UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES (SLMS)
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
RAE Success
Global Medical Excellence Cluster
SLMS EDUCATION
www.ucl.ac.uk/slms
SLMS NEWSLETTER
SLMS RESEARCH
New graduate opportunities
Higher Education Academy (HEA)
SLMS News
Medical student presented
with Paul Lock Memorial Prize
SLMS People
New appointments
Interview with Buzz Baum
SLMS Events
Lunch Hour Lecture: ‘Physiology
on top of the world - Xtreme Everest’
CONTENTS
DEANS COLUMN
2 DEANS COLUMN
3 SLMS RESEARCH
3 MAJOR INITIATIVES
4 NEW GRANT SUCCESS
5 RESEARCH NEWS
6-7 RESEARCH FOCUS
7-8 RESEARCH AWARDS
8-9 RESEARCH NEWS
12-13RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
14SLMS NEWS
14-15STUDENT NEWS
16SLMS EDUCATION
16-19NEW GRADUATE
OPPORTUNITIES
20SLMS PEOPLE
20-21NEW APPOINTMENTS
1st NOVEMBER –
31st DECEMBER 2008
21
PEOPLE NEWS IN BRIEF
22-23INTERVIEW
DR BUZZ BAUM
24EVENTS
24ACADEMIC EVENTS
24ALUMNI RELATIONS EVENT
2
Dear Colleagues
By now most of you are aware that
School of Life & Medical Sciences
(SLMS) achieved excellent results in
the in the 2008 Research Assessment
Exercise (RAE). The results confirm
the School of Life & Medical Sciences’
(SLMS) standing as the UK’s main
research ‘power house’ in biomedicine
and life sciences. Every member
of the School, academic, technical,
administrative, should feel proud of
this achievement.
Divisions within SLMS have
maintained and in many respects
improved their position in established
areas of strength. A detailed analysis
is given in the research news section
of this newsletter.
Over the last few months there have
been an increasing number of new
initiatives linking research and clinical
teams across UCL and partner trusts,
these collaborations benefit scientific
discovery and improve patient care.
We are delighted to report in the
recent MRC rounds of Industrial
CASE and capacity building MSc/
PhD awards. We have been awarded
several studentships with a range of
industrial partners – more than any
other UK institution.
In December a contingent from UCL
(including Professor Sir Cyril Chantler,
Professor Malcolm Grant, Professor
Ian Jacobs and Professor Edward
Byrne) visited Academic Health
Science Centres (AHSC) in America,
including the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center and Harvard Medical
School, in order to assess the
attributes of the different models of
university-hospital collaboration.
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
As for UCL Partners - A formal
accreditation application was made
to the Department of Health and at
the beginning of February we found
out that we made the shortlist for
their AHSC accreditation process.
The next stage is a presentation
to an international panel at the
beginning of March.
The first SLMS Research Away Day
took place in November. Senior
academic and management staff
attended the away day to discuss
and refine the Schools strategy to
deliver research excellence in the
face of the changing environments,
whilst balancing individual and
divisional needs for central
coordination, optimum recruitment
and retention policies and
appropriate mechanisms to respond
to funding agencies’ calls for large
multi-disciplinary programmes.
The day started with an overview
of the School and a shared vision
for the future by us, followed by
open panel discussions on crosscutting themes and supporting
platform technologies. The forum
provided an excellent opportunity
for collegiate discussions on future
challenges, organisational structure
and income generation.
Finally, plans for the UCL Education
Deanery are progressing; further
information will be available in the
next issue of the SLMS newsletter.
Professor Edward Byrne
Dean of UCL Faculty of Biomedical
Sciences and Head of UCL Medical
School
Professor Peter Mobbs
Professor of Physiology and Dean
UCL Faculty of Life Sciences
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS RESEARCH
MAJOR INITIATIVES
Global Medical Excellence Cluster (GMEC)
The Global Medical Excellence
Cluster (GMEC) brings together,
UCL with other leading universities,
pharmaceutical and medical device
companies and hospitals in order to
undertake joint world class medical
research and ensure the UK remains
globally competitive in this field. This
collaboration will result in improved
innovation and product development,
more productive leading edge
research activity, new employment
opportunities and enhanced patient
outcomes.
GMEC has received £800,000 from
the London Development Agency
to support these activities and in
October 2008 GMEC announced the
appointment of Sir Keith Peters as its
Chairman.
Members include:
Universities: UCL, Imperial College
London, King’s College London,
Oxford University Medical Science
Division, School of Clinical Medicine
Cambridge University, and London
School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine;
Commercial Sector: GSK, Pfizer
and GE Healthcare;
Hospitals: South London and
Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
and The Royal Marsden NHS
Hospital Trust;
The London Development Agency.
GMEC has established a management
structure that includes a Supervisory
Board with Heads of Universities and
business leaders.
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
Over the last year GMEC has built
a portfolio of important research
initiatives focused on therapeutic
areas and capability development.
Therapeutic research activities include
Integrative Mammalian Physiology
& Pharmacology; Allergy, Asthma
and COPD; Inflammation, Tissue
Destruction and Repair and Imaging
and Biomarkers. In addition, GMEC
is developing a set of capability
building initiatives on alternative drug
development and optimal evaluation
of trial data and treatment regimes.
Each initiative brings together leading
researchers from across multiple
institutions with agreed research
objectives and plans.
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ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS RESEARCH
New grant success
We are indebted to all our sponsors. Without their continuing support we would not be able to undertake world class
research. Listed below are details of research projects above £500,000 with a start date of 1st November – 31st
December. These awards, from a variety of sources, support a wide range of research across the School.
SLMS Staff can obtain details of all awards at: www.ucl.ac.uk/slms/research/current-projects
Dr Pablo Rodriguez-Viciana
UCL Cancer Institute
£ 507,831
MRC
R-Ras GTPases in the Regulation
of the WNT Planar Cell Polarity
Pathway
Prof Jadwiga Wedzicha
UCL Division of Medicine
£ 526,998
MRC
The London COPD Exacerbation
Cohort (The Excel Cohort)
Prof Claudio Stern
Research Department of
Cell & Developmental Biology
UCL Division of Biosciences
£ 603,497
BBSRC
A Three-Dimensional Atlas
of Gene Expression during
Chick Development with Cross
Comparisons to the Mouse
Prof Stephen Hunt
Research Department of
Cell & Developmental Biology
UCL Division of Biosciences
£ 700,066
MRC
Local Translation of MRNA in
Primary Afferent Fibres and the
Regulation of Nociception
Prof Ian Jacobs
UCL Division of Women’s Health
£ 797,000
MRC
Pump-priming Translational
Research Initiative
Dr Andrew Hayward
UCL Division of Population Health
£ 951,024
MRC
Flu Watch 2008-2009
Prof Robin Silver
Research Department of
Neuroscience, Physiology &
Pharmacology
UCL Division of Biosciences
£ 1,048,732
WELLCOME TRUST
Development and Standardization
of Biologically Realistic Neural
Network Models Through an Open
Source Database
Dr Rushee Jolly
UCL Division of Infection &
Immunity
£ 1,216,330
MRC
Fellowship Clare Jolly Career
Development Fellowship
Prof Anne Johnson
UCL Division of Population Health
£ 2,000,000
WELLCOME TRUST
The National Survey of Sexual
Attitudes and Lifestyles 2010
(‘Natsal 2010’)
Prof Anne Johnson
UCL Division of Population Health
£ 5,355,404
MRC
Third National Survey of Sexual
Attitudes and Lifestyles
Prof Stephen Humphries
UCL Division of Medicine
£ 1,090,044
BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION
Dissecting the Molecular Genetic
Architecture of Plasma Lipid Traits:
Identifying Functional Changes
and their Use in Determining CHD
Causality
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UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS RESEARCH
Research news
RAE results
Divisions within the School of Life
& Medical Sciences (SLMS) have
significantly outstripped their closest
competitors in the 2008 Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE). A
comparison between our RAE results
for the 16 Units of Assessment (UoA)
relating to research in the two faculties
and those obtained by King’s, Imperial,
Oxford, Manchester and Cambridge
demonstrates that we can justly
claim to be the UK’s main ‘research
powerhouse’ in this area.
We head the UK’s table, with 226
full-time staff-member research
outputs (FTEs) having obtained
a 4* rating, some 25% ahead of
its closest colleague, Oxford with
170.52. Our average point score is
high, at 2.86, but beaten by Oxford
(2.99), Cambridge (2.92) and Imperial
(2.88) which probably reflects
varying policies on the numbers
of staff submitted in each UoA.
However, when quality and volume
are combined in what the Times
Higher has called ‘research power’
(by multiplying the average point
score by total FTEs), we move back
into a clear first place with a score of
2,337.06, some 24% ahead of the next
university (King’s with 1,784.51).
Institution
4* rating x
no. of FTEs
assessed
Sum of 4* and
3* rating x no. of
FTEs assessed
Average point
score x no. of
FTEs assessed
UCL
226.17
548.21
2,337.06
King’s College
London
114.42
392.57
1,784.51
Imperial College
London
140.69
398.81
1,650.48
Oxford
170.52
396.95
1,612.69
Manchester
123.82
359.56
1,529.53
Cambridge
142.27
346.06
1,407.8
The School has the largest
conglomeration of staff in any UK
university by a considerable way in the
area of Other Hospital Based Clinical
Subjects (U of A 4). In this U of A, we
topped the UK league tables in both
4* and 3* rankings with 70% of all
staff returned ranked as world-leading
or internationally excellent in terms
of originality, significance and rigour.
