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Research Newsletter
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The newsletter is published monthly during term time. This issue covers
the period November 2013. Please let Cat Hale ([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
related research news.
Welcome
All change for RSOP Postgraduate Research!
As part of our new strategy to see greater success in postgraduate
research, this month has seen some important changes in responsibility in
this area.
We are very excited to announce that Dr Che Connon, formerly Deputy
Director of Postgraduate Research has taken on the new role of Director
of Postgraduate Progression. Supported by Cat Hale, Che now has direct
responsibility for all matters related to RSOP’s registered postgraduate
students, their progression and assessment. This responsibility also
includes organizing our Postgraduate Research Showcase which has also
undergone some changes (see below). As one of the first activities in this
new role, Che will soon start a consultation with RSOP staff and students
to review postgraduate progress reporting to see whether we can improve
our existing systems to benefit both students and their supervisors.
In addition to changes with progression, Dr Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy, who
was previously Director of Postgraduate Research, has now taken on the
new role of Director of Postgraduate Recruitment. Historically, we have
lacked a clear strategy for RSOP postgraduate recruitment and so Vitaliy’s
appointment will provide specific leadership in this area to support all of
our research active staff. One of the first activities that Vitaliy will
undertake in this role is the creation of an entirely new postgraduate
recruitment system which is based around the highly successful model
developed over the last 5 years by PsychCLS. More about this initiative can
be found in this newsletter!
Both Che and Vitaliy will be presenting more details about both of these
new roles and their visions for RSOP at the Spring RSOP Staff Meeting
when I hope we will all take the opportunity to ask questions and discuss
these strategies to ensure they succeed!
Inside This Issue
Welcome
All change for RSOP
Postgraduate Research
Postgraduate Research
Showcase FAQ
Hot off the Press
Multi-photon microscopy
and electrophysiology
RPS Conference Panel
PhD Recruitment Success
RSOP Develops MRes
Programmes
Successful PhDs
REF
MRC CASE Patents and
Licensing
Pharmacy Practice
Seminar Series
New Postgraduate
Recruitment Strategy
Society For Neuroscience
CPT at Medica
School of Pharmacy Research Newsletter
1st December, 2013 #19
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
2
Postgraduate Research Showcase FAQ
The RSOP Postgraduate Research Showcase will be held on Friday 10th
January! Since announcement of the date, there have been a few
questions from staff which I thought would be useful to collect together
(with the answers!) in one place here.
1. Is this the same as the RSOP Postgraduate Research Day?
Yes, it is the same event as the Research Day that we have
historically run in the autumn each year. We have renamed it to
better reflect the aim of the event; showcasing RSOP’s excellent
postgraduate research!
2. Why are you holding it in the Spring?
For this year only, we are holding the event in January due to an
unexpected series of date clashes with other events in the
autumn. The date will revert back to the autumn in subsequent
years.
3. Why do you keep asking us for contact details for external partners?
Historically, the RSOP PG Research Day has celebrated the work
that we do internally, with few people from outside RSOP
attending. One of the new aims for the day will be to use it to
highlight our excellent research to existing and prospective
funders, partners and collaborators. It is vital that you use your
available contacts in industry, the NHS, charities and academia,
invite them to the event and show off the great opportunities for
collaboration in postgraduate research at RSOP; we can’t do it
without your fullest support!
To do this, we need to be able to contact and invite people you
think may be interested. We are happy to contact people for you,
send you the invitation letter before contacting them or let you
contact them. The important thing is for us to know numbers is
that we can accommodate them appropriately.
If you have not already done so, please let Cat Hale know who
you will be inviting ASAP and she can then either invite them for
you or let you have the invitation letter etc.
4. What about confidentiality?
As the event will have a more external focus, any supervisor with a
student working in a commercially sensitive area will need to
ensure that the work presented has been approved in advance by
the commercial sponsor. UoR ensures that provision for
publication and presentation is built into every studentship
contract so we do not foresee any issues, simply ensuring enough
time is left to gain the approval.
