Pioneer11 by EPSRC

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Life support

Science and engineering â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the beating heart of healthcare

Healing with sound Helping the blind to see Richard, the 3D-printed king Silk: the 400 million-year-old super-material Professor Robert Winston on the joined-up science behind healthcare

CONTENTS

4-9 Briefings: Research in action 10-11 Richard the 3D: Loughborough team print out replica of Richard III’s skull 12-13 See the person: Bean-can PhD poster promotes a major dementia project 14-18 Life support: EPSRC’s CEO on the role mathematics, engineering and science play in safeguarding the national health

19 The treatment: Recent EPSRC healthcare investments 20-23 Fitter, healthier, happier: EPSRC-sponsored healthcare-related research

24-27 Face value: 3D printing technique revolutionises low-cost facial prosthetics

28-31 Bursting cancer’s bubble: Two scientists, one vision – healing with sound 32-35 In profile: Professor John Fisher 36-37 Prescripton for success: Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations for smarter patient support 38-39 Seeing’s believing: Optobionics – helping the blind to see 40-43 Glowing evidence: Academics and industry unite to develop a gel that glows in the presence of bacteria 44-47 Spin cycle: Silk products modelled on spider webs and silkworm threads could be used to repair the human body 48-51 20-20 vision: What advances in healthcare will there be 20 years from now? 52-53 Numbers game: Dr Ellen BrooksPollock on using mathematical modelling to predict the spread of disease 54 Rule of thumb: A new keyboard designed specifically for mobile devices

Editor: Mark Mallett (mark.mallett@epsrc.ac.uk) Design: Rachael Brown (rachael.brown@epsrc.ac.uk) Contributors: Jenny Aranha; Dr Ellen Brooks-Pollock; Chris Buratta; Phil Davies; Professor David Delpy; Joanne Enderby; Professor John Fisher; Gemma Hulkes; Vicky Marlow; Grace Palmer; Roland Pease; Matt Shinn; Clare Waldron; Dr Gemma Webster; Lord Robert Winston; John Yates. Pioneer@epsrc.ac.uk Contact: 01793 444305/442804

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The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. EPSRC invests around £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone’s health, lifestyle and culture.

EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils which have responsibility in other research areas. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK. To provide feedback on this magazine, and to subscribe to print and/or electronic versions of Pioneer, please e-mail pioneer@epsrc.ac.uk Pictures courtesy of thinkstock.com unless otherwise stated.

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CONTENTS True to life Introduction by guest editor, Professor Robert Winston EPSRC has linked its work closely to that of other Research Councils, focusing on the academic backbone of this country, Britain’s outstanding universities. Here world-class biomedical and related healthcare research is pursued by talented people in whom EPSRC invests, nurturing scientists, engineers and physicians throughout their careers.

A non-scientist friend recently asked me what EPSRC actually does. I replied that it spearheads innovative research in engineering and the physical sciences to improve the quality of life. The UK is acknowledged for the quality of its basic research to advance healthcare. But, I said, there are challenges ahead. Though our research means we live longer, healthier lives than at any point in history, we have an ageing population. There are also inequalities in human societies across the globe. The progress we are making has been largely possible because of improved understanding, investigation and treatment of disease. Perhaps the greatest task now is to translate that understanding into improved public health; here the work of EPSRC is of increasing importance. PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

This country’s reputation is due to the support of all the Research Councils, the charitable foundations and industry, and through increasingly multidisciplinary collaborations. EPSRC is at the vanguard, providing the best in basic maths, chemistry, physics and engineering. This issue of Pioneer shows the diverse nature of what we support – improving our environment (page 4); providing for dementia sufferers (pages 12-13); computer modelling for the prediction and monitoring of the spread of infectious diseases (pages 52-53).

benefit. Initiatives include stem cells to grow new tissues (pages 32-35), and the delivery of cancer drugs to exactly where they are most needed. The hope is that we shall be able to administer these in optimal quantities, minimising harmful side effects (pages 28-31). As people live longer, and the health of older people becomes increasingly important, researchers are harnessing new technologies from the digital economy, such as iPad-based applications to help people with dementia; similar technology also helps autistic children engage with the world around them (page 6).