Psychology (U of A 44) topped the
rankings in the UK for 4*; 3* & 4* and
weighted 3* & 4* tables, whilst we also
top the 4* rankings table in Pre-Clinical
& Human Biological Sciences (U of
A 15). The School is in the top three
universities in the areas of Epidemiology
& Public Health (U of A 2); Psychiatry,
Neuroscience & Clinical Psychology (U
of A 9) and Dentistry (U of A 10).
Professor Ed Byrne, Dean of the UCL
faculty of Biomedical Sciences and
Vice-Provost (Health), says: “The
new RAE results confirm that UCL
is the strongest medical research
university in the United Kingdom.
This is evidenced by the number of
4* research outputs and the total
number of 4* and 3* research outputs,
as well as by its research power (the
average research score multiplied by
the volume of staff submitted for the
assessment), for which it was ranked
significantly higher in the Biomedical
and Life Sciences categories than any
other UK university. This reaffirms both
the depth and breadth of biomedical
research at UCL as certainly the
strongest in the UK.”
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UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS RESEARCH
Research focus
Mutations of the
BRCA 1/2 genes
Staff in the UCL Institute for Women’s
Health have undertaken work related
to mutations of the BRCA 1/2 genes
which predispose to Breast and
Ovarian Cancer. It included the first
baby born free of BRCA mutation
through use of Preimplantation Genetic
Diagnosis (PGD); this breakthrough
involved UCL teams in Gynaecological
Cancer, the PGD lab and the Assisted
Conception Unit.
Mr Paul Serhal, Honorary UCLH
Consultant/UCL Lecturer and Medical
Director of the Assisted Conception
Unit, commented: “This little girl will
not face the spectre of developing
this genetic form of breast cancer or
ovarian cancer in her adult life. The
parents will have been spared the
risk of inflicting this disease on their
daughter. The lasting legacy is the
eradication of the transmission of this
form of cancer that has blighted these
families for generations.”
A second area of activity is a
randomised controlled trial called
Genetic Cancer Prediction Population
Study (GCaPPs). Genetic testing for
BRCA 1/2 genes has up until now
been limited to individuals identified as
at high risk because of a very strong
family history, however, this misses
up to 50 percent of those actually at
risk. GCaPPS involves population
testing for BRCA1/2 mutations with
careful evaluation of the benefits
and disadvantages (psychological,
economic, logistic as well as cancers
preventable). The study involves
the Ashkenazi Jewish population
6
in North London because they
have a higher incidence of these
genetic abnormalities (one in 40
versus one in 800) but is intended as
a model for population testing for other
genes and other populations.
Pioneering breast
surgery
Mo Keshtgar, a surgeon based at the
Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead,
piloted keyhole lumpectomies at the end
of 2008. The operation leaves minimal
scarring, improves recovery time and
some patients can have an implant
inserted at the same time.
Mo Keshtgar carried out the operation,
making two small holes, one under
the arm and another near the nipple. A
tiny camera was inserted through the
under-arm incision and the surgeon
then detached the breast tissue from the
points where it was joined to the chest
muscle and the skin.
As breast tissue contains no muscle
and is spongier and more malleable
than normal tissue it can be pulled out of
the hole in one go, leaving the outside
“skin envelope” almost intact. Standard
mastectomies involve more invasive
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
surgery and more scarring as the breast
has to be completely opened.
Then an empty silicon implant can be
inserted and inflated with saline solution,
leaving the nipple intact.
Further information is available at:
www.ucl.ac.uk/surgicalscience/
Vulnerability survey in
South Western Darfur
Dr Trani and Dr Kett of the Leonard
Cheshire Disability and Inclusive
Development Centre (Research
Department of Epidemiology and Public
Health) have just returned from South
Western Darfur where they started the
‘Pilot Profiling Exercise’ (PPE), a survey
which will look at basic socioeconomic
indicators for all households as well as
dimensions of vulnerability of children
aged 6–18 years old in the area, using
a random sample of households. The
survey includes a component which
screens the population for disability,
based on a tool which has been
developed for use in different contexts
and countries. The data collected will
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS RESEARCH
RESEARCH Awards
give a reliable prevalence rate of
disability in South Western Darfur.
This will be extremely important for
policy and programming, as there
is currently very little available for
people with disabilities in the region.
This survey is being carried out in
partnership with INTERSOS, an
Italian humanitarian organisation
committed to assisting people
affected by disasters and conflict.
The first phase of the project entailed
training the data collectors and
supervisors in fieldwork techniques,
issues of vulnerability, human rights,
and disability. The second phase is
currently underway and involves the
team of data collectors carrying out
the survey on the field. At present, the
team are collecting data in villages
throughout the Um Kher region, one
of the seven administrative units of
Western Darfur.
Both the training and the initial stages
of the fieldwork were challenging
due to the demanding environment,
but a great deal has already been
achieved, thanks to the hard work
of partners in the INTERSOS team,
as well as the data collectors and
the assistance of people living in
the Western Darfur Region. So
far, responses to the survey have
been very positive, and the majority
of households have participated
enthusiastically.
Further information about
research by staff in the Leonard
Cheshire Disability and Inclusive
Development Centre is available
at: www.ucl.ac.uk/lc-ccr/
Award of studentships
Staff in SLMS have been awarded eight
industrial CASE PhD studentships with
seven different industrial partners, the
highest number of such studentships
received by any UK institution. The
awards aim to support the provision of
multidisciplinary research training between
industry and academia that will enhance
the student experience and provide a
range of skills that will help strengthen the
research workforce. The awards have
gone to:
Dr Rachel Chambers (UCL Centre for
Respiratory Research) – a project on
the signalling mechanisms of blood
coagulation proteinases in lung injury
and fibrosis; in collaboration with
Novartis.
Professor Simon Gayther (UCL
Institute for Women’s Health) – two
studentships in collaboration with
Geneservice; one for the development
of multiplex technologies for the
clinical diagnosis of ovarian tumours
and the second for the development
of resequencing strategies to identify
genetic susceptibility loci for ovarian
cancer.
Professor David Hawkes (UCL Centre
for Medical Image Computing) – two
studentships; one for the development
of novel imaging biomarkers in
oncology and inflammation (with Ixico
Ltd) and the other for the development
of a visualisation system for integrating
colonoscopy and microendoscopy (with
Medicendo).
Professor Daniel Hochhauser (UCL
Cancer Institute) – a project on
optimising the effects of inhibition of
the epidermal growth factor receptor
in cancer therapy; in collaboration with
Merck-Serono.
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
Professor Mervyn Singer (UCL
Medicine) - a project for continuous
monitoring of the adequacy of organ
perfusion using NADH fluorescence; in
collaboration with Oxford Optronix.
Professor Vince Walsh (UCL Institute of
Cognitive Neuroscience) – modulating
brain states in neuro-rehabilitation; in
collaboration with Magstim.
UCL was also successful with two
Capacity Building bids, awarded to:
Dr Mark Lythgoe (Biological and
Medical Imaging) - four 1+3 PhD
studentships per annum in 2009 and
2010
Dr Stephen Price (Research
Department of Cell and Developmental
Biology) – MSc in Neuroscience - two
places per year in October 2009, 2010
and 2011.
Medical Futures
Innovation Award 2008
Staff in SLMS have won two of
seven categories in the 2008 Medical
Futures Innovation Awards at a
ceremony attended by 800 business
leaders, medical and scientific experts
and policymakers in December.
The Cancer Innovation Award was
presented to Professor Gareth
Williams and Dr Kai Stoeber from
UCL Cancer Institute, and Dr Nick
Miller-Jones and Lawrence Fenelon
from UroSens Ltd (Cambridge), for
their development of a point-of-care
test for diagnosing bladder cancer.
The test is non-invasive, may be
much cheaper than existing tests
and should reduce the need for
cystoscopy in order to diagnose
bladder cancer. Professor
Williams and Dr Stoeber – both
from UCL Pathology, the Wolfson
Institute for Biomedical Research
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
7
SLMS RESEARCH
RESEARCH
news
(Chromosomal Replication Group) and
the UCL Cancer Institute – conducted
the pioneering research underlying
the technology behind this innovation,
and are advising UroSens on the
ongoing development of the bladder
cancer test which will enter clinical
trials in early 2009. With funding from
Cancer Research UK and the Medical
Research Council, Williams and
Stoeber are also working on using the
Mcm5 diagnostic test for the detection
of oesophageal, pancreatic and
prostate cancers.
The MRC Translational Research
Innovation Award was won by
Moorfields Eye Hospital for the
Moorfields Motion Displacement
Test (MDT) for glaucoma detection,
a software programme for assessing
the field of vision to detect glaucoma.
It offers the advantages of portability,
affordability and potential accessibility
through the internet, and takes only
90 seconds per eye to detect vision
problems.
A team from UCL also won the ‘Best
Diagnostic Technology’ award (part
of the ‘Cancer Innovation Awards’
category). Mohammed Keshtgar from
the Royal Free Hospital and Professor
Stephen G Bown, Mr Santosh
Somasundaram and Dr Martin
Austwick from UCL created a medical
device designed to speed up the
diagnosis of breast cancer. Usually,
during surgery, a lymph gland called
‘the sentinel node’ is taken from the
armpit and tested for spread – if the
test is positive, the patient will have to
undergo a second operation.
This new device, however, is an
optical scanner which can be used
in operating theatres during surgery.
