UCL SCHOOL OF LIFE AND MEDICAL
SCIENCES
(incorporating UCL MEDICAL SCHOOL)
SLMS BULLETIN – 13 DECEMBER 2011
Dear Colleagues
The bulletin aims to keep staff up to date with School activities, events,
awards, achievements and news.
Please forward any comments or feedback to the School
Communications Manager, email: slms-editor@ucl.ac.uk or direct to me
at: viceprovosthealth@ucl.ac.uk.
Kind regards
Professor Sir John Tooke
Vice-Provost (Health), Head of UCL School of Life & Medical Sciences
Web: www.ucl.ac.uk/slms
Twitter: @ucl_slms
In this issue:
1 UCL Medical School success
2 Biomedicine Grand Challenge ‘100’ PhD Studentship Scheme
3 UCL Therapeutic Innovation Fund
4 New helpdesk for advice on involving patients or the public in research
5 SLMS headlines
6 Future UCL events
7 New starters in SLMS
SLMS News
UCL Medical School
Medicine at UCL continues to receive positive feedback and the overall satisfaction score with the MBBS
programme is extremely high according to the National Student Survey (NSS).
The NSS ranks UCL Medical School first in London and joint fourth in the UK.
NSS is in its seventh year and provides an opportunity for students to give their opinions on what they
liked about their time at our institution on their programme of study as well as things that they felt could
have been improved.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Professor Jane Dacre and all of the staff at UCL
Medical School who contribute to the successful MBBS programme.
Rank
Medical school
NSS results
% of students satisfied
1
University College London
95
2
Queen Mary, University of London
94
3
Imperial College, London
92
4
St George’s, University of London
84
5
King’s College London
76
NSS results for Medical Schools in London
Biomedicine Grand Challenge ‘100’ PhD Studentship Scheme
Inspired by the Grand Challenges, our elite PhD training programme is designed to attract those
researchers with the highest intellectual and scientific skills to the field of biomedical and life sciences.
There will be 100 studentships available through funding provided by the School and the NIHR
Biomedical Research Centres at UCLH, Moorfields and Great Ormond Street Hospitals.
The call for the next round of projects will come out in the week beginning 19th December, once
again we will be seeking supervisor pairs which cross boundaries and bring added value to the
studentship scheme through disciplinarity.
To date we have recruited 52 excellent candidates. Adverts will be placed in mid-January 2012, and we
will interview applicants in early Spring 2012.
UCL Therapeutic Innovation Fund
The 3rd annual call for applications to the UCL Therapeutic Innovation Fund which provides seed
funding to support the translation of UCL biomedical innovations towards clinical patient benefit has been
launched.
The fund is open to investigators from UCL and UCL Partners and applications across the therapeutic
spectrum from discovery to clinical studies are welcomed.
Funding of up to £50,000 per project is expected to focus on defined objectives and milestones within a
discrete phase of the discovery continuum and an important success criterion for projects is to advance
research to the point of being competitive in attracting further significant funding.
Details of the fund and how to apply can be found at: www.ucl.ac.uk/slms/vacancies/
The closing date for preliminary applications is Thursday 22nd December 2011.
New helpdesk for advice on involving patients or the public in research
Researchers wanting advice on how to involve patients or the public in their work, can now contact the
Joint Research Office helpdesk on ppihelpdesk@ucl.ac.uk
SLMS in the Media
Haemophilia success
Study of gene therapy led by Dr Amit Nathwani (UCL Cancer Institute) offers first proof adults with
haemophilia B benefit from treatment. Read: BBC News Online More: Wall Street Journal New York
Times Reuters UCL press release and video
Report considers maltreatment of Children
Professor Ruth Gilbert (UCL Institute of Child Health) comments that despite numerous government
policy initiatives designed to achieve a reduction in child maltreatment, none have proved successful.
Listen: BBC Radio 4 Today (from 54mins 28s) More: GOSH Press Release More...
Brain changes seen in cabbies who take 'The Knowledge'
Professor Eleanor Maguire (UCL Imaging Neuroscience) comments on how taxi drivers’ brains rewire
while learning their way around London. Read: BBC News More: Nature Telegraph Times (£) Daily Mail
Mirror More...
Mitochondria and the great gender divide
Why are there two sexes? It’s a question that has long perplexed generations of scientists, but
researchers from UCL have come up with a radical new answer: mitochondria.