5. Why the different venue?
We will be holding the event outside of RSOP as a way of
attracting greater attention from other UoR Schools and
Departments!
ALL research active
staff are expected to
attend the Postgraduate
Research Showcase
event on 10th January
2014. All other RSOP
staff are very welcome
to attend the event
too! We look forward to
seeing you there
If you have any
questions about the
Postgraduate Research
Showcase, please
contact Dr Che Connon
or Mrs Cat Hale
Please make every
effort to highlight the
Postgraduate Research
Showcase to UoR
colleagues in other
schools and
departments!
Supervisors should
ensure their students
leave sufficient time to
get posters printed for
the Research Showcase
as there will only be a
few days between the
University re-opening
after Christmas and the
event itself!
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
3
PAGE 3
Hot Off the Press!
Amada N, Yamasaki Y, Williams CM and Whalley BJ (2013) Cannabidivarin (CBDV) suppresses pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced increases in epilepsy-related gene expression PeerJ http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.214 Manzoni C, Mamais A, Dihanich S, McGoldrick P, Devine MJ, Zerle J, Kara E, Taanman J, Healy DG, Marti-Masso JF, Schapira A, Plun-Favreau H, Tooze S, Hardy J, Bandopadhyay R and Lewis PA (2013) Pathogenic Parkinson's disease mutations across the functional domains of LRRK2 alter the autophagic/lysosomal response to starvation (In press) Dihanich S, Civiero L, Manzoni C, Mamais A, Bandopadhyay R, Greggio E and Lewis PA (2013) GTP binding controls complex formation by the human ROCO protein MASL1 FEBS Journal (In press) Schulte EC, Ellwanger DC, Dihanich S, Manzoni C, Stangl K, Schormair B, Graf E, Eck S, Mollenhauer B, Pirker W, Zimprich A, Lichtner P, Peters A, Gieger C, Trenkwalder C, Mewes H, Meitinger T, Lewis PA, Klünemann HH and Winkelmann J (2013) Rare Variants in LRRK1 and Parkinson’s Disease Neurogenetics (In press) Ravishankar D, Rajora A, Greco F and Osborn HMI (2013) Flavonoids as prospective compounds for anti-cancer therapy International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology 45: 2821-2831. Donyai P and van den Berg M (2013) A conceptual framework of patient satisfaction with a pharmacy adherence service. International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy ISSN 2210-7711 (In Press)
Dr Andre Cobb is
developing a new RSOP
Research Brochure that
will highlight RSOP’s
research strategy, our
five key areas of
research excellence
and opportunities for
research investment at
RSOP.
We will launch the
brochure at the
Postgraduate Research
Showcase event and
then use it to attract
investment in RSOP
research via
international (see
below) and other
external activities.
Dr Sam Weston has
begun actively seeking
out potential research
links with institutions and
organisations in and
around UoR Malaysia so
that we can take full
advantage of
opportunities that
develop in the run up to
RSOP Malaysia ‘going
live’. More news on this
activity in the next few
months as we start to
identify specific
organisations and
match them to the five
RSOP Research Themes.
Multi-photon microscopy and electrophysiology
Dr Ben Whalley, Dr Gary Stephens and Dr Alistair Nunn have won
£440,000 funding from GW Pharmaceuticals to investigate and identify
the mechanism of action underlying the anti-epileptic effects of the plant
cannabinoids which their research has supported to human clinical trials.
Some of this funding will allow the purchase of a new, £200k
electrophysiology (multi-electrode array and patch clamp) and
fluorescence imaging (multi-photon microscopy) system which will be
based in the Hopkins Building Microscopy Suite from early 2014. See
http://bit.ly/1acdnyP for technical details.
The system will be available for use by other groups so please contact Ben,
Gary or Alistair if you are interested in taking advantage of this kit!
RPS Conference Research Panel
RSOP’s Dr Parastou Donyai has been was elected to the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society’s Conference Research Panel and will take up this
role in the new year.