It allows for an instant assessment
and, if need be, an immediate
further surgical procedure – which
obviates the need for the patient
to undergo a separate, second
operation at a later date. Its
technology relies on light and elastic
scattering spectroscopy which
displays a different optical signature
for cancerous and non-cancerous
cells, and leaves the sentinel node
intact for any other tests which may
be required.
The Medical Futures Innovation
Awards aim to discover the next
breakthroughs in healthcare
and overcome the challenge
historically faced in the UK of
being great at innovating, but poor
at subsequently taking ideas to
market. A unique feature of the
Medical Futures process is the input
from our esteemed judging panels,
composed of over 80 leading
medical, scientific and business
experts. Each of the judges is keen
to offer help and guidance to the upand-coming innovators of tomorrow.
As well as the critical recognition
and endorsement of an award,
winners receive a bespoke package
of support to turn ideas into viable
propositions that have credibility
with investors. To date, past winners
have secured over £80m of funding,
and most importantly many have
gone onto become successful
services or products that are now
changing peoples’ lives.
8
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
New UCL Centre for
Immunodeficiency
In 2008, UCL Institute of Child Health
(ICH), Great Ormond Street Hospital
(GOSH) launched the UCL Centre
for Immunodeficiency, combining the
expertise of existing immunodeficiency
centres from ICH and GOSH,
University College London Hospital
(UCLH) and the Royal Free Hospital.
The new Centre is now one of the
largest joint paediatric adult centres for
primary immunodeficiency (PID) in the
world, it aims to provide a seamless
comprehensive approach to diagnosis
and management of these disorders.
The Centre will encourage greater
collaboration between researchers and
clinicians and will facilitate information
and resource sharing, for example
through joint workshops where ideas,
technologies, and practices can be
exchanged.
£2 million award to
MRC-Laboratory for
Molecular Cell Biology
(LMCB) to establish a
Translational Research
Resource Centre.
The Medical Research Council (MRC)
has awarded £2 million to the MRCLaboratory for Molecular Cell Biology
(LMCB) to establish a Translational
Research Resource Centre. The
Centre, to be located in the MRCLMCB building at UCL, will act as a
focus for translating basic research
opportunities coming from work in the
LMCB and other centres across UCL.
One of the initial tasks of the Centre
will be to install and operate a high
through put image based screening
platform that will be used for RNAi and
small compound screens in cell-based
assays.
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SLMS RESEARCH
Through discussions and
collaborations with colleagues the
group will design and optimise
cell-based assays for a range of
diseases including infectious viruses,
neurological and genetic diseases.
RNAi screens will be used to identify
novel components in pathways
and potential targets for therapy.
Small compound screens will be
used to identify novel reagents with
therapeutic potential in libraries
available within UCL or the MRC.
The LMCB hopes to have a manager
for the facility in post early in 2009
and the first equipment installed and
operational by the middle of the year.
This will include robotic platforms for
material handling and automated high
through put confocal microscopes for
multi-parameter and live cell analysis.
We anticipate that the robotic material
handling platform will also be installed
in ACDP Category III facilities to
allow analysis of infectious human
pathogens, including HIV. Information
about the MRC-LMCB can be found at
www.ucl.ac.uk/LMCB/
Mentoring Scheme for
Non-Clinical Postdoctoral
Researchers
The Division of Medicine is organising
a new mentoring scheme aimed at
supporting our junior/senior nonclinical
postdoctoral researchers. The plan is
to pilot this scheme within the Rayne
initially, with up to 20 postdoctoral
researchers keen to participate
over a six month period. For turther
information please contact Philippa
Talmud (p.talmud@ucl.ac.uk).
Hepatology at the
Royal Free Campus
To aid further development of academic
hepatology at the Royal Free, and to
facilitate long-term planning for UCL
Partners’ academic health sciences
centre investment in hepatology,
Professor William Rosenberg took up
the role of joint Head of Hepatology for
the Campus with Professor Humphrey
Hodgson from December 2008.
Professor Rosenberg will maintain his
research laboratory in Bloomsbury and
perform clinical work at both the Royal
Free and UCLH.
Launch of online
resource - ‘Social
Determinants of Health’
A new online resource in support of
the Final Report of the World Health
Organization’s Commission for the
Social Determinants of Health is
available on the Wellcome Trust
Centre for the History of Medicine
website. In November 2008 a
conference held at the Centre brought
together well-known people involved
in policy work and academia to
discuss this important document. The
speakers and the panel chairs at the
conference read the report or major
sections of it, provided analyses based
on their own research, and engaged
in a series of fruitful discussions with a
large and well informed audience.
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
Drafts of papers presented are
available to those interested in the
issue of the social determinants of
health; additional important material
relating to the WHO and the social
determinants of health will be added
to the website over time, including a
series of podcasts of interviews on the
importance of the social determinants
of health with major players in global
health. The resource is available at:
www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/library/soc_det
£10 million grant
for UCL/KCL cancer
imaging centre
UCL has been awarded (with King’s
College London) a grant of £10m from
the Engineering & Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC) and
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to set
up a Comprehensive Cancer Imaging
Centre (CCIC). The grant, awarded by
an international panel of experts and
to be paid over a period of five years,
is part of a new strategic initiative that
will establish the UK as a world leader
in cancer imaging research, and help
improve the detection, diagnosis and
treatment of cancer.
CRUK and the EPSRC are investing
a total of £45 million in a nationwide
initiative that will see the development
and introduction of the latest imaging
technologies to help advances in basic
and clinical cancer research. The
Medical Research Council (MRC) and
the Department of Health have also
contributed to the sum.
Professor Richard Begent (UCL
Oncology and the UCL Cancer
Institute) and Professor David
Hawkes (UCL Department of
Computer Science and the
UCL Centre for Medical Image
Computing) are two of the four
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
9
SLMS RESEARCH
Principal Investigators (PIs) at the
King’s College and UCL cancer
imaging centre. Professor Begent
says: “Investing in this important area
is vital for improving many aspects
of a cancer patient’s journey – from
detection to treatment.”
The new CCIC will serve as a focal
point for world-class research using
a variety of imaging techniques,
such as magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) and PET (Positron
Emission Tomography). Experts at
the centre will develop new imaging
techniques and uses for existing
advanced imaging technologies,
including imaging equipment that
allow scientists to watch cells in
action by tracing radioactive markers
injected into the patient’s body. These
techniques will enable doctors to see
therapies at work, identifying earlier
which treatments work best for which
patients. Some scanning techniques
can even provide whole-body images,
enabling clinicians to see where
cancers have spread and decide
whether surgery, radiotherapy or drugs
will be the most effective treatment.
Traditional imaging techniques, such
as X-ray, CT and ultrasound, will also
be developed and refined at the new
centres.
New international
transposon registry
hosted by UCL
A team of international experts led
by Dr Adam Roberts (UCL Eastman
Dental Institute), have developed
a nomenclature and registry
system which will allow all new
transposons discovered in
10
bacteria to be named in a logical
way. Hosted by UCL
(www.ucl.ac.uk/eastman/tn/) this
nomenclature system and registry
have recently been announced
to the scientific community in the
international journal Plasmid.
For more information contact: Dr
Adam Roberts, tel: 020 7915 2338
Publication of a report on
the ‘Grand Challenge of
Global Health’
The Institute for Global Health (IGH)
is coordinating the cross-fertilisation
and application of UCL expertise in
global health. Led by Professor Anne
Johnson (UCL Division of Population
Health) and Professor Anthony
Costello (Centre for International
Health and Development), IGH is
developing an institution-wide agenda
leading to strategies, programmes,
research and teaching to bring our
combined expertise to bear on the
grand challenge of global health.
A report just published profiles recent
work on the ‘Grand Challenge of
Global Health across the spectrum
of UCL disciplines. Launched at the
annual UCL–Lancet Lecture the report
describes activity within six themes:
• Education, Outreach and
Capacity Building;
• Health Effects of Climate Change;
• Maternal and Child Health;
• Infectious Diseases;
• Non-Communicable Diseases;
• Politics, Policy and Justice.
The report gives details of last year’s
UCL Institute for Global Health
symposia series, which explored
controversial subjects related to global
health and the barriers to long-term
sustained health improvement. It
also includes opinion features by
individuals in the UCL community on
topics relating to global health, such
as justice, climate change, disability
and migration.
To download the report, to find out
more or to get involved please visit:
www.ucl.ac.uk/global-health.
“Bugs R Us” – Eastman Dental Institute
collaboration in Wellcome Trust funded
exhibition on the microbes that inhabit humans
Michael Wilson (UCL Eastman Dental Institute), Mark Lythgoe (UCL
Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging), David Becker (UCL Research
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology), Ben Martynoga (National
Institute for Medical research) and The Exhibitions Team (a company
specializing in producing exhibitions and displays) have been granted a
People Award of £29,375 by the Wellcome Trust for a project entitled “Bugs
R Us”. This is an exhibition aimed at engaging the public with the latest
research into the microbial inhabitants of humans and how this relates
to them as individuals. It will be the first time the specific field of human
microbiology will have featured in the format of a travelling exhibition. The
team hope to mount their exhibition at the Cheltenham Science Festival
in 2009 and at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition in 2009. For more
information contact: Professor Michael Wilson, tel: 020 7915 1050
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS RESEARCH
€28 million grant
for UCL TB trials
UCL scientists have won an award
in the region of €28 million from the
European and Developing Countries
Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP),
which will allow them to carry out
clinical trials of new drugs designed
to fight tuberculosis over the next
four years. UCL is sponsoring the
clinical trial for Rapid Evaluation of
Moxifloxacin in Tuberculosis (REMox),
and is also working alongside the
University of Munich and Radboud
University Nijmegen, each of whom
are sponsoring trials of two further
drugs (High Dose Rifampicin and
SQ109).