Using a new mathematical model, the team led by Dr Nick Lane and colleagues from the UCL
CoMPLEX, and the Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment showed that
inheriting mitochondria from only one parent – in effect, the ‘female’ – improves fitness by optimizing the
interactions between the two genomes. The paper is published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society
B. View article
Personalised treatment for Crohn’s Disease a step closer following gene mapping
Three new locations for Crohn’s Disease genes have been uncovered by scientists at UCL using a novel
gene mapping approach. View article
Radical treatment? Not radical enough
Professor John Martin (UCL Cardiovascular Medicine) comments on the limitations of the government’s
new Strategy for UK Life Sciences. Read: Times Higher Education More...
HSJ100: The annual list of the most influential people in health
The Health Service Journal names UCL Provost Professor Malcolm Grant as the 32nd most influential
person in health. Read: Health Service Journal (£) view article
How Does a Cell Know Its Size?
Professor Alison Lloyd (UCL Molecular Cell Biology) comments that mammalian cells don’t need sizesensing mechanisms to tell them when to divide. Read: Science view article
The future is bright for pharmacy
Professor Robert Harvey (School of Pharmacy) has received two major new research grants totalling
more than £500,000 in the space of a month. The School of Pharmacy will become part of UCL Faculty of
Life Sciences in January 2012. Read more
Up and coming events
Wednesday 14th December 2011, 12.45 (for 13.00)
Grand Round
Christian Hasford and Christopher Bricogne, “Don't question it – have the flu jab”
AAU
James Thaventhiran, "CTLA-4 activates the Hippo pathway to regulate terminal differentiation of the
CD8+ T cell"
Immunology
Chair: Ross Breckenridge
Location: Lecture Theatre 2, Cruciform Building
Lunch Provided in B01
14th December 2011, 16.30
Motor-Sensory Learning of Foreign Speech
Anna Simmonds
Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Lab (C3NL) and MRC Clinical Sciences Centre,
Imperial College London
Location: The Levinsky Room, Philip Ullmann Wing, UCL Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street,
London, WC1N 1EH
Monday 16th January, 13.00
"Eukaryotes, mitochondria and the deep roots of ageing"
Dr Nick Lane, Provost’s Venture Research Fellow, Department of Genetics Evolution and Environment,
UCL
Abstract:
Ageing and many age-related diseases have been linked with free radicals and mitochondria – but why?
The free-radical theory of ageing is at best incomplete and in many respects contradictory. I will argue
from deep evolutionary history that mitochondria are far more than just another organelle – they were one
of two founding partners of the eukaryotic cell, and played a central role in the evolution of many of the
universal traits of complex life, including sexes, speciation and senescence. Free-radical leak derives
from the biophysics of mosaic respiratory chains encoded by two genomes (mitochondrial and nuclear)
and acts to optimise respiratory function, both over evolutionary time and within single lifetimes. I will
show that the pleiotropic consequences of selection for respiratory function give surprising insights into
fitness, fertility, ageing and age-related diseases.
Tea & coffee available on the balcony from 12.40
Location: Kennedy Lecture Theatre, ICH
21 February 2012 (14.00-17.00)
UCL Adolescent Health & Development workshop
If you are a researcher or clinician interested in adolescent health or development, you are strongly
encouraged to attend the initial Adolescent Health & Development workshop.
This initiative aims to establish a cross-UCL network on Adolescent Health & Development. The network
will support research, build capacity, enable networking and identify UCL as a world leader in adolescent
health and development.
The network is jointly supported by the Reproduction & Development Domain and the Population Health
Domain, but we welcome participants from any part of UCL and partners.
A detailed programme will be available soon.
To attend, please notify Christian White (gapadmin@ich.ucl.ac.uk).
For more information, please contact Prof. Russell Viner (r.viner@ucl.ac.uk).
Location: Kennedy Lecture Theatre, UCL Institute of Child Health
23-27 April 2012
Baby Brains Around the World Project: An International On-Line Conference
The 3rd UK Paediatric Neuropsychology Symposium: Early Brain-Behaviour Relationships and
Prognostic Indicators will take place at the UCL Institute of Child Health, London on 23-27 April 2012. As
well as standard registration it is now possible to register for ON-LINE ONLY access to the conference.
