,000 are:

Dr Jake Baum (PI) & Dr Keith Willison (Departments of Life Sciences & Chemistry)
Professor Maria Belvisi (PI) & Dr Mark Birrell (NHLI)
Dr Paul Bentley (PI) & Professor Etienne Burdet (Departments of Medicine & Bioengineering)
Professors Bob Brown & David Cunningham (PIs), Dr Irene Chong, Dr Naureen Starling, Dr Ian Chau, Dr Sheela Rao, Dr David Watkins (Department of Surgery & Cancer, ICL and The GI Unit, Institute of Cancer Research)
Professor Tony Cass (PI) & Dr Sanjiv Sharma (Department of Chemistry)
Dr Robert Dickinson (PI) & Professor Nicholas Franks (Departments of Surgery & Cancer and Life Sciences)
Dr Andrew Edwards (PI), Professor David Holden, Dr Thomas Webb, & Dr Dominic Marshall (Department of Medicine)
Dr Dan Elson (PI), Dr Neil Clancy, & Professor George Hanna (Department of Surgery & Cancer)
Dr Matthew Fuchter (PI), Professor David Dexter, Professor Michael Sternberg, & Professor Eric Lam (Departments of Chemistry, Medicine, Life Sciences and Surgery & Cancer)
Professor Roger Gunn (PI), Dr William Hallett, Dr Jonathan Howard, & Dr Philip Noonan (Department of Medicine)
Professor Anastasios Karadimitris (PI) & Dr Aristeidis Chaidos (Department of Medicine)
Dr Mauritius Kleijnen (Department of Medicine)
Dr Spyros Masouros (PI), Professor Jonathan Clasper, & Professor Justin Cobb (Departments of Bioengineering and Surgery & Cancer)
Dr Thomas McKinnon (PI) & Professor Mike Laffan (Department of Medicine)
Professor James Moore Jr (Department of Bioengineering)
Dr Niamh Nowlan (PI), Dr Ravi Vaidyanathan, Professor Alison McGregor, & Mr Martin Lupton (Departments of Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Surgery & Cancer)
Professor Nicholas Peters (PI) & Dr Chris Cantwell (NHLI)
Dr Piero Posocco (PI), Dr Jurgen Pozimski, Dr Matthew Williams, Dr Nelofer Syed (Departments of Physics, Surgery & Cancer, and Medicine)
Dr Robert Snelgrove (NHLI)
Professor Molly Stevens (PI), Professor Michael Levin, & Dr Philip Howes (Departments of Materials and Medicine)
Dr Ed Tate (PI), Professor Bissan Al-Lazikani, and Professor Julian Blagg (Department of Chemistry, ICL and Cancer Therapeutics Unit, Institute of Cancer Research)
Dr Paul Turner (PI), Professor John Warner, Dr Robert Boyle, & Dr Claudia Gore (Department of Medicine)
Professor Ramesh Wigneshweraraj (PI), Professor Steve Matthews, & Dr Serge Mostowy (Departments of Medicine and Life Sciences)

Dr Kimberley Trim
Research Strategy Officer
Faculty of Medicine

Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund Networks of Excellence

We are seeking to support novel, interdisciplinary biomedical research collaborations in the themes of infectious disease, medical imaging and diabetes/metabolic medicine. This is a cross-College scheme that welcomes any proposal to offer greater collaboration across disciplines and across departments. Proposals for pilot or feasibility work for high risk projects, to support collaborative cohesion, test or develop new methods, or proof of concept studies are encouraged, rather than standard projects. It is envisaged that the outcomes of supported work will form the basis of a major grant application. Whilst funding is available to support any research within the remit of the Wellcome Trust, networks undertaking interdisciplinary research inin the themes of infectious disease, medical imaging and diabetes/metabolic medicine are particularly welcome. It is envisaged that the outcomes of this work will form the basis of a major grant application. This scheme will be launched the week beginning 17th March 2014 with a deadline of 9th May 2014.

How to apply?