Strengthening bridges between all disciplines encourages innovation and underscores the social and ethical value of what we do. It also accelerates the arc towards application. This requires holistic thinking, the understanding of the bigger picture.

Some researchers supported by EPSRC collaborate with companies across the healthcare spectrum – from start-ups to blue-chip corporations. One such person is Professor John Fisher (pages 30-33) who has combined a distinguished research career with highly successful entrepreneurial activities. Professor Fisher is a member of EPSRC’s Council, the decision-making body responsible for determining policy, priorities and strategy, and for stewardship of its budget. I feel privileged to also have served on Council, and continue to maintain a close interest in EPSRC’s activities.

EPSRC has strong partnerships with industry such as Procter & Gamble; with charities like the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK (page 18-19); and with organisations such as the Technology Strategy Board (pages 38-43), translating research for commercial and societal

This edition of Pioneer reflects the diversity of healthcare-related research supported by EPSRC. Hopefully, when my friend reads it he will applaud how some of the finest minds of our generation are pioneering research in engineering and the physical sciences to support every aspect of healthy life.

briefings

Sponsored research in action of photo-catalytic reduction, a process that uses solar energy to convert CO2 into fuels like methane and methanol.

Gas works Scientists at the EPSRC-funded Centre for Innovation in Carbon Capture and Storage (CICCS) at Heriot-Watt University are developing unique sunlight and waterpowered ‘reactors’ for capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2 ) in the home. At the heart of the technology is a unique system aimed at increasing the efficiency

The centre’s director and UK project leader is Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer (pictured examining a catalyst used in the prototype solar fuel reactors). Professor Maroto-Valer holds a joint EPSRC Challenging Engineering Fellowship with Professor Adam Lee from the University of Warwick, and the two are collaborating on the project. She says: “Your home will be producing CO2 as it consumes energy, but that will be turned into natural gas by the reactor using water and sunlight – it’s revolutionary. “This novel reactor and process could unlock a hugely significant source of carbonneutral fuel – turning a climate-changing gas into a climate-saving fuel.”

Mood swings

It is estimated that this process, if successful at a commercial scale, could offset globally up to 700 million tonnes of CO2 each year, significantly more than total UK annual emissions which the UK Government estimates at around 500 million tonnes. The project includes scientists based in Taiwan, the USA, Canada and China, and includes leading industrial players, ensuring the technology developed can be used with existing infrastructure. Advisory board member, E.ON’s Dr Robin Irons, says: “This research is a fantastic opportunity to bring a potentially hugely valuable technology to market. Industry will be working hand-in-hand with the international team of academics, making this a truly global project designed to deliver a globally significant breakthrough.” The research project is funded under the Research Councils UK Energy Programme, which is led by EPSRC.

to detect basic emotions such as anger, surprise and happiness. As well as tracking initial public reactions to events, the system can analyse how the public mood changes over time following subsequent incidents or interventions. Furthermore, the program can collate expressions of feelings in real time, map them geographically and track how they develop.

Image: Shutterstock

An EPSRC-supported research team at Loughborough University have developed a computer program that can map the mood of the nation and its reaction to big events, PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

such as the 2011 London riots or the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, through Twitter. The system can analyse up to 2,000 tweets a second, using sophisticated software

The system, which can be scaled up easily to monitor tweets globally, has a variety of potential applications including use by the police to track potential criminal behaviour or threats to public safety, or to guide national policy on the best way to react to major incidents. The Loughborough research team was led by Professor Tom Jackson and co-funded by EPSRC and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL).

briefings

Sponsored research in action

Flower power

Erasing e-footprints A ‘cleaner app’ which enables people at risk from domestic violence to seek help online without leaving an electronic trail behind them has been developed by EPSRC-supported researchers at Newcastle University. Lead researcher, Dr Budi Arief, says: “Any online access leaves behind an electronic trail. For most of us this is a useful record but for someone living in fear of abuse the very systems set up to help them can actually be used against them. “What our technology does is erase these electronic footprints, allowing people to seek help in safety without fear of reprisal.” Once accessed, the app selectively wipes clean the user’s digital footprints while leaving other electronic trails intact – a completely clean browsing history raises suspicions.