UCL is a member of the Pan African
Consortium for the Evaluation
of Antituberculosis Antibiotics
(PanACEA), a European-African
initiative formed to conduct clinical
trials on new drugs which may shorten
and simplify the treatment of TB.
The UCL team consists of Professor
Stephen Gillespie and Dr Tim
McHugh from the UCL Research
Centre for Medical Microbiology, who
both have significant experience
conducting large-scale TB molecular
epidemiological projects in London
and in Africa, and Professor
Alimudden Zumla, Director of the
UCL Research Centre for Infectious
Diseases & International Health.
Professor Gillespie will be the Chief
Investigator of the REMox trial and
the UCL Collaborator in the HIGHRIF
trial, while Dr McHugh and Professor
Alimudden Zumla are going to act as
Principal Investigators on the REMox
trial, and Professor Zumla is also
going to be the Co-lead (Capacity
Development) on the SQ109 trial.
The urgent public health need for new
TB drugs to shorten and simplify therapy
is made apparent by the lengthy (6
months) and complex (4-drug) regimens
currently required for treatment. Long
treatment regimens are difficult to sustain
for a number of financial, temporal and
social reasons, and difficulty in regimencompliance has frustrated efforts to
control TB and fuelled the rise of multiple
drug resistant TB (MDR-TB).
The project consists of two associated
activities: firstly, providing support for the
trials, and secondly, the development
of enhanced clinical trial capacity
in sub-Saharan Africa – all with the
involvement of a network of six European
research organizations, twelve subSaharan clinical trial sites, and three
pharmaceutical companies.
New and improved imaging
facilities for studying
cellular and molecular
dynamics.
Imaging facilities are to be expanded and
broadened within the Centre for Cell and
Molecular Dynamics in the new Division
of Biosciences. The Imaging Facility is
located on the 5th floor of the Rockefeller
building and is available to all members
of SLMS. In order to expand the imaging
capacity the Faculty of Life Sciences has
funded the purchase of three new Leica
SPE confocal microscopes, two upright
and one inverted. These microscopes
all have environmental chambers to
maintain temperature and gassing for
live cell imaging experiments. They
have laser lines at 405, 488, 531 &
633nm to stimulate most of the common
fluorophores. The facility now houses
12 confocal microscopes, three of which
are multiphoton with environmental
chambers for prolonged live cell imaging
work. In addition time lapse and laser
ablation is available on two wide field
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
microscopes; Image analysis, 3D
reconstruction, volume rendering and
deconvolution software are available.
The facility now has five members of
technical support staff to assist users
with image acquisition, analysis and
processing. It is therefore able to provide
one-to-one support and training for users
as well as Introductory and Advanced
training courses that are funded and
administered by the graduate school.
The existing facilities were lacking in
some more recent imaging modalities.
With the help of a recent £600K award
from CIF funds, another microscope and
equipment upgrades are about to be
purchased. This will allow the following
techniques to be used:
1. Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM).
2. Total Internal Reflectance Microscopy
(TIRF).
3. A 440nm laser to stimulate CFP for
CFP-YFP Förster Resonance Energy
Transfer (FRET) imaging.
4. Simultaneous scan for FLIP imaging
and stimulation of advanced photoswitchable fluorescent proteins. This
microscope will be added soon to those
mentioned above.
The imaging facilities are available
to all members of SLMS. To make a
booking or for more information call
020 7679 0904 or e-mail the support
staff: Dr Christopher Thrasivoulou,
c.thrasivoulou@ucl.ac.uk; Daniel Ciantar,
d.ciantar@ucl.ac.uk; Tim Robson,
t.robson@ucl.ac.uk; or Jane
Pendjiky, a.pendjiky@ucl.ac.uk.
11
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS RESEARCH
RESEARCH
HIGHLIGHTS
(e.g. being quiet in class). Students also reported being
unable to learn from unenthusiastic or intimidating teachers,
suggesting that negative stereotyping might adversely affect
Asian medical students’ learning by interfering with their
educational relationships with teachers.
Academic Centre for Medical Education
(ACME) research shows that ‘stereotype
threat’ could affect exam performance
of ethnic minority medical students
Jane Dacre, head of the Division of Medical Education at
UCL said: “It’s clear from our results that more research
needs to be done into the effects of stereotype threat in
UK medical schools, and in fostering positive educational
relationships between all students and their clinical
teachers.”
The underperformance in examinations of UK medical
students from ethnic minorities could be partly down to
a psychological phenomenon called ‘stereotype threat’,
according to UCL research published in the British Medical
Journal.
Medical students from ethnic minority backgrounds make
up approximately 30 per cent of the UK medical student
population, but significantly underperform in assessments
compared to their white counterparts. Similar findings have
been reported in the USA and Australia
The qualitative study, led by researchers from the UCL
Academic Centre for Medical Education (ACME), was
informed by US research which found that African American
college students underperform in tests because they are
worried about living up to negative stereotypes about
the ability of their ethnic group - a phenomenon dubbed
‘stereotype threat’.
Lead author Katherine Woolf, UCL ACME, said: “The problem
in applying stereotype threat to UK medical students is that
the majority of ethnic minority medical students here are from
South Asian backgrounds, and it is not fully clear whether
negative stereotypes exist about that group. The aim of the
study was to establish if negative stereotypes about that group
do exist and thus if stereotype threat might be one reason
that UK ethnic minority medical students are underperforming
academically.”
The study was conducted by interviewing an ethnic mix of
Year 3 medical students and their clinical teachers. It was
found that the clinical teachers (mostly doctors) as well as the
medical students themselves did have negative stereotypes
about UK Asian medical students, who were perceived as
being over-reliant on book learning and excessively quiet in
class. No evidence of direct discrimination was found.
Katherine added: “The fact that these negative stereotypes
exist raises the possibility that stereotype threat may be
occurring. We found that both students and teachers
12
considered the student-teacher relationship to be a
vital part of learning, but some clinical teachers disliked
teaching and could behave antagonistically towards students
whom they perceived as having “negative” attributes
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
Language is driven by culture,
not biology
Language in humans has evolved culturally rather than
genetically, according to a study by Professor Nick Chater
(UCL Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences) and US
colleagues published today in the ‘Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences’ (PNAS).
By modelling the ways in which genes for language might
have evolved alongside language itself, the study showed
that genetic adaptation to language would be highly
unlikely, as cultural conventions change much more rapidly
than genes. Thus, the biological machinery upon which
human language is built appears to predate the emergence
of language.
According to a phenomenon known as the Baldwin effect,
characteristics that are learned or developed over a
lifespan may become gradually encoded in the genome
over many generations, because organisms with a stronger
predisposition to acquire a trait have a selective advantage.
Over generations, the amount of environmental exposure
required to develop the trait decreases, and eventually
no environmental exposure may be needed - the trait is
genetically encoded.
Professor Nick Chater, UCL Cognitive, Perceptual and
Brain Sciences, said: “Language is uniquely human.
But does this uniqueness stem from biology or culture?
This question is central to our understanding of what it
is to be human, and has fundamental implications for
the relationship between genes and culture. Our paper
uncovers a paradox at the heart of theories about the
evolutionary origin and genetic basis of human language –
although we have appear to have a genetic predisposition
towards language, human language has evolved far more
quickly than our genes could keep up with, suggesting
that language is shaped and driven by culture rather than
biology.”
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS RESEARCH
One in three adults will
be obese by 2012
Reptile fossil reignites debate over
New Zealand’s submergence
One in three UK adults – or 13 million people – will be obese
by 2012, according to research conducted by UCL and the
National Centre for Social Research, published in the ‘Journal
of Epidemiology and Community Health’.
The fossil of a lizard-like New Zealand reptile dating back
18 million years has been identified by a team of scientists
led by Dr Marc Jones (UCL Cell and Developmental
Biology), triggering fresh arguments over whether the
continent was fully submerged some 25 million years ago.
According to the authors of the UCL-led study, entitled
‘Trends in obesity among adults in England from 1993 to
2004 by age and social class and projections of prevalence
to 2012’, almost half of these will be from low income and
disadvantaged communities, widening the health gap
between the haves and have-nots even further. The study
concludes that it is therefore “essential to implement effective
strategies for the management and prevention of obesity and
the reduction of social class inequalities in health”.
The researchers, who include Dr Paola Zaninotto, Jenny
Head, Dr Emmanuel Stamatakis and Dr Jennifer Mindell
from UCL Epidemiology & Public Health, have produced their
findings from an analysis of annual data between 1993 and
2004 from the Health Survey for England, which samples a
nationally representative cross-section of households and
also provides information on occupation and social class. The
analysis included almost 128,000 adults with valid weight and
height measurements, from which a body mass index (BMI)
can be calculated. A BMI above 30 denotes obesity.
Between 1993 and 2004, the prevalence of obesity was
found to have almost doubled in men, from 13.6% to 24%,
and to have risen by almost 50% among women, from 16.9%
to 24.4%. On the basis of these trends, around one in three
adults (32.1% of men and 33.1% of women) will be obese by
2012, equivalent to almost 13 million people. Of these, 43%
will be among low-income groups and ‘manual’ social classes,
while the prevalence of obesity among non-manual and
higher-income social classes will have climbed to 35%.