If you wish to submit a proposal you should complete the project application form and submit it to ISSF@imperial.ac.uk by the deadline9th May 2014. As we wish to fund a range of applications, a researcher cannot be principal investigator on more than one application, though this will not preclude applicants from being co-applicants on additional proposals. For further information please email ISSF@imperial.ac.uk or see the Networks of Excellence guidelines available at http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/researchstrategy/funding/wtissf 

Dr Kimberley Trim
Research Strategy Officer
Faculty of Medicine

ISSF Global Health Clinical Training Fellowships & Imperial Confidence in Concept scheme

ISSF Global Health Clinical Training Fellowships

We are seeking to support outstanding early-career clinical professionals wishing to undertake research, at least in part overseas, to improve the health of people and reduce health inequalities in developed and developing countries. Cross-disciplinary applications are encouraged.

These training fellowships are intended to provide opportunities for the most promising clinical academics, at the very beginning of their careers, to develop bids for independent fellowship funding. The primary aim of the fellowships is to remove obstacles to achieving peer-reviewed external grant or fellowship funding, through supporting feasibility or exploratory studies, facilitating networks and providing mentoring support from a senior Imperial academics. We anticipate that each fellow will be supported by two mentors, one based at an Imperial Campus, and one based overseas. All fellowships must commence by the 1st September, 2014.

How to apply?

If you have an Imperial and overseas sponsor, please contact ISSF@imperial.ac.uk for an application form and further information.

Should you be an interested applicant with a UK-based Imperial sponsor looking for an overseas sponsor, please provide a max 500 word summary of your interests, brief summary of project and research experience to ISSF@imperial.ac.uk. We cannot guarantee that all interested applicants with a UK-based sponsor will be matched with an overseas sponsor. Full applications would need to be submitted by 10th March 2014 to ISSF@imperial.ac.uk. Interviews for shortlisted candidates are expected to take place the week commencing 28th April 2014.

Imperial Confidence in Concept scheme

The second call for our Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) scheme will be advertised next week. This initiative helps fast track promising research ideas towards a marketable product and/or clinical testing. Building on the success of the 2013 Imperial Confidence in Concept scheme and Imperial NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC)/Imperial Innovations Therapeutic Primer Fund (£250,000), the College has received a further £700,000 funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to continue this scheme. The ICiC scheme provides pilot funding to bridge the potential gap between discovery research and well-developed applications for MRC Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme/ Developmental Clinical Studies Funding Scheme support.

An ICiC event will be held on the afternoon of Monday 17th February which will be open to all researchers within Imperial College and will require registration. This will include internal speakers as well as external speakers from the commercial sector and collaborators from the NIHR Royal Marsden/Institute of Cancer Research BRC. Further details will be circulated to faculties and departments the week beginning 27th January.

 

Dr Kimberley Trim
Research Strategy Officer
Faculty of Medicine

Fully Funded PhD Scholarships – Applications Now Open

We have just opened applications for two separate PhD scholarships, aiming to recruit a total of 8 students in total. The deadline for applicants is 10 July 2013 for all scholarships. Please distribute to all your masters students and encourage those who are suitable to apply by completing the relevant online application form available online, via the links below.

5 x FoM Dean’s PhD Scholarships

3 x MRC DTA PhD Studentships

Please contact me if you have any queries regarding the scholarships and do not hesitate to pass on my details to your students, for any queries.

Nousheen Tariq
Postgraduate Manager
FEO – Faculty Education Office

Imperial Confidence in Concept Scheme Awards Funding to 19 Projects

Building on the success of the 2012 Imperial NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC)/Imperial Innovations Therapeutic Primer Fund of £250,000, the College received £700,000 funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to establish an Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) Scheme. Funding for projects was also sourced from the CLAHRC and College’s Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund to create a total fund in excess of one million pounds.  This fund has been used to identify early targets, not currently being developed, within the Faculties of Medicine, Natural Sciences and Engineering, to enter into the drug, devices and diagnostics development pathway.

The ICiC fund combines the Imperial NIHR BRC/Imperial Innovations Therapeutic Primer Fund that promotes the discovery and development of therapeutics for areas of unmet medical need, and pump-primes the early stages of drug/therapeutic discovery with the MRC ‘Confidence in Concept’ scheme that helps to pump-prime the translation of novel therapeutics, devices and diagnostics, including repurposing of existing therapies toward clinical testing.