The on-line Baby Brains Around the World project aims to widen communication & networking
opportunities as far as possible for academics and practitionersacross the globe interested in early
human cognition and its developmental pathways.
Lectures will be filmed and broadcast on the secure conference website remaining accessible until 4 June
2012. On-line delegates will also have electronic access to the lecture hand-outs, scientific posters,
interactive delegate discussion forums, information from our sponsors and the conference proceedings
published in Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology.
Faculty
·
Professor Jocelyne Bachevalier, Emory University, USA
·
Professor Tanya Byron, Edge Hill University, UK
·
Professor Helen Cross, UCL Institute of Child Health, UK
·
Dr Naomi Dale, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, UK
·
Dr. Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz, INSERM-CEA, France
·
Professor Adele Diamond, The University of British Columbia, Canada
·
Professor Christopher Gillberg, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
·
Professor Paavo Leppanen, University of Jyvaskla, Finland,
·
Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
·
Professor Mark Johnson, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
·
Professor Neil Marlow, University College London, UK
·
Dr Debra Mills, Bangor University, UK
·
Professor Charles A. Nelson, Harvard Medical School, USA
Call for Abstracts for Posters
Abstracts on any aspect of paediatric neuropsychology will be considered.
All accepted abstracts will be published in a supplement of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology
in April 2012 as part of the proceedings.
All posters will be displayed electronically in JPEG format on the conference website (from on-line only &
London attendees). Delegates who register to attend the London conference in person will also display
their posters on poster boards at the venue.
Each author may submit any number of abstracts.
Abstract submission deadline is Monday 9 January 2012
Early Bird On-line only delegate fee £199
(until 16 January 2012)
For further details visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/neuropsych/InternationalSymposia or contact the ICH
Events Office, Telephone: +44 (0)20 7905 2135 or +44 (0)20 7813 8394, email info@ichevents.com
Programme Directors: Dr Michelle de Haan and Dr Peter Rankin
New starters in SLMS
NeNew Starters in SLMS (for the period 28th November – 4th December)
UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care: Miss Matilda Allen, Project Support Officer; Mr
Andreas Opitz, Administrative Assistant.
UCL Cancer Institute: Miss Jessica Ibrahim, Trials Assistant; Dr Andrea Knight, Research Associate; Dr
Alessandra Silva, Research Technician Pre-Clinical; Dr Vessela Vassileva, Senior Research Associate.
UCL Division of Biosciences: Mr Vassilios Kotiadis, Research Assistant; Dr Guillermo Lopez
Domenech, Research Associate; Dr Nadine Sharell Simons-Weidenmaier, Research Associate; Miss
Claudia Wierzbicki, Research Technician.
UCL Division of Medicine: Dr Nephtali Marina- Gonzalez, Research Associate; Miss Gemma Martin,
Teaching Administrator; Mr Sunil Modi, Research Technician.
UCL Division of Psychology & Language Sciences: Ms Elisa Ferre, Research Associate; Miss Sabina
Hussain, Conference and Events Coordinator; Prof Richard Kayne, Visiting Professor; Dr Nichola Stuart ,
Teaching Fellow.
UCL Division of Surgery & Interventional Science: Miss Paula Meale, Clinical Research Nurse.
UCL Ear Institute: Dr Anwen Bullen, Research Associate.
UCL Institute for Women's Health Dr Gwyneth Lewis, Senior Clinical Researcher.
UCL Institute of Child Health: Miss Katherine Arnold, Administrator; Ms Angela Jackson, Research
Assistant; Mr Thomas Mercer, Research Grants Co-ordinator.
UCL Institute of Neurology: Ms Jennifer Agustus, Research Associate; Miss Mhoriam Ahmed,
Research Associate; Dr Zebulun Kurth-Nelson, Research Associate; Dr Roope
Mannikko, Research Associate; Ms Anna Migdalska, Research Assistant; Dr Marina Papoutsi, Research
Associate.
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology: Dr Hannah Armer, Depity Electron Microscope Manager; Dr Sterenn
Davis, Research Teachnician; Ms Rachel Fahy, Research Assistant.
UCL Mental Health Sciences Unit: Ms Sarah Fahmy, Research Assistant; Dr Jacques Gianino, Unit
Manager; Miss Jenny Lange , Research Assistant; Dr Shahrukh Mallik, Clinical Research Associate.
Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at UCL: Dr Abdella Habib, Research Associate.