The report says: “Obesity is a major public health problem
that can lead to premature death because of its association
with serious chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes,
hypertension and cancer. In England alone, obesity was
directly responsible for over 9000 premature deaths a year
at the beginning of this decade …. Besides the human
costs in terms of disease, premature death and [low] quality
of life, obesity has severe economic consequences, costing
the English economy directly at least £6.6-7.4bn per annum
(2002 figures unadjusted for inflation). Other countries
around the world will suffer similar consequences, as there
are compelling data showing that the prevalence of obesity
is increasing rapidly in both developed and developing
countries.”
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
Today, the endangered New Zealand tuatara (Sphenodon)
is a lizard-like reptile that is the only survivor of a group that
was globally widespread at the time of the dinosaurs. The
tuatara lives on 35 islands scattered around the coast of
New Zealand, mainland populations having become extinct
with the arrival of humans and associated animals some
750 years ago.
The oldest known Sphenodon fossil dates to the
Pleistocene era (around 34,000 years old), while the new
discovery dates to the Early Miocene some 19 to 16 million
years ago (Mya). The fossil, of jaws and dentition closely
resembling those of the present-day tuatara, bridges a gap
of nearly 70 million years in the fossil record of the group
between the Late Pleistocene of New Zealand and the Late
Cretaceous of Argentina.
In a paper published this week in the ‘Proceedings of the
Royal Society B’, the team - involving researchers from the
University of Adelaide and the Museum of New Zealand
Te Papa Tongarewa - says that its findings offer further
evidence that the ancestors of the tuatara have been
on the landmass since it separated from the rest of the
southern continents (Gondwana) some 82 Mya.
Lead author Dr Marc Jones, UCL Cell and Developmental
Biology, said: “It has been argued that New Zealand was
completely submerged during the Oligo-Miocene drowning
of the continent some 25 to 22 million years ago (Mya).
However, the diversity of fossils now known from the
Miocene (St Bathans Fauna of the Manuherikia Group)
suggests it is more likely that enough land remained above
the water to ensure the survival of a number of species,
such as frogs, kauri trees and several modern freshwater
insects, as well as the tuatara.”
13
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS NEWS
Student news
Presentation
with (left to right)
Tom Moloney
(Chief Executive,
Dr Foster
Intelligence),
Jamie Forde
(Commercial
Manager,
Dr Foster
Intelligence),
Amy McKeown,
Dr Paul Taylor
(Course Director,
Health Informatics)
Student awarded prize for
MSc Health Informatics dissertation
Amy McKeown was yesterday awarded a £1000 cash
prize by Dr Foster Intelligence, a leading health informatics
company, for winning the best MSc Health Informatics
Dissertation at University College London (UCL).
McKeown was commended for her review of the potential
effectiveness of computerised cognitive-behavioural
therapy (CCBT) for use in sub-clinical care. As well as a
literature review and examining the evidence base around
CCBT, McKeown acquired and analysed empirical data
about the use of a commercial CCBT package.
Mental health issues such as stress, anxiety and
depression are a leading cause of absenteeism and a
significant cost to public health and employers. McKeown’s
dissertation shows there to be a strong evidence base
suggesting that CCBT is effective in preventing and treating
the early stages of stress, anxiety and depression.
The award, supported by Dr Foster Intelligence, rewards
outstanding dissertations in Health Informatics as judged
by the UCL exam board.
14
Dr Paul Taylor, course director, Health Informatics,
UCL said “what really made this paper stand out was
the rigorous approach to assessing the literature and the
extent of the empirical research.”
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
Tom Moloney, Chief Executive, Dr Foster Intelligence
said at the prize giving on Monday 26th January, “Health
informatics is a broad subject with a number of important
initiatives, possibly working in isolation. Dr Foster can act
as a hub which draws together work going on in research
units, clinical teams, management and academia. We are
delighted that Amy’s dissertation provides evidence of a
method that can help tackle workplace stress, at a time
when mental health is firmly back on the NHS’s agenda.”
UCL Medical Student Presented with
Paul Lock Memorial Prize
In January 2009 the Paul Lock Memorial Prize was
presented to Katy Walsh, a fifth year medical student, at a
gathering in the Rayne Building.
The prize, normally presented at the annual Memorial
Lecture at the North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple,
marks the life of Dr Paul Lock who was a junior doctor
at the hospital and whose life was tragically cut short
in 1998. Katy was unable to attend the Lecture held in
November because she was away on her elective in the
Pacific Islands of Vanuatu.
Chris Lock, Paul’s father, presented the prize.
The Paul Lock Memorial Fund, part of the North Devon
Medical Research & Education Trust, primarily aims to
support paediatric care in North Devon and the South
West. Mr Lock said, ‘the fund is particularly focussed on
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS NEWS
the initiatives of junior doctors, nursing staff and medical
and nursing students who are prepared to “go the extra
mile.”’ The fund seeks ways to promote professionalism
in which personal achievement and development can be
encouraged and recognised.
Katy Walsh was attached to the Barnstaple hospital
last summer when she undertook a broad study of Cat
Scratch Disease following her own involvement with the
treatment of the condition in a local 14 month old patient.
It was a particularly unusual case and the research
and observations she documented and presented now
provide a very valuable record for the hospital’s future
reference.
Approximately 40 percent of cats are carriers of Cat
Scratch Disease and parents should be aware of the
medical problems that can so easily arise when their
young family is regularly in the proximity of cats. Dr
Chung, Chair of the Child and Family Health Module
Management Group at UCL Medical School said,
“Cat Scratch Disease is indeed an area not widely
appreciated”.
Mr Lock explained that as the attachment programme
between UCL and the North Devon Hospital has sadly
now come to an end it was appropriate that this last
chapter should be marked by Katy’s award. He added
“UCL should be very proud of Katy and she should be
very proud of her own achievement”.
Presentation in the Rayne building with (left to right)
Tim Cook (Curriculum Development Manager, UCL
Medical School), Chris Lock, Katy Walsh and Dr.
Eddie Chung (Chair of the Child and Family Health
Module Management Group, UCL Medical School)
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
Professor
Louis Lemieux
(UCL Institute of
Neurology, UCL
- CNT chair)
handing the
award to
Mr Judkewitz
Young UCL Investigator Award in
Neuroimaging Techniques
Benjamin Judkewitz (Wolfson Institute for Biomedical
Research, UCL) has been awarded the second annual
Young UCL Investigator Award in Neuroimaging
Techniques.
The annual award has been designed to reward an
outstanding contribution to the field of neuroimaging
techniques, in the form of a single or multiple
achievements, by a young investigator at UCL. Brain
Products, a company specialising in software and electrical
products for neurophysiologial research, has kindly
sponsored the prize.
Benjamin has developed a new approach for using
2-photon microscopy to permit targeted single-cell
electroporation of DNA in the intact mammalian brain. This
has been a longstanding dream of many neuroscientists
interested in manipulating gene function in single identified
neurons in vivo. Benjamin’s approach has recently
been published in a paper in Nature Methods (on which
Benjamin is co-first author). This approach now allows one
to investigate the function of a particular gene in single
neurons, in isolation of its effect on the rest of the network.
Professor Michael Hausser is Benjamin’s supervisor
and nominated him. He said: “This is a major advance
in neuroscience which uses neuroimaging to solve a
longstanding problem - how to change gene expression
in single visually identified neurons in the intact
mammalian brain. Benjamin has been very generous
in teaching the technique to others (including
colleagues - and competitors - from labs around the
world) and is currently involved in several projects which
take advantage of the approach he has developed.”
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
15
SLMS EDUCATION
New Graduate Opportunities
UCL-NIH Neuroscience
Scholars Programme
MSc Clinical
Ophthalmology
UCL Institute of Cognitive
Neuroscience recently signed an
agreement with the US National
Institutes of Health (NIH) establishing
the framework for a prestigious
new joint doctoral programme in
neuroscience, called the UCL-NIH
Neuroscience Scholars Programme.
The first students will start on this
programme in September 2009. The
programme has initially been agreed
with the National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH) only, but is likely to
expand in the future to include other
institutes.
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology will
launch a new masters’ programme in
Clinical Ophthalmology in September
2009. The programme will draw
upon the extensive basic and clinical
research experience available at
the Institute of Ophthalmology and
Moorfield’s Eye Hospital. Topics will
include basic ophthalmology, ocular
disease and disorders, surgery of the
eye and retinal function and imaging.
This programme will be available on a
part-time basis only over two years or
flexibly over three to five years and will
be suitable for doctors in ophthalmic
training posts, Ophthalmologists in
Trust grade positions and qualified
and experienced Optometrists and
Orthoptists. Registration opened in
January 2009.
The 4-year programme provides
the opportunity for US students
to conduct research for their PhD
in neuroscience in laboratories
at both UCL and the NIH, with an
approximately 50% split in time
between each institution, with
the PhD awarded by UCL. The
programme funds students’ fees
and stipend in full, is supported by
scholarships from the NIMH and
the UCL School of Life and Medical
Sciences. EU students who already
have funding and have begun their
PhD at UCL may also enter the
programme under the “Advanced
Scholar” category, spending a period
of time in a lab at the NIMH during
their PhD.
Further information is available on
the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology
website: www.ucl.ac.uk/ioo
The programme is directed by Dr
Jonathan Roiser at the UCL Institute
of Cognitive Neuroscience, and at the
NIMH by Dr Barry Kaplan, the Training
Director.
