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RSOP March 2013 Research News
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The newsletter is published monthly during term time. This issue covers
February 2013. Please let Cat Ashford ([email protected]) know if
there are items you would like included in the next issue. We aim to
report successful grant applications, published papers, and other research
news. The deadline for the next newsletter is Thursday March 28th
, 2013
Welcome
SMART thinking! As reported in last month’s Research News, the Smart Materials And
Regenerative Therapies (SMART) research grouping between Pharmacy
and Chemistry had its first meeting on Friday 11th Jan. Further details of
the meeting are described below for those who are interested in linking
with this group.
Dr Che Connon kicked off the morning by introducing the SMART concept
to an audience of over 30 academics from diverse disciplines including
chemistry, pharmacy, food, biology and maths. Short presentations
grouped into 'chemistry to biology' and 'biology to chemistry' were then
given by existing SMART group members where highlights skeletal muscle
biology and how polymers might be used to improve extracellular matrix
models (Prof. Patel; SBS), investigation of cardiac myofibroblasts and how
materials can be used to align these cells (Dr Boateng; SBS), how
supramolecular chemistry and biomolecules might be used in
regenerative medicine (Drs Greenland and Squires; Pharmacy &
Chemistry), an introduction to self- assembling peptide amphiphiles, their
characterisation and application in controlling spatiotemporal stem cell
differentiation (Prof. Hamley, Dr Castelletto and Dr Gouveia; Chemistry &
Pharmacy) and the controlled release of pro-biotics (Dr
Charalampopoulos & Dr Khutoryanskiy; Chemistry & Pharmacy).
Several new collaborations were made and, alongside new appointments
to SSE in the areas of biomaterials and stem cell science, the SMART group
is off to a great start!
Inside This Issue
Welcome
SMART Group
Travel Bursaries
Training Opportunities
Funding News
Publications
Seminars
Funding Awarded
Imagining Science
New Starters
School of Pharmacy Research Newsletter
1st March, 2013 #13
Postgraduate travel bursaries
Small departmental grants (up to £200) are available for PhD students to assist them to present results at a conference. No application form is required: students should write directly to Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy in advance of the meeting. UoR funded students are also eligible for the Reading Travel Grants scheme (http://www.reading.ac.uk/retf/) whilst all students are eligible for travel funds from the Graduate School Travel Bursary Scheme (http://www.reading.ac.uk/graduateschool/currentstudents/gs-travelbursary.aspx)
SMART group progress,
collaborations,
meetings and grant
ideas will be actively
maintained at the
group‟s soon-to-be
created Facebook
page. Alternatively, for
details of the group‟s
activities or to link with
group members, email
Dr Connon
c.uk)
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
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Other funding opportunities
Grant opportunities see Funding news on the University Web pages.
Studentship opportunities have their own page. These pages list
numerous opportunities for grants and studentships, as well as the
deadlines. Research Professional Online is a searchable source of funding
opportunities and research news.
The British Pharmacological Society semi-regularly organise a statistics
course for life scientists which has been very well received by a number of
Reading PhD students. It may be possible to organise for this course to run
at Reading if enough staff have PhD students who would benefit from the
course. Cost would be dependent upon the number of students attending
(more students = lower cost). Would PIs who are interested in please
email Dr Ben Whalley ([email protected]) with an indication of
the number of students they might like to send on such a course?
Lies, damned lies and statistics!
A quick reminder that
all PhD studentship
applications must be
co-ordinated by Cat
Ashford, so let her know
at the earliest
opportunity if you have
prospective students.
There is a formal
application process
that must always be
followed and she will
help staff ensure that
the applications are
valid.
The Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Wellcome postdoctoral Fellowship scheme
is now open. This scheme is for those either in the final year of their PhD
or with no more than 1 year post-doctoral experience. The Fellowship
runs for 4 years and it is expected that the Fellow will spend time in more
than one lab. The deadline for preliminary applications is 20th May 2013
and interested applicants should contact Dr Kirsty Smith (RES) as soon as
possible to discuss. Details:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Biomedical-science/Funding-
schemes/Fellowships/Basic-biomedical-fellowships/WTX033549.htm
Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowships
Hot off the press
The latest publications from members of the Reading School of Pharmacy.
Members of staff are requested to keep their submissions to Centaur up to
date, as this is the way that the University collects information about
research outputs:
Jones, R.R., Castelletto, V., Connon, C.J., Hamley, I.W. (2013) The
collagen stimulating effect of peptide amphiphile C16-KTTKS on human
fibroblasts Molecular Pharmaceutics (In press)
Castelletto, V., Hamley, I.W., Stain, C., Connon, C.J., (2012) Slow Release
RGD-Peptide Hydrogel Monoliths Langmuir (In Press)
Smart C., Mason C, Loader J, Meijer A, Florence AJ, Shankland K, Fletcher
AJ, Thompson SP, Brunelli M, Hill AH and Brammer L (2013) Zipping and
Unzipping of a Paddlewheel Metal–Organic Framework to Enable Two-
Step Synthetic and Structural Transformation. Chemistry - A European
Journal, advance article. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201204492.