A consortium of researchers led by Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick is developing the use of common flowers, such as Alyssum (pictured), to remove poisonous chemicals including arsenic and platinum from polluted land and water courses, potentially allowing that land to be reclaimed and reused. The research resulted from a blue-sky thinking ‘sandpit’ workshop, organised by EPSRC, involving scientists from Warwick, Newcastle, Birmingham, Cranfield and Edinburgh universities. A lead researcher on the project, WMG’s Professor Kerry Kirwan, says: “The processes we are developing will not only remove poisons from land and PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

water courses, we are also confident we can develop ‘biofactories’ that can tailor the shapes and sizes of the metallic nanoparticles arising from the process.

The research is part of the Research Councils UK Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy (SiDE) initiative at Newcastle University. Following the initial pilot studies, trials of the new technologies began in spring 2013.

“This would give manufacturers of catalytic convertors, developers of cancer treatments and other applicable technologies exactly the right shape, size and functionality of nanoparticle they need without any subsequent refinement. “We are also expecting to recover other high-value materials such as fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and anti-oxidants from the crops during the same biorefining process.” EPSRC recently awarded the research consortium a grant of £3 million to develop the technology.

briefings

Sponsored research in action

Child’s play one of four UK schools to take part in the ECHOES research project, jointly funded by EPSRC and the Economic and Social Research Council, to explore how technology can make a difference in the classroom.

Topcliffe Primary School in Birmingham is helping break new ground by using technology to help pupils with autism communicate more effectively.

Research has shown that children with autism often find computers and technology safe, motivating and engaging; and teachers at the school have found that the ECHOES project has greatly helped the children improve their social and communication skills.

The school, which teaches around 30 children with various levels of autism, is

ECHOES uses a large interactive plasma touchscreen (pictured) through which the

children can manipulate objects, explore the environment, and have fun with and learn from a virtual screen character called Andy, who encourages them to engage in specific activities. Created using artificial intelligence software, Andy is able to pick up on the needs, interests, fears, likes and dislikes of individual children. Cameras are integrated into the system, enabling Andy to ‘see’ the children’s behaviour. Project leader Dr Kaska PorayskaPomsta, says: “Andy is designed to react differently to different children and adapt his actions accordingly… Artificial intelligence has a big role to play in the design of educational technology for young children.”

Programme preference predictor Scientists at King’s College London have designed an internet-based digital recorder which can predict what a viewer will want to watch on catch-up TV. The SCORE device can be used from a television set or computer and is designed to significantly reduce internet traffic and the overall carbon footprint of catch-up TV. The study, led by Dr Nishanth Sastry, was funded by EPSRC and involved colleagues from the University of Cambridge, the University of Pisa and the BBC. The team analysed consumption patterns from a data-driven study of nearly six million users of BBC iPlayer. They compared their findings with traditional ‘linear’ TV services to understand the network support required and suggest ways in which overall load or ‘footprint’ could be reduced.

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Dr Sastry says: “By learning more about the existing viewing habits of users we have now been able to anticipate their usage of catch-up TV. “Our evaluations show that SCORE, which stands for Speculative Content Offloading and Recording Engine, can bring down

energy usage on the internet by over 40 per cent and reduce network traffic by nearly 60 per cent. “Importantly, we have also designed the SCORE device to operate in a way that does not compromise the privacy of users.”

briefings

Sponsored research in action

Pile drivers With space in city centres at a premium, and when time for construction projects is of the essence, a research team led by Professor Kenichi Soga and Dr Mohammed Elshafie have pioneered a way to test whether the foundations of buildings under demolition or reconstruction can be reused – saving construction companies time and money, and helping reduce environmental impact.