16
Students or supervisors
interested in participating in the
program should contact Dr Roiser
on j.roiser@ucl.ac.uk
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
UCL Eastman
Dental Institute (EDI)
three-year clinical
doctorate programme
UCL Eastman Dental Institute
(EDI) has developed a clinical
doctorate programme to meet
the future development needs of
dental professionals. The proposed
programme is intended to replace the
existing three-year specialist training
programme model delivered by UCL
EDI. It is anticipated that this doctorate
level programme of study will deliver
benefits in terms of research quality,
education and clinical experience.
Graduates wishing to get specialist
status will still be required to sit the
relevant exit examination of one of the
Royal Colleges of Surgeons.
For more information contact: Dr
Paul Ashley, tel: 020 7915 1022
UCL Eastman
Dental Institute (EDI)
Postgraduate Certificate
in Advanced Aesthetic
Dentistry
This 24 day postgraduate certificate
course is the first formal postgraduate
programme in aesthetic dentistry
in the UK. The programme,
directed by Dr Konstantina Dina
Dedi, uses the latest cutting edge
developments in restorative dentistry
to enable participants to provide
sound, evidence-based, long-lasting
natural-appearing restorations. The
programme commenced on 2nd
October 2008.
For more information contact:
Dr Konstantina Dina Dedi,
tel: 020 7905 1238
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS EDUCATION
MSc in Clinical & Public
Health Nutrition
Dr George Grimble (UCL Centre
for Gastroenterology and Nutrition,
Windeyer Institute) was appointed
Principal Teaching Fellow at the
beginning of September 2008. Dr
Grimble will run the new MSc in
Clinical and Public Health Nutrition
with Professor Alastair Forbes. The
MSc in Clinical & Public Health
Nutrition is designed for medically
qualified graduates, nurses, dietitians,
pharmacists and nutritionists with
a keen interest in this disease/
malnutrition axis and effective
nutritional therapies. It offers
specialised training in the clinical and
scientific basis of under- and overnutrition, and therapeutic approaches
to correcting this in the hospital,
community and educational setting.
This MSc is particularly suitable for
candidates who wish to pursue a lifelong career in the field of cutting edge
translational research and the practice
of nutrition therapy in the health
services of the UK or other countries
or in the clinical nutrition industry.
MSc / Diploma /
Postgraduate Certificate
in Cognitive Behaviour
Therapy (CBT) and
other Outcomes-Based
Interventions with
Children and
Young People
These ground-breaking new UCL
courses have been designed for all
professionals working in children’s
services, including social care,
education and health. They provide
training for individuals in outcomesbased interventions, to promote
psychological wellbeing in children
and young people. Participants will
gain knowledge and understanding
of cognitive behavioural approaches,
their strengths and limitations and
how they can be adapted to work with
young people, drawing on systemic
and other approaches. In the future,
additional evidence-based approaches
will be included to reflect a full range
of effective interventions.
These courses have been generated
through a unique and exciting
collaboration between psychologists
from different backgrounds, from
the new Department of Clinical,
Educational & Health Psychology
at UCL. This is part of an initiative
between the Educational Psychology
Group and Islington PCT. The course
is based at the Anna Freud Centre.
Staff on the course bring a wealth of
experience of working with children
and young people within a range of
settings and agencies.
Further information is available
on the Research Department of
Clinical, Educational and Health
Psychology website:
www.ucl.ac.uk/cehp/
17
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS EDUCATION
Staff Survey 2009:
Have Your Say
Take part in *UCL’s Staff
Survey - 9-27 March 2009*.
This is a great opportunity for
you to tell us what you think
about UCL as a place to work.
The survey is short, convenient
and anonymous: it will only
take 15 minutes to complete
and will be distributed through
email. Staff who do not have
access to the internet will be
given a hard copy by their
manager. It will be managed
by ORC International www.
ucl.ac.uk/staff_survey/orc.htm,
an independent organisation,
so your responses will be
*completely confidential.*
For more information about the
staff survey - including what
we did following the last staff
survey go to the website
www.ucl.ac.uk/staff_survey/
18
If you have any questions
or concerns about the staff
survey contact Fiona
Daffern, tel: 020 7679
9039 (ext. 09039) or email:
f.daffern@ucl.ac.uk
The Higher Education Academy (HEA)
In March and April each year
Deborah Gill and Jane Richardson,
HEA advocates for the Medical
School, run a series of workshops
for those wishing to become
Fellows of the Higher Education
Academy by the Individual Entry
Route.
Last years course attracted 16
participants, many of whom had
intended to apply for some time but
likened the process of reflecting on
and documenting their educational
activities to completing those
difficult sections you always find on
job applications! Congratulations
to the ten participants who jumped
through the hoops and completed
the application process and a
particular mention to Dr Jeremy
Nathan, a local GP who is involved
in professional development
spine teaching, assessment and
coordination and communication
skills teaching, who was quickest
off the mark and was the first
participant to proudly add the post
nominal letters FHEA to his name.
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
All ten have now been accepted for
full fellowship: reflecting the quality
of our teachers and the level of their
commitment to the student body, and
the quality of the workshops and the
individual support Jane and Deborah
offer to participants
The Higher Education Academy aims
to enhance the professional standing
of teaching and learning support
activity in UK higher education. The
achievement of Fellow status through
the Academy is one of the most
effective and widely recognised ways
of achieving this for individuals who
are actively involved in teaching and
support of learning.
For more information visit the
website at www.heacademy.ac.uk.
If you would like to know more about
training workshops in 2009 to become
a Fellow of the Higher Education
Academy, or want to discuss your
eligibility to apply via the individual
route please contact either Deborah
Gill (email: d.gill@medsch.ucl.
ac.uk) or Jane Richardson (email:
j.richardson@medsch.ucl.ac.uk)
at the Teaching and Professional
Development Unit, UCL Division of
Medical Education.
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS EDUCATION
UCL Medical School
innovation in student
disability support: the
student support card
scheme
The “student support card scheme”
which was introduced by UCL Medical
School in 2006 has been recognised
as innovative by publication in Medical
Education’s “really good stuff”. Dr
Peter Raven, Faculty Tutor, said “We
just thought it was a common sense
approach. It was only when other
Medical Schools and student disability
services started getting excited about
our support card scheme that we
realised just how innovative the idea
was.” It is particularly timely, with the
recent publication of GMC/Medical
Schools Council advice aimed at
encouraging students with disability to
study medicine. It can still be difficult
for students with disabilities to request
reasonable adjustment, especially
clinical students on placement where
there may be frequent changes
of teacher and teaching venue. In
the student support card scheme,
students with permanent or temporary
disabilities agree wording requesting
reasonable adjustment with Dr
Raven. The credit card-sized form
is laminated, so durable and easy to
carry around. A particular advantage
of the scheme is that the request
for reasonable adjustment comes
from the Medical School, not the
student, and feedback suggests that
students find this empowering. A
full assessment of the scheme is in
progress.
Near peers in the
dissection room
UCL students are very fortunate
to have access to full dissection
in the MBBS course; increasingly
recognised as the most popular way
to learn anatomy amongst medical
undergraduates. Supporting learning
in the dissection room has been
problematic for some years because
of difficulty in recruiting sufficient
demonstrators to assist in sessions
with large numbers of students. Dr
Christopher Dean and his team have
been looking at innovative ways of
improving the student experience in
the dissection room.
Student anatomy ‘near-peer’
demonstratorships exist at a number
of medical schools and have proved
popular with both year 1 and 2
medical students and with the senior
student demonstrators themselves.
At St Georges Medical School, many
medical students rated ‘near-peer’
demonstrators as “less didactic
and more professional than faculty
demonstrators” and near peers were
found to be as good as/no worse
than faculty demonstrators in their
teaching performance as anatomy
demonstrators.
UCL Medical School introduced a near
peer demonstrator programme in 2008
to students who have successfully
passed both years of their Phase 1
MBBS anatomy examinations and who
are interested in teaching. 45 potential
volunteers attended a one-day
workshop in September to prepare
them for their role.
The aims of the project are to make
the dissection room a better learning
environment by using co-tutoring;
senior students being available for
learners alongside other academic
and surgical demonstrators to guide
learners and to give them confidence.
Although mostly only a year or two
ahead of the learners in the dissection
room, near peers wear blue lab coats
– the same as other demonstrators
- to clearly identify the fact that they
are present as learning supporters.
The scheme has now been in place
for one term and numerous near peer
demonstrators, mostly students in
their intercalated BSc year, have been
involved in supporting learning in the
dissection room.
19
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS PEOPLE
New
appointments
UCL Division of Surgery
& Interventional Science
Prof Michael Baum, Principal Research
Associate; Mrs Edina Forman,
Technician.
from 1st November to 31st December 2008
UCL Division of Research Strategy
Mr Thomas Morgan, Administration/
Managerial Support; Miss Leila Romio,
Administration/Managerial Support.
Gatsby Computational Neuroscience
Unit at UCL
Dr Adam Davis, Computer Officer.
MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell
Biology
Ms Marina Fedorova, Research
Assistant.
UCL Division of Biosciences
Ms Emily Bellshaw, Executive Officer;
Miss Ewelina Grabowska, Research
Technician; Miss Amie Moyes,
Research Assistant; Dr David Murrell,
Lecturer; Dr Marcus Pearce, Research
Associate; Miss Sarah Stuart,
Research Technician.