Greenland BW, Bird MB, Burattini S, Cramer R, O’Reilly RK, Patterson JP,
Hayes W, Cardin CJ, Colquhoun HM (2013) Mutual binding of polymer
end-groups by complementary pi-pi stacking: a molecular "Roman
Handshake" Chemical Communications 49, 454-456.
Dr Howard presented a
poster entitled "National
evaluation of
pharmacy services to
specialist palliative care
units" at the annual
Prescribing and
Research in Medicines
Management (PRIMM)
meeting on 24th
January 2013 in
London; work arising
from an undergraduate
student project by
Philippa Roe.
Sapna Rajgor (RSOP
graduate) her
undergraduate
research project results
(supervised Ms Langran
and Mr Grant) "An audit
of compliance with the
Oxford University
Hospitals atibacterial
guidelines for surgery
prophylaxis - vascular
surgery" as a poster.
Abstracts for both will
be published in the
International Journal of
Pharmacy Practice.
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
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PAGE 3
Research Seminars
Please support these seminars with your attendance
BNA sponsored Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience series:
On 20th
February, Prof. Mark Good from Cardiff University gave a
fascinating and well attended presentation on Learning in mouse models
of Alzheimer’s Disease which sparked considerable discussion and debate
about this important area.
March’s seminar is, unfortunately, cancelled and so the next (and final!)
seminar of this 2012/2013 series will be held on 8th
May 2013 when Derk-
Jan Dijk from the University of Surrey will discuss the Neurobiology of Sleep
Pharmacy Practice Research series:
On 7th
February, Dr Charles Morecroft from Liverpool John Moores
University gave a very interesting talk describing how his research had
improved information provision for young people with diabetes. In
addition he talked about training and use of "research ready pharmacists"
in his ongoing study of emergency supplies and loans in community
pharmacy. His talk has sparked interest in developing research ready
pharmacists locally, particularly - so watch this space!
Next month, on 7th
March, Dr Mary Tully will be talking about her research on
prescribing errors in secondary care. This internationally recognised study
has highlighted the importance of pharmacists as defenders against errors.
Please join us to hear Dr Tully talk about her research in this area.
Dr Shankland was one
of the organisers of the
prestigious Erice
Summer School “Uniting
Electron
Crystallography and
Powder Diffraction” in
June 2011. The
meeting‟s proceedings
have been published as
a book by Springer, with
Kenneth as one of the
editors. This volume
describes the
fundamentals and the
state-of-the-art of
powder diffraction and
electron diffraction
methods in materials
characterisation,
encompassing a
diverse range of
disciplines and
materials stretching
from archeometry to
zeolites.
NATO Science for
Peace and Security
Series – B: Physics and
Biophysics
Uniting Electron
Crystallography and
Powder Diffraction
Kolb, U.; Shankland, K.;
Meshi, L.; Avilov, A.;
David, W.I.F. (Eds.)
ISBN 978-94-007-5580-2
Springer, Dordrecht
Funding awarded Dr Connon has been very successful this month and won two separate,
major grants!
The first, ‘Delivering stem cells by post’ has received EPSRC/BBSRC funds
totally £735k of which >£300k will support work within Pharmacy. Dr
Connon's lab have found that stem cells, which are typically frozen using
dry ice or liquid nitrogen, could be stored using a semi-permeable
hydrogel at room temperature. Not only is the method cheaper than
current cryogenic processes, it even means that stem cells could be sent
between labs in the post. Crucially, it also allows the cells to be used
immediately on arrival. The funds will support collaboration with the
bioprocessing community and scale up the hydrogel encapsulation
approach to industrially relevant levels.
In the second award, ‘Home sweet home’, the MRC have awarded Dr
Connon with £713k of which >£300k will support work within Pharmacy.
Whilst stem cell transplantation holds great promise as a future
therapeutic, little consideration has been given to the condition of the
environment (home) to which the stem cells are to be transplanted.
Recent work from Dr Connon's lab has shown how tissue stiffness affects
corneal stem cell differentiation and this award will permit investigation of
a way to modulate tissue stiffness ahead of stem cell engraftment with the
aim of retaining the transplanted cells in an undifferentiated state for
longer.
The Oxford
Neuroscience
Symposium will be on
20th March 2013.