Sea power A multi-partner academic/industrial consortium led by the University of Durham and funded by EPSRC is working on a project to sustainably manufacture liquid hydrocarbon fuels from seaweed. The preliminary research was funded by the Molecular Engineering Translational Research Centre (METRC). Working with agricultural consultancy, Silage Solutions, the research team, led by Durham’s Dr Chris Greenwell, showed that seaweed is an ideal raw material for converting into liquid fuel. As well as having a rapid growth cycle, seaweed has a solar efficiency that’s around three times greater than terrestrial biomass. It can also be grown alongside other waterbased activities such as offshore wind farms and fish farms; and does not compete with food crops for land or water. This preliminary project led to the formation of MacroBioCrude, a five-year academic/ industry consortium funded by EPSRC. Led by Durham’s Professor Phil Dyer, the consortium seeks to establish an integrated supply and processing pipeline for the sustainable manufacture of liquid hydrocarbon fuels from seaweed. The inventors of the preservation technique intend to set up a company to develop and exploit their findings. PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

Working with construction group Skanska, the team, from the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, which is sponsored by EPSRC and the Technology Strategy Board, cored into the foundation supports of a London office block under demolition. They then inserted optical fibre-based sensors to measure the strain the foundations could absorb, and then advised on which could be reused. The new building effectively retains over 50 per cent of the original structural mass – helping the company save £6 million, reduce construction time and decrease carbon emissions by over 1,000 tonnes on installation alone. Overall, the new 16-storey

development (pictured), opposite London’s Gherkin, is 80 per cent more efficient than the building it replaces. The project won the Sustainability Category at the Ground Engineering awards 2013. Skanska plans to use the same approach in the future. By reusing foundations, not only will it be able save time and reduce CO2 emissions, it estimates typical savings of £2-3 million per project.

Bravo echo University of Southampton researchers have shown that blind and visually impaired people have the potential to use echolocation, similar to that used by bats and dolphins, to determine the location of an object. The team examined how hearing, and particularly the hearing of echoes, could help blind and visually impaired people with spatial awareness and navigation. Working with colleagues from the University of Cyprus, the team, led by Dr Daniel Rowan, showed that both sighted and blind people with good hearing, even if completely inexperienced with echolocation, had the potential to use echoes to tell where objects are.

The knowledge gained from this study, which was funded by an RCUK Basic Technology Programme grant and EPSRC Vacation Bursaries, will help to develop training programmes and devices for blind and sighted people in low-vision situations.

briefings

Sponsored research in action

Energy-wise Imaginative ways to empower factory employees to cut energy use have been devised and successfully trialled by a consortium of UK universities and businesses. In the new approach energy usage data is collected by specially developed low-cost sensors and fed into a live 3D computer model of the factory that staff can consult on their PCs, enabling them to pinpoint where energy is being wasted. The sensors automatically trigger text messages reminding staff to turn off lights and equipment that have been left on.

A six-month trial has seen reductions of up to 20 per cent in energy use at the Federal Mogul factory in Derbyshire, proving that big savings can be achieved in factories and offices without the need for major capital investment. Funded by EPSRC and the Technology Strategy Board, the project members included clean technology company Moixa Technology, the Universities of Dundee, Leeds and Southampton, University College London and a range of industrial partners. Project Manager, Moixa Technology’s Dan Mason, says: “When empty areas are over-lit or computers are left on at night, it’s the workforce that’s best placed to do something about it. What we’ve seen is that it really is possible to change people’s mindset about energy use and get them to think about what they can do to make a difference.”