UCL Cancer Institute
Dr Sergio Colombo, Research
Associate; Ms Catherine Evans,
Technician; Dr Veronica Ferrer Prat,
Research Associate; Ms Bride Foster,
Technician; Ms Silvia Giampieri,
Technician; Ms Kathryn Langley,
Technician; Mr Mohammed Rashid,
Technician; Mr Iftekhar Khan,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Mrs Humra Shah, Administration/
Managerial Support; Ms Sarah Smith,
Administration/Managerial Support.
UCL Division of Infection & Immunity
Dr David Guiliano, Research
Associate; Dr Clare Jolly, Senior
Research Fellow; Ms Isabel Lubeiro,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Ms Laura Suckling, Administration/
Managerial Support; Ms Sabine
Winkler, Technician.
UCL Division of Medical Education
Dr Sabih Huq, Clinical Teaching Fellow;
Mrs Margaret Gormley, Non Clinical
Lecturer (PDS Tutor).
20
Davis, Administration/Managerial
Support; Miss Megan Drew, Technician;
Dr Malihe Eskandarpour, Research
Associate; Mrs Cristina Ferreira,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Miss Tamsin Langley, Research
Assistant; Dr Douglas Macdonald,
Clinical Research Associate; Dr Babita
Mahadikova, Technician; Dr Eva
Papadimitraki, Clinical Research
Associate; Miss Emma Peskett,
Technician; Miss Signe Risom,
Technician; Dr Zhen Wang, Research
Associate; Dr Lan Wong Te Fong,
Research Associate; Mrs Krisztina
Zuborne Alapi, Technician.
UCL Division of Population Health
Ms Andrea Beetison, Research
Associate; Dr Karen Burnell, Research
Associate; Ms Claudine Clucas,
Research Assistant; Dr Nigel Field,
Clinical Research Associate; Mrs
Ellen Fragaszy, Research Associate;
Dr Andre Furco, Clinical Research
Associate; Miss Laura James,
Research Associate; Miss Nina
Pindam, Administration/Managerial
Support; Ms Marilyn Roth, Research
Associate; Ms Jessica Sheringham,
Senior Research Fellow; Dr Clare
Tanton, Research Associate.
UCL Division of Psychology
& Language Sciences
Ms Fiona Brown, Teaching
Adminstrator; Dr Lorna Halliday,
Lecturer in Developmental Disorder
of Communication; Dr Marjolein
Kammers, Research Associate; Mr
Anthony Mckeown, Clinical Placement
Administrator; Ms Eleanor Morgan,
Research Co-ordinator; Mr Ramunas
Rentelis, Research Assistant; Dr Anna
Shestakova, Research Associate.
UCL Division of Medicine
Mr Robert Alexander, Technician;
Dr Miguel Centelles, Research
Associate; Dr Arnab Datta, Senior
Clinical Research Associate; Dr Adam
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
UCL Ear Institute
Dr Roland Schaette, Senior Research
Associate.
UCL Eastman Dental Institute
Mr Michael Brouwer, Research
Assistant; Dr Attila Horvath, Clinical
Research Associate; Mr Pradipta
Mandal, Research Technician; Dr Erika
Moreno Rojas, Research Assistant.
Mrs Banbai Hirani, Research Dental
Nurse.
UCL Institute for Women’s Health
Dr Samantha Johnson, Non Clinical
Lecturer; Ms Grainne Maguire,
Administration/Managerial Support; Dr
Lucy Side, Clinical Senior Lecturer; Dr
Jitlekha Teerajarmorn, Administration/
Managerial Support.
UCL Institute of Child Health
Dr Patricia Burton, Clinical Research
Associate; Dr Fortunato Castillo,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Dr Nicoletta Charolidi, Research
Associate; Miss Rebecca Green,
Administration/Managerial Support; Dr
Lily Islam, Clinical Research Associate;
Dr Polona Le Quesne, Research
Associate; Miss Daleen Lopez-Begg,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Mrs Saboura Mahdavi, Research
Assistant; Dr Mark Mccabe, Research
Associate; Miss Charlotte Mendoza,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Dr Iulia Oprea, Research Assistant;
Dr Chloe Parkin, Senior Research
Associate; Mrs Mary Pears, Technician;
Miss Beth Reed, Technician; Miss
Catrin Richards, Technician; Miss
Claire Sewell, Technician; Mrs
Jacqueline Williams, Administration/
Managerial Support; Dr Gideon
Winward, Research Associate; Mr
Weiwei Zhou, Research Assistant.
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS PEOPLE
UCL Institute of Neurology
Dr Bahador Bahrami, Research
Associate; Miss Heidi Bonnici,
Research Associate; Dr Michael
Devine, Clinical Research Fellow;
Dr Michelle Gardner, Research
Associate; Ms Karine Gazarian,
Research Assistant; Dr Elspeth
Hutton, Clinical Research
Associate; Miss Ching-Hua Lu,
Research Assistant; Mr Fidel Peat,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Mr Alexander Pollard, Research
Assistant; Dr Marianna Selikhova,
Honorary Research Assistant;
Ms Catherine Smith, Research
Assistant; Miss Hannah Stapley,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Dr Mehdi Van Den Bos, Clinical
Research Associate; Dr Agnieska
Wlodarczyk, Research Associate.
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology
Dr Giovanna Alfano, Research
Associate; Dr Cedric Boucherie,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Dr Laura Busse, Research
Associate; Ms Valentina Cipriani,
Administration/Managerial
Support; Ms Deborah Collymore,
Administration/Managerial
Support; Ms Sudershana Dave,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Ms Laura Denti, Technician;
Dr Jessica Gardner, Research
Associate; Dr Daniel Kampik,
Clinical Research Associate;
Ms Charmie Kodituwakku,
Administration/Managerial Support;
Dr Mandeep Sagoo, Clinical
Consultant; Dr Victoria Tovell,
Research Associate; Mr Andrew
Zaharia, Research Assistant.
UCL Medical School Management
Miss Miranda Bell, Administration/
Managerial Support.
Wolfson Institute of Biomedical
Research at UCL
Dr Sergio Colombo, Research
Associate; Ms Silvia Giampieri,
Technician.
Wellcome Trust Centre for History
of Medicine at UCL
Mr Fabio De Sio, Research Fellow.
people news
in brief
Queens New Year’s
Honours list
Members of the SLMS community were
recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s
Honours list.
Professor Sally Davies (MSc Middlesex
Hospital Medical School 1981),
Honorary Professor in Public Health
(UCL Institute of Child Health), was
awarded a Dame Commander of the
Order of the British Empire (DBE) for
services to medicine.
Professor Martin Raff, Emeritus
Professor in Molecular Cell Biology
(UCL Faculty of Life Sciences) and
UCL Honorary Fellow 2004, was
awarded a CBE for services to life
sciences.
Dr Stephen Davis (BSc Psychology
1998, PhD Psychology 2002), Senior
Research Scientist (UCL Psychology),
was awarded an Officer of the Order of
the British Empire (OBE) for services to
children with communication disorders.
Knighthoods were conferred upon
Bernard Ribeiro (Middlesex Hospital
Medical School), former President
of the Royal College of Surgeons of
England (2005–2008), for services
to medicine and Dr Mark Walport
(MBBChir Middlesex Hospital Medical
School 1977), Chief Executive of the
Wellcome Trust, for services to medical
research.
OBEs were awarded to Dr (John)
Rhidian Dowdle (Middlesex Hospital
Medical School 1968), former
Consultant Physician (Cardiology,
Cwm Taf NHS Trust), for services to
medicine; Dr Geoffrey Ridgway (Royal
Free Hospital Medical School 1971),
former Consultant Microbiologist
and Honorary Senior Lecturer (UCL
Hospitals), for services to microbiology.
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
Other prizes and awards
Dr Richard Chin, Clinical Research
Fellow, ICH Neurosciences Unit /
MRC Centre of Epidemiology for
Child Health, has been awarded the
RCPCH/SPARKS - Young Investigator
of the Year Medal 2009. This will be
presented to him on Tuesday 31st
March in York at the Royal College of
Paediatrics & Child Health conference.
Dr Chin was also awarded the 2008
BUPA Foundation Epidemiology Award
for excellence in the epidemiological
study of human disease. The £15,000
award presented on November 12th
was for his doctoral research, jointly
supervised by the Neurosciences Unit
and the MRC Centre of Epidemiology
for Child Health, on children with
prolonged seizures. The award is
being used to help fund his continued
work on childhood seizures.
Professor Uta Frith (UCL Institute of
Cognitive Neuroscience and Research
Department of Psychology) has been
elected to the prestigious German
Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina.
Professor David Isenberg and Dr Ian
Giles (Centre for Rheumatology):
awarded ‘Health Care Champion’
status by the National Rheumatoid
Arthritis society - a patient based
organisation. The awards were made
recently at The House of Commons.
Catherine Hyams (Centre for
Respiratory Research): winner of two
prizes in 2008 for work submitted
as abstracts to national meetings:
(1) British Thoracic Society medical
student abstract prize; (2) British
Association of Lung Research
young scientist’s prize.
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
21
SLMS PEOPLE
INTERVIEW
Dr Buzz Baum
MRC Laboratory
for Molecular Cell
Biology (LMCB) and
UCL Research
Department of Cell
and Developmental
Biology
Describe your career
to date?