Spaces are limited:
http://www.neuroscien
ce.ox.ac.uk/about/the-
2012-oxford-
neuroscience-
symposium
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
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New PhD students
We are very pleased to welcome the following new starters on their PhD studies: Lewis Aitken (Cobb and Whalley) investigating the synthesis of cannabinoids and their metabolites Edward Mansfield (Khutoryanskiy and Williams) Probing diffusion characteristics of nanomaterials in biological viscous media using nanoparticles tracking analysis
More funding awarded! The need to split grant funding news across two pages of the Research
Newsletter this month reflects the great work we have been doing in
obtaining successful grant funding and the good news continues here…
Dr Greenland has received a £15K grant from the Royal Society. Initially,
the grant will focus on the synthesis and analysis of new degradable
polymers for drug delivery. In the longer term it is envisaged that these
new polymers will find applications in gene delivery and as tissue scaffolds.
Specifically, this grant will fund the acquisition of a Gel Permeation
Chromatograph (GPC) that will be used to determine the molecular
weight of the novel polymers and to enable an accurate evaluation the
rate of polymer degradation over time.
Dr Dallas has also received a grant from the Royal Society to examine the
mModulation of glial glutamate uptake by carbon monoxide. Carbon
monoxide (CO) has been shown to have a pivotal role in a host of cellular
signalling cascades and Mark has previously shown that CO can provide
neuroprotection through modulation of a known pro-apoptotic neuronal
ion channel (Kv2.1). This award will help him to understand the role of CO
on a fundamental aspect of astrocyte physiology, glutamate uptake which
may have wide ranging implications for the development of carbon
monoxide therapeutics in neuronal disorders. The grant will specifically
support the purchase of a Sutter Micropipette Puller and a perfusion
system for use as part of electrophysiological recordings.
Funding targets
This month’s great news about grant income is most welcome as we are
now over halfway through the current year over which grant income is
tracked by the University.
We have now reached 72% of Pharmacy’s income target for 2012/2013; an
achievement of which we should all be proud. However, this success is
tempered by the fact that there are now fewer application deadlines
between now and the end of the monitoring period (July 2013) and,
overall, our number of applications is lower than the target.
I will be meeting with Heads of Division in the coming weeks to discuss
Divisional research strategies and how we can build on our recent, great
successes!
The BNA Festival of
Neuroscience is coming
soon.........four days of
jam-packed
neuroscience from
Sunday 7th -
Wednesday 10th April
at the Barbican,
London that includes 56
scientific symposia
spanning 8 themes
https://meeting.tfigroup
.com/tfi/frontend/reg/h
omepage.csp?pd=7348
4&msID=4676&eventID=
556
Dr Whalley appeared
on BBC Radio
Berkshire‟s „The Andrew
Peach Show‟ on 25th
February to discuss the
increase in abuse of the
mephedrone in
Bracknell.
The 5th Conference on
Advances in Molecular
Mechanisms of
Neurological Disease
will be held on 23rd-26th
June 2013 at University
of Bath
http://www.jointesn-
bs2013.org/
Abstract deadline: 16th
April!
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
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PAGE 5
Dr Khutoryanskiy gave
a seminar entitled
“Materials for ocular,
oral and intravesical
delivery” at Medway
School of Pharmacy,
University of Greenwich
on 20th February 2013
Dr Edwards presented a
talk entitled “Pathogen-
Like Particles for
Designer Vaccines” At
the Directed Assembly
Network meeting,
Brunel University, on 19th
February 2013.
Imagining science
Imagining Science is science-themed art exhibition by three scientist-
artists, Sally Hunter (Cambridge, UK), Michelle Anderst (Seattle, USA), and
Immy Smith (Pharmacy Reading, UK).
The show is for Reading Science Week and National Science & Engineering
Week 2013. We investigate how science and art explore the world around
us in similar and different ways, and share (from each of our perspectives)
the relationships between science and art.
Dates: 2013 Saturday 16th March 10am-5pm, Mon-Fri 18th-22nd March 9am-5pm Location: University of Reading Central Gallery, 1 Earley Gate, Reading, UK, RG6 7BE
It’s all in the timing! A reminder to everyone as the timetabling period for 2013/2014 rapidly approaches… As discussed at a recent Thursday lunchtime meeting, we need to make every effort to increase the quality of the time we have available for teaching and research activities. With this in mind, would all module convenors and individual academic staff make every effort during the timetabling period to organize their teaching time in a manner that does not fragment or otherwise adversely affect the quality of research time available.
UKICRS Symposium On the 15
th and 16
th April, the University of Reading hosts the annual
United Kingdom & Ireland Controlled Release Society (UKICRS)
symposium. More information can be obtained from Dr Khutoryanskiy
A public symposium
entitled „Degenerating
Brains‟ will be held at
6pm Wednesday 13th
March 2013
Cruciform building,
University College
London,
Gower Street, London
WC1 as part of the
Wellcome Trust/MRC
Neurodegenerative
Diseases Initiative