Websafe An EPSRC-sponsored research team came to the aid of major international software giants after they discovered a weakness in encryption software used to safeguard information sent by users to web sites. Left unchecked, the glitch could have affected anyone disclosing personal details when shopping and banking on the World Wide Web – that’s around 85 per cent of the world’s online population. PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

The Lucky Thirteen project, led by Professor Kenny Paterson at Royal Holloway, University of London, staged ‘attacks’ on the Transport Layer Security system (TLS) which, combined with CBC mode encryption, is used widely to protect internet traffic. Professor Paterson says: “The test focused on whether it was possible to see information that was meant to be securely encrypted. Our research found that TLS could be broken – meaning that new patches to prevent cyber-attacks are vital.” The research team disclosed the details to those companies affected, including Google and Microsoft, and have been working with them to put in place measures to prevent attacks.

briefings

Sponsored research in action

Award for phone app A mobile phone app designed by EPSRCsponsored PhD student, Mark Iliffe, has won a major competition organised by the World Bank. The app, called Taarifa, could give people in Africa the power to improve sanitation in their communities, and is one of three grand prize winners in the World Bank’s Sanitation Hackathon, a global drive to engage researchers in communication technology in real-world problems relating to health and sanitation. The app allows people to input and share their own sanitation problems using SMS, web forms, e-mail or social media. The reports can be monitored by local authorities and acted upon to carry out repairs and improvements, giving citizens the power to affect changes in their own communities.

Mark, who is a doctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham’s EPSRCfunded Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute and Nottingham Geospatial Institute, together with colleagues who co-developed the award-winning app and representatives from the Taarifa

community, won the chance to travel to Silicon Valley in California for meetings with venture capitalists and other potential investors who can help turn the ideas into viable and sustainable businesses which can have maximum impact around the world.

Heads up A ‘tactile helmet’ developed by EPSRCfunded researchers at the University of Sheffield’s Centre for Robotics could provide firefighters operating in challenging conditions with vital clues about their surroundings. The helmet is fitted with ultrasound sensors that detect the distances between the helmet and nearby walls or other obstacles.

filled with smoke, will be able to use the signals to find walls and other obstacles that could help guide them through unfamiliar environments.

The signals are transmitted to vibration pads attached to the inside of the helmet, touching the wearer’s forehead. Rescue workers, such as firefighters, who might be working in dark conditions or in buildings

The helmet, which was inspired by research into tactile sensing in rodents, whose whiskers give early warning of potential hazards, was exhibited at the 2013 Gadget Show Live event.

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A lightweight version of the technology could also be useful to people with visual impairments, acting as an additional ‘sense’ to guide users or to help them avoid hazards.

Richard the 3D In 1485, Richard III came to a gruesome end at the Battle of Bosworth. Now EPSRC-sponsored researchers have used 3D printing technology to recreate the skeleton of the last King of England to be slain in battle. It’s not often municipal facilities in middle England hit the headlines, but the discovery under a car park in Leicester of the skeleton of King Richard III is a remarkable exception. Following extensive multidisciplinary research, a team of University of Leicester archaeologists, in partnership with Leicester City Council and the Richard III Society, proved that the skeleton was indeed that of Richard. To help preserve details of this historic discovery for future generations, experts from Loughborough University’s School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering were invited by the Leicester team to make an electronic reconstruction of the king’s skeleton, and then a physical replica using the latest 3D printing techniques. Professor Russell Harris, head of Loughborough’s Additive Manufacturing Research Group, leads his team’s involvement in the project. He says: “We knew this was an opportunity not to be missed – this find has literally rewritten the history books.” Professor Harris, whose research is sponsored by EPSRC, is a world leader in the use of Additive Manufacturing – also known as 3D printing – for medical applications. The process allows physical objects to be built directly from 3D computer-aided-design (CAD) data without the need for tooling and with minimal human intervention. Professor Harris has investigated many medical uses of the technologies, including creating complex skeletal models for use PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

as training aids by the country’s leading National Health Service surgeons. Professor Harris says: “This assignment was the first time we had worked with a skeleton of such an age, but we were confident we could replicate it using our latest cuttingedge machinery.” To begin the process the team were sent CT scans taken by Leicester Royal Infirmary of the actual remains of King Richard III, who was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, bringing to an end both the Plantagenet dynasty and the Wars of the Roses. The next stage was to transform the scans into a 3D computer model. Laser sintering was then used to create a physical replica of the king’s skull. This technique uses a high-power laser to fuse small particles of materials, in this case plastic, into a mass that has a three-dimensional shape. Professor Harris says: “Generating the first 3D computer models was a very exciting process, when the number of significant injuries Richard had sustained in battle became clear. Recording these features, in both electronic and physical form, will be invaluable for future studies.” Richard Buckley, from University of Leicester Archaeological Services, led the search for the king’s remains as part of a project that included geneticists, osteoarchaeologists, forensic pathologists and genealogists. He says the Loughborough team were an ‘exemplary partner’ in the project: “This is a great example of the benefits which accrue when different disciplines pull together and apply their specialist skills to