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
4
Congratulations to Dr
Patrick Lewis has won
>£300k research
funding from the MRC
for his project entitled
‘Dissecting the role of
LRRK2 in autophagy’
PhD Recruitment Success!
We are delighted to announce huge success within RSOP for PhD
studentships in the last month!
In addition to the funding from GW Pharmaceuticals allowing purchase of
new imaging equipment (see above), it will also support two new PhD
students to work in this area. The students will be supervised by Dr Ben
Whalley, Dr Gary Stephens and Dr Alistair Nunn.
RSOP has been particularly successful in winning BBSRC iCASE PhD
Studentships this year. Only this week, we have heard that Dr Kenneth
Shankland and Prof. Adrian Williams have won a studentship in the last
call. Furthermore, Prof. Helen Osborn has won two more PhD studentships
in the same competition and which will be run in partnership with
Thermofisher as the industrial partner. Completing our excellent BBSRC
iCASE performances, Dr Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy also won a studentship
which will be co-supervised with FNS’s Dr Lisa Methven and Dr Andre Cobb
has won another on which he will work with GW Pharmaceuticals.
RSOP Develops MRes Programmes
Led by Dr Gary Stephens, Dr Parastou Donyai and Dr Vitaliy
Khutoryanskiy are developing an RSOP one year MRes programme that
will provide opportunities for RSOP staff to attract Masters students into
areas of RSOP research excellence.
The programme aims to provide a high quality research experience with a
strong focus on maximizing the time the MRes student will spend in
research groups (i.e. only limited taught content) and providing
substantial running costs to supervisors to support the highest quality
projects that can contribute to publications.
This month’s Research
News reflects the huge
amount of research
activity that has been
going on at RSOP lately
and so it’s right that we
acknowledge the debt
of gratitude we have to
Cat Hale for the
outstanding work she
does in support for our
research.
Whether it’s pastoral
support to students,
administrative issues,
helping with PhD
proposals, coordinating
with the Admissions
office or just fixing the
unfixable, it’s worth
remembering the
difference that
genuinely high quality
and enthusiastic
support makes.
Thanks, Cat!
Prof. Adrian Williams
has been selected by
the APS Fellowship
Committee to be made
a Fellow of the
Academy of
Pharmaceutical
Sciences for his
‘significant contribution
to pharmaceutical
sciences’
RSOP’s Successful PhD Graduates
Two of RSOP’s PhD students have successfully completed their studies this
month. Prof. Adrian Williams’s PhD student, Mridul Majumder,
completed his PhD entitled “Exploring the role of the amorphous state in
pharmaceutical co-crystal production”. Mridul published two papers from
his project (with more to follow!) which describe new co-crystals of
indomethacin with nicotinamide and carbamazepine with indomethacin.
Dr Parastou Donyai and Prof. Liz Williamson’s PhD student, Supaporn
(‘Pook’) Bunsiriluck also completed her PhD entitled “Informed Choice?
Popular concepts on the use of herbal medicines by women during the
menopause” to mark the end of 4 years of hard work by Pook who was fully
funded by the Thai government. Pook’s success is also a milestone for
RSOP Pharmacy Practice as she is the first PhD to graduate from the
division!
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
5
PAGE 5
Research Excellence Framework
RSOP’s REF submission has now been completed, approved and submitted
by the centre! Whilst we will need to wait until December 2014 until we
receive the outcome of the REF exercise, I think it‘s only appropriate for us
to take a moment and reflect upon the really excellent research that has
supported our REF submission, the very large percentage of staff who were
eligible for return for REF and the huge amount of work that it has taken to
make our submission as polished and coherent as possible. In the words
of Vinnie Jones’s character in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: ‘It’s
been emotional’.
On a personal note, it has been a real privilege for me to work on the REF
submission, not least because preparing our Environment Statement has
reinforced for me just how much excellent work we do, how much talent,
imagination and enthusiasm RSOP has and how justifiably proud of our
achievements (in a relatively short time!) we should be.
Going forwards, we need to focus on achieving an excellent result in the
forthcoming reaccreditation and so give Becky our fullest support.