Additional funds were sourced from the CLAHRC and ISSF to support two extra projects.  The Northwest London CLAHRC (NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care) is an alliance of academic and healthcare organisations working to develop and promote a more efficient, accelerated and sustainable uptake of clinically innovative and cost-effective research interventions into patient care.  The Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) is a awarded to Imperial College from Wellcome Trust to support our researchers and to stimulate inter-disciplinary research.   The ISSF supports a range of College-wide schemes that connect our excellent research capabilities in order to address the Wellcome Trust Research Challenges.

The ICiC scheme has been designed to provide pilot funding to bridge the potential gap between discovery research and well-developed applications for MRC Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme/ Developmental Clinical Studies Funding Scheme support.

The scheme was launched at a briefing event on the 28th February this year, with 70 expressions of Interest being submitted to the panel. Out of the seventy expressions of interest received, 27 were shortlisted and 19 were awarded funding at the final meeting in May 2013. The panel was chaired by Professor Roberto Solari, who was delighted with the high quality and wide range of applications.

The Principle Investigators who will receive awards of up to £70,000 are:

Dr Euan Stronach (Surgery & Cancer)

Dr Georgios Giamas (Surgery & Cancer)

Professor Charles Coombes (Surgery & Cancer)

Dr Michael Edwards (NHLI)

Professor Anita Simonds (NHLI)

Dr Gregory Quinlan (NHLI)

Dr Robert Snelgrove (NHLI)

Professor Michael Schneider (NHLI)

Dr Mohamed Shamji (NHLI)

Dr Uta Griesenbach (NHLI)

Dr Ramesh Wigneshweraraj (Dept. of Medicine)

Professor Mark Thursz (Dept. of Medicine)

Dr Nick Oliver (Dept. of Medicine)

Dr Prapa Kanagaratnam (Dept. of Medicine)

Professor Simon Taylor-Robinson (Dept. of Medicine)

Professor Shiranee Sriskandan (Dept. of Medicine)

Professor Nicholas Long (Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences)

Dr Pau Herrero Vinas (Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering)

Professor Molly Stevens (Materials, Faculty of Engineering)

 

Hannah Dolby
Business Operations Trainee
Faculty of Medicine

6m Euro funding for translational lung research

Professor Dame Julia Polak
Professor Dame Julia Polak

Almost 6 million Euros in EU funding has been secured by Professor Sakis Mantalaris (Department of Chemical Engineering) and Professor Dame Julia Polak (Honorary Fellow, Chemical Engineering  and Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Medicine), to support an international consortium of leading researchers within the EU, in conjunction with a German company, Novalung.

The group intends to create a wearable bio-artificial lung; AMBULUNG, for long term application in an outpatient setting. Their aims include miniaturisation of the existing device, cellularisation of the diffusion membrane with endothelial cells to reduce thrombus (blood clot) formation, and inclusion of peripheral lung cells to increase gas exchange.

Imperial College will receive a portion of the funding, which together with the generous support from the Rosetrees Trust, will unable to creation of a strong group of scientists doing both basic and translational research on lung regeneration.

Miss Sandra Lock
PA to Professor Dame Julia Polak
Department of Medicine

HELIX project kicks off

The HELIX project consortium (The Human Early-Life Exposome – novel tools for integrating early-life environmental exposures and child health across Europe), which officially began on 1st January 2013, have met for its official kickoff meeting at CREAL (Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology), Barcelona.  This EU FP7 project will exploit novel tools and methods, including omics and smartphone-based personal exposure monitoring, to characterise early-life exposure to a wide range of environmental hazards, and integrate these with data on major child health outcomes.

Researchers at Imperial, led by Dr Muireann Coen of the Department of Surgery and Cancer, will contribute to the metabolic profiling (metabonomics/metabolomics) in the project. This using high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) analyses of biospecimens collected from multiple mother-child cohorts across Europe.

Further details can be found on the HELIX website.

Dr Toby Athersuch
Lecturer in Environmental Toxicology
School of Public Health