a shared project, which has been unique in the impact it has had on the public’s engagement with history, archaeology and science.” The replica skull is now on display as part of Leicester City Council’s exhibition, Richard III: Leicester’s Search for a King. Record numbers of visitors have already been to the exhibition in the city’s Guildhall. Professor Harris and his team at Loughborough are now working on replicating the rest of the king’s remains using 3D printing technology. He says: “Working with all those involved in this incredible discovery has been a privilege. “I am delighted that our expertise has been able to help create a lasting legacy for Richard III.” You can find out more about the project in The View, a magazine devoted to research at Loughborough University. www.lboro.ac.uk

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Photography: Andrew Weekes Photography

WHAT’S IN A LABEL? Helen is an 87 year old lady who lives in a residential care home. What do we know about

her? She has late-stage Alzheimer’s disease, she’s hard-of-hearing, she has trouble communicating, she has mobility problems, she can become very confused and she’s incontinent. But what do we know about the real Helen? • People with dementia are in danger of being seen as

• This research will develop software to create simple

to get to know due to communication difficulties

communication bridge between carers and people with

only a set of needs by care staff as they are very difficult

• Social interaction has many benefits and affects the

but effective ‘external personalities’ that can act as a age-related cognitive impairment

quality of care and life of a person with dementia

• Information about the person, not the dementia, will be

• A person with dementia is still a person with a life full

them to see the person, not the illness, thereby helping to

of experiences, achievements and history

• It is important to know a person as an individual, understand their life history, their likes and dislikes, and

how they want to live their life in order to provide the right type of care and support

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made easily available to care staff with the aim of allowing improve the quality of care provided.

• How do you represent someone’s personality? How do you highlight someone’s life? How do you make people

see an individual?

See the person Dementia is a growing concern worldwide, with an estimated 35.6 million sufferers. Dr Gemma Webster (pictured) explains how a clever take on a popular baked bean can design helped open up people’s minds about dementia research – and find a way to see beyond the label. Back in 2009, during my first year as a PhD student at the University of Dundee, this take on a baked bean can label won me first prize at the British Science Festival perspective scheme in which researchers present and explore the social implications of their work. The poster may be four years old, but its theme is just as relevant as ever.

The research led to a successful spin out company, CIRCA Connect Ltd.

When designing the poster, the question arose: How do you show dementia? Do you use a stereotypical photograph of an older person looking confused or sad, reinforcing the stigma, or do you make people see beyond the label – to take that second look?

Portrait is unique in that it was designed from the perspective of care staff who, within five minutes of their normal work routines, are able to learn about the person’s family and key life events before they entered the care home, as well as their preferences, hobbies or interests. In short, it allows care staff to know who the people are, not what illness they have.

This line of thinking led me to the final concept for the poster, the artwork for which was completed by my supervisor at the time, Gary Gowans. Seeing beyond the label is the aim of the Portrait project, which I developed as part of my PhD research together with Professor Vicki L. Hanson from the EPSRC-supported SiDE RCUK Digital Economy research hub at the University of Dundee. Portrait is a software tool designed for use by care staff in residential care environments to gain an initial understanding of people’s lives prior to entering care. It has its origins in a 2004-2007 EPSRC-funded project involving Gary Gowans and led by Dr Norman Alm, to help people living with dementia through the use of cutting-edge computer technology and user-centred design.

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Dementia currently costs the UK £17 billion per year and care homes are stretched further than ever before. Communication difficulties associated with dementia can be particularly challenging for care staff. Portrait consists of a unique snapshot of each person living in the care home and contains important but limited personal and social information about the people with dementia for their care staff to access.