Thereafter, we have the new PhD recruitment strategy starting and I will
soon be outlining the overall RSOP research strategy for the next five years
which was defined by our REF submission. I will speak further about this at
the Spring RSOP Staff Meeting.
If individual staff would like more information about the RSOP research
strategy now, please contact me or your head of division who can talk
through the key points of our strategy as set out in the REF Environment
Statement.
Dr Katja Strohfeldt-
Venables presented a
talk entitled ‘A
computational
approach to novel
substituted titanocenes:
Docking studies and
3D-QSAR aided design’
at the Irish Institute of
Metal-Based Drugs
(IIMBD)at the Royal
College of Surgeons
(RCSI), Dublin, Ireland.
RSOP’s Edward
Mansfield (supervised
by Dr Vitaliy
Khutoryanskiy and Prof.
Adrian Williams) has
delivered a talk entitled
"Diffusion of Gold
nanoparticles in
Pluronic F-127" at
NanoSight User's
Meeting in York.
MRC CASE Leads to Patents and Licensing
A series of new skin moisturising compounds synthesised by Natasha
Arezki, a PhD student working with Dr Andre Cobb and Prof Adrian
Williams and Prof Marc Brown, the industrial supervisor and a visiting
Professor at Reading have been patented.
The project, supported by an MRC CASE award, has developed un-natural
amino acids as substitutes for the skin’s natural moisturising factor which
have been shown to be effective in a series in in vitro and in vivo studies.
The industrial partner, MedPharm, have already secured two license
agreements to exploit the new materials.
Pharmacy Practice Seminar Series
On Thursday 14th November, Dr Parastou Donyai hosted a talk by Prof.
Graham Sewell (Head and Associate Dean of School of Health Sciences,
Plymouth University), as part of RSOP’s Pharmacy Practice Research
Seminar series. Graham’s talk was well attended by an audience including
a Chief Pharmacist, academic staff, postgraduate students and Part 4
MPharm students.
The presentation transcended the science-practice divide, reporting on
laboratory studies that informed the development of dose-banding for
cancer chemotherapy combined with studies examining attitudes towards
dose-banding across different health professionals, nationally.
Dr Ben Whalley and Dr
Angela Bithell have
won £100k funding from
NC3Rs with their
response to the 2014
NC3Rs CRACK-IT
challenge ‘UnTangled’.
Working with Dr Chris
Ward (Manchester) and
Dr Richard Wade-
Martins (Oxford), they
will develop a human
iPS-derived model of
tauopathy.
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
6
RSOP’s New Postgraduate Recruitment Strategy
In addition to the reorganization of roles responsible for postgraduate
progression and recruitment (see above), we are also about to embark
upon an entirely new approach to PhD recruitment that will be led by Dr
Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy and is designed to provide better support and
guidance for researchers in winning PhD funding an recruiting the highest
caliber students.
The approach we are adopting is adapted from the highly successful
system developed by Psychology and has seen them meet or exceed their
PhD recruitment targets for the last six consecutive years! We feel this is
worth using in Pharmacy because, in the eight years in which Pharmacy
has been in existence at Reading, we have only reached our PhD
recruitment target once. Furthermore, in these times when we are all
feeling greater pressure on available time, creating a clear vision and
strategy for RSOP PhD recruitment will provide the support and leadership
all research-active RSOP staff deserve.
Whilst Vitaliy will be describe the details of the new strategy at the Spring
Staff Meeting and we can discuss further then, here are a few key points
about the new approach!
The new approach will start from Summer 2014
We will create a single advert for RSOP PhDs for advertisement on
jobs.ac.uk (and similar) which will link to an RSOP website.
The RSOP website will contain a list of supervisors and available
projects with a single contact email (Cat Hale).
Prospective applicants will email CV and 200 word outline
expressing interest in a specific project to Cat.
Each division will nominate a ‘PhD Recruitment Lead’ who will
receive any enquiries within 24 hours of receipt.