It was hearing Paul Nurse deliver a
lecture at the University of Oxford,
that made me think ‘this is something I
want to do’. I was lucky enough to get
to work in his lab on an undergraduate
project. After completing my
Biochemistry degree at St Catherine’s
College, Oxford, I joined Paul Nurse’s
lab at ICRF (now Cancer Research
UK in London) to work on the cell
cycle in yeast as a PhD student. With
a PhD from UCL in hand, I headed to
the USA and to Norbert Perrimon’s
lab at Harvard Medical School for
my post-doc, where I chose to move
up the food chain to study cell shape
and polarity in the fruit fly, Drosophila
melanogaster. Excitingly, during my
time in Boston I witnessed a revolution
in biology with the sequencing of
the fly and human genomes and
22
the discovery of RNA interference
(RNAi). Inspired by these new
developments, at the end of 2001 I
returned to the UK.
As I set up my own lab as a Royal
Society University Research Fellow at
the UCL-branch of the Ludwig Institute
of Cancer Research my aim was to use
genome-scale RNAi screens to study
cell shape. Then in 2007 I moved with
my research team to the UCL MRCLaboratory of Molecular Cell Biology.
This has proved a fantastic new home.
More recently, I became a Reader and
was awarded a Cancer Research UK
Senior Research Fellowship, which I
took up on January 1st.
What are your career
highlights?
RNAi changed biology for me. The
big breakthrough came in 1998 with
the discovery by Fire and Mello
that synthetic double-stranded RNA
(dsRNA) given to worms could stop
a gene from working, triggering gene
specific silencing. However, it was
hearing that RNAi could be used to
silence genes in fly cells that stopped
me in my tracks. A friend and colleague
Amy Kiger and I decided to try the
technique out. We scanned the fly
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
genome for our favourite 50 or so
genes, made dsRNA for each and
added it to fly cells, one dsRNA species
per well, and waited to see what would
happen. Cells took on a different shape
and size in each well depending on
the dsRNA we used. It was the most
amazing thing I have ever seen! Some
people in the lab were slightly scornful
of Amy and I abandoning the beautiful
fly for fly cells in a dish, but I just
thought ‘this is as easy as working in
yeast!’ It meant that we no longer had
to spend years studying the function of
one gene. Instead we could start to do
what we call a ‘systems analysis’, and
test the function of all the genes in the
genome.
Tell us about your
research interests?
Everyone in my lab studies cell shape.
Some study cell shape in dishes some
in developing flies. For example,
we study how fly cells make spikes
in a dish and how cells use similar
protrusions to pattern bristles on the
back of a fly. One of the things that we
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
SLMS PEOPLE
are most excited about at the moment
– for which I received my Cancer
Research UK Senior Fellowship – is
the role of the shape and mechanics
of an animal cell as it divides into two.
Almost every biologist knows that cells
round up before they try to divide, but
very few people have actually studied
it. Patricia Kunda in my lab recently
found what we think is one of the key
regulators of this rounding effect. She
discovered that if cells do not have a
protein called Moesin, they are soft and
flat when they divide. We could then
ask the question ‘why do cells round
up?’ The answer was amazingly simple
– If cells are soft and flat they can’t
find their middle to divide into two. We
think this is important for two reasons:
first, cells that cannot control this
rounding process become genetically
unstable, a common feature of cancer,
and second our work suggests that
cancer cells need to be very good
at cell rounding if they are going to
spread and to divide at a new site. We
hope that this may prove to be their
Achilles’ heal, something that could be
used to kill cancer cells. Now with help
from colleagues in the chromosome
replication group at UCL we are trying
to jump from fly cells to human cells to
test whether this idea holds true for real
cancer.
One reason I have always liked to
study cell shape is because it is a
hard problem, involving interactions
between large numbers of genes
and the translation of this genetic
information into physical form, because
of this we have had to get help from
people from other disciplines. This is
how I discovered the great pleasures of
interdisciplinary science. We have had
collaborations with Bioinformaticians,
and with experimentalists at the
LCN, Rachel McKendry and Andrew
Pelling, who have helped us use their
technological savoir-faire to change cell
shapes and to see how genes affect
the physical properties of cells. I have
also long collaborated with a friend,
Mark Miodownik, a Material Scientist
at King’s College London. Each project
we have worked on together has grown
out of one of our weekly discussions
over coffee at Borough market. We
recently worked together to study the
evolution of wound healing in embryos
by evolving and wounding virtual
organisms in a computer. This may
sound crazy but it was both enjoyable
and taught me a lot about the biology
of organisms. More recently my lab has
begun collaborating with theorists at
the London Centre for Nanotechnology,
Tom Duke and Andrea JimenezDalmaroni. By using a combination of
experiment and modelling we hope
to find out how large numbers of
small proteins control the properties
of comparatively large cells, and how
autonomous cells work together to
generate tissues patterns.
What are your priorities
regarding systems
biology at UCL?
It is this work that got me interested in
Systems Biology. As I see it, the goal
of Systems Biology is to change the
emphasis so that instead of studying
one component of a biological system
in isolation, the focus is studying the
way simple interactions between
component parts give rise to complex
biological processes. Now that
techniques like genomic sequencing
and RNAi have come along, it is clear
that the real challenge in biology is
understanding processes, cells, organs
and organisms as whole systems.
This isn’t easy, even in something as
simple and well-studied as E. coli,
because our intuition fails when things
get complicated. So, to tackle these
problems experimentalists need to
speak to theoreticians who can help
them to decide whether a system’s
behaviour is likely to be simple or
complex.
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
In the end biologists will probably
also need to start thinking like
engineers, because if you can’t build
or model something can you really
say you understand it?
This type of interdisciplinary
research looking into the behaviour
of complex biological systems is
extraordinarily exciting and UCL
has a great opportunity to capitalise
on it, being one of the few places
in the UK with so many talented
people thinking about the world
in distinct ways. In fact, there
are already institutes like the Ear
Institute, the LCN and the Gatsby
Neuroscience Institute at UCL, which
excel in this type of interdisciplinary
research. In addition, there is a great
Interdisciplinary PhD programme
at UCL called CoMPLEX that
attracts talented students from
across disciplines, who then act as
a glue within the University, bringing
together life and medical scientists,
mathematicians, physical scientists,
computer scientists and engineers to
work together and tackle interesting
biological problems. I would say
that we still don’t have enough
experimentalists sitting down with
theorists to redesign experiments so
that they are quantitative and simple
and can be modelled. The goal now
is to create an environment at UCL
in which the sum is greater than its
parts. This we hope to do with the
help of the Provost’s strategic fund
over the coming months. The plan is
to create a systems biology network
that will encourage and strengthen
this type of research, bringing people
from across the University together
to tackle biological problems in new
ways. We hope that this will lead
to new discoveries, patents and
grants. Real success however will be
when we will hear students and
post-docs at UCL answering
23
important biological questions
that we don’t yet how to ask.
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009
EVENTS
Alumni
RELATIONS
EVENT
ACADEMIC
EVENTS
Below, you can find details of a small selection of SLMS events. As these events
are subject to change, it is always advisable to confirm details in advance with the
named contact. A full listing of SLMS events is available on the website: www.ucl.
ac.uk/slms/seminars-events
3 March
27 March
Lunch Hour Lecture:
‘Physiology on top of the world Xtreme Everest’
Dr Mike Grocott (UCL Medicine)
Time / location: 13.15pm, Darwin
Lecture Theatre. Free admittance, with
no need to pre-book.Lecture will be
online for seven days afterwards.
Contact: UCL’s events team,
Email: events@ucl.ac.uk;
Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 7675
Further information: www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl
Centre for Nephrology
Division of Medicine
A Half-Century of
Renal Tubular Disease
Sir William Wells Atrium, Royal Free
Hampstead NHS Trust
17 March
Lunch Hour Lecture:
‘Mimicking tissue growth: towards
customised, while-you-wait tissue
fabrication’
Professor Robert Brown (UCL
Orthopaedics & Musculosk. Science)
Time / location:
Free admittance, with no need to prebook. Lecture will be online for seven
days afterwards.
Contact: UCL’s events team,
Email: events@ucl.ac.uk;
Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 7675
Further information: www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl
In celebration of the 50th anniversary
of Oliver Wrong’s seminal paper of
April 1959 on renal tubular acidosis,
the UCL Centre for Nephrology hosts
a one-day symposium on current
concepts in renal tubular disorders.
Professor Wrong will be speaking
alongside internationally renowned
experts in clinical management and
basic science investigation of renal
tubular disease.
Time / location: 9.00am -18.00pm
Registration fee: £20.00 (includes lunch)
Registration closing date 20 March 2009
CPD credit from the Royal College of
Physicians of London to be confirmed
Symposium Directors Chris Laing and
Anthony Norden
Further information: A detailed
programme and registration form is
available at www.renal.org/pages/
pages/calendar-news.php
UCL Parent’s Event –
Saturday 14th March
The annual UCL Parent and
Family Event will take place on
Saturday 14th March 2009. Last
year around 1000 parents of UCL
students attended the day a good
turn-out is expected. The day will
include tours of the museums and
collections, sample lectures, student
performances and a welcome from
the Provost. If your department
would like to get involved, please let
me know as soon as possible. For
further information: www.ucl.ac.uk/
parents/events
Contact:
Ms Sinead Devlin
Alumni & Parent Relations Manager
UCL Development & Corporate
Communications Office
University College London
Gower Street
London, WC1E 6BT
Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9729
Internal Tel: 09729
Fax: +44 (0)20 7209 0117
Email: s.devlin@ucl.ac.uk
Credits
Editor:
Fleur Adolphe
Design:
UCL Medical Illustration, ICH/GOSH
gdesign@ich.ucl.ac.uk
Articles for the
SLMS Newsletter:
Please forward copy to the editor:
slms-editor@ucl.ac.uk
24
Deadline for Submission:
10 March 2009
UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2009