PhD Recruitment Leads will triage enquiries within 24 hours, reject
unsuitable applicants and encourage formal applications from
suitable applicants (assuming a given supervisor is still seeking
students!).
We will convert as many suitable enquiries into applications as
possible.
All applications will require interview with two members of staff
(supervisor plus one independent).
All successful applications will receive an offer.
Students with offers will work together with the supervisor to
develop a funding proposal, supported by RED and the PhD
Recruitment Lead.
We will still consider applications from self-funded students as
before.
Supervisors are entirely free to develop applications without a
named student
We will implement divisional PhD recruitment targets for RSOP
which will let us aim for ~20 new PhD students per year.
PhD proposals will be monitored by the Director of Postgraduate
Recruitment through the existing grant timeline and managed via
Heads of Division.
We will begin requesting project titles from all staff in early 2014.
Dr Ben Whalley gave a
talk entitled ‘Common
misconceptions about
cannabis’ to the Friends
of the University.
Two projects proposed
by RSOP academics (Dr
Parastou Donyai, Dr Al
Edwards and Dr Ben
Whalley) for the UoR
Donation Campaign
have received the
highest possible scoring
from the assessment
panel and selected for
further development by
the Campaign Team. If
funded, both projects
will support significant
research activity
including PhD
studentships and the
appointment of a
medical research
fellow.
The Campaigns Team
continue to seek new
and exciting ideas to
use to generate new
donations to the
University. Contact me
c.uk) if you have an
idea to take forwards!
Reading School of Pharmacy Research News
7
PAGE 7
RSOP Represented at Society for Neuroscience Conference 2013
RSOP Staff (Dr Gary Stephens, Dr Mark Dallas and Dr Ben Whalley) and
students (see below) attended the world’s largest neuroscience
conference which was held in San Diego, California this year.
Dr Gary Stephens’s student, Charlotte Hill, presented her poster “The
anticonvulsant phytocannabinoid cannabidivarin (CBDV) has a disease-
dependent effect on synaptic transmission” whilst Dr Gary Stephens and Dr
Helena Cimarosti’s student, Vasco Silveirinha presented his poster
“Region-specific effects of the oxygen and glucose deprivation model of
ischemia on SUMO pathway proteins in organotypic hippocampal slices”
Later in the week, Dr Ben Whalley’s PDRA, Imogen Smith presented her
work “Functional and spontaneously active networks of human stem cell-
derived neurons cultured on biocompatible 3D scaffolds: a multi-electrode
array (MEA) study” whilst his PhD students presented posters entitled "The
phytocannabinoid cannabidivarin demonstrates notable antiepileptic
properties and is a genuine candidate for the treatment of temporal lobe
epilepsy" (Isabelle Peres) and “Cannabidiol and cannabidivarin in a non-
psychoactive, well defined marijuana extract exert linearly additive
anticonvulsant effects against generalised seizures” (Thomas Hill) to
scientists, representatives of epilepsy charities and epilepsy patients who
had travelled to the conference specifically to discuss the work.
Capillary Film Technology at Medica
On 20th
-23rd
November, RSOP’s Dr Al Edwards attended Medica, the
world’s largest medical technology trade fair, to launch his technology
startup, Capillary Film Technology, and present results generated at RSOP
to prove the power of this low-cost novel material for performing rapid
quantitative diagnostic tests at the point of care.
Medica was an incredibly busy event with >1000 companies selling
everything from diagnostic technologies to hospital beds and uniforms.
Over 4 days >100,000 delegates passed through the Dusseldorf
Fairgrounds, and Dr Edwards was kept very busy talking to potential end
users of CPT’s affordable microfluidic diagnostic testing technology.
For more information visit www.capfilmtech.com or follow @capfilmtech
on Twitter.
Felix Proposals! Don’t
forget that the deadline
for applications for Felix
PhD scholarships is 31st
January 2014. Details
are available here:
http://www.reading.ac.
uk/graduateschool/pro
spectivestudents/gs-
felix.aspx . Remember
that applicants must
already hold an offer of
a postgraduate place
at UoR when they
apply.