In 2011 I was awarded £10,000 at the Research Councils UK Telling Tales of Engagement competition to further my research on Portrait. This award has allowed Portrait to be developed into a web-based system for use on tablet devices such as iPads and allowed the system to be permanently installed and used in care homes. Feedback from care home staff has been very positive. After completing my PhD in 2011 I joined the dot.rural Digital Economy research hub at the University of Aberdeen as a Research Fellow working on projects looking at how digital communications technology can help people in rural areas connect with each other and with the world around them.

HARNESSING THE DIGITAL ECONOMY Dr Gemma Webster’s research was conducted under the auspices of the Social inclusion through the Digital Economy (SiDE) and dot.rural research hubs, which are funded through the Research Councils UK Digital Economy Programme, led by EPSRC. The SiDE research hub aims to tackle social exclusion by making it easier for people to access the life-changing benefits offered by digital technologies. SiDE addresses four fields where digital technologies and the building of a truly inclusive digital economy could bring major social benefits: connected home and community, accessibility, inclusive transport services and creative industries. The dot.rural research hub explores the contribution digital technologies can make to enhancing key services, generating business opportunities, boosting quality of life and promoting the economic, social and environmental sustainability of rural areas across the UK. Research at the dot.rural hub is based around four themes: access and mobilities, healthcare, enterprise and culture, and natural resource conservation.

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Life support EPSRC Chief Executive, Professor David Delpy, explains the key role of UK scientists and engineers in pioneering technologies for the life sciences, and shows how innovative thinking and adventurous partnerships are helping to keep the UK at the forefront of global healthcare-related research. Around the world, healthcare systems face two enormous and related challenges: financial sustainability and an ageing population. One quarter of the UK population has a chronic condition such as heart disease and diabetes. An estimated four million older people in the UK have a limiting long-standing illness. By 2020 more than one million people will have dementia. In the past, our healthcare system was based around curable illnesses where you went into hospital unwell and came out better. Most people now leave hospital with long-term conditions which need to be managed at home. We need radically different models of care, including new kinds of technology and therapies. EPSRC is at the forefront of research and doctoral training in technologies, techniques and methodologies for the healthcare and life sciences sector.

Whether it is physicists working on imaging technology for MRI diagnosis; engineers designing the hospitals of the future; chemists working on the latest drug development; or tissue engineers providing ways to let damaged bodies heal themselves, the research and talented people supported by EPSRC are vital to meeting these challenges.

stimulating international investment. In short, we are at the vanguard of a new way of looking at healthcare: making use of digital technology, applying adventurous, multidisciplinary science in areas such as nanotechnology, DNA sequencing, advanced materials and tissue engineering – and getting people out of hospital and into the home. At the University of Oxford, Professor Lionel Tarassenko, supported by EPSRC, is developing medical monitoring technology to empower patients to manage conditions such as diabetes and asthma in the home through tools such as mobile phone software.

By improving the prediction of health conditions, developing more effective therapies, and enabling more people to manage their own health and wellbeing, the research we support provides a hitech platform upon which companies and other research users can develop new products and practices – creating new jobs, building new commercial opportunities and

Research into smart sensing systems is helping dementia sufferers live safely and independently. In June this year, EPSRC, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council invested £8 million in seven major new research projects into how we can better design our built environment to promote mobility for an ageing population.

Through multidisciplinary partnerships with industry, academia, charities and other research funders and users, we have a research and training portfolio of over £500 million to help meet the challenges posed by the escalating financial, physical and societal costs of long-term healthcare.

(Continued on next page)

Research into smart sensing systems is helping dementia sufferers live safely and independently. (Continued from previous page) EPSRC-sponsored researchers at Edinburgh Napier University, working with Microsoft, are using cloud computing to develop a safe way to store and share patient records. The data capturing system will include records from all healthcare professionals, giving them a full picture when assessing an individual’s needs. The system allows organisations to securely disclose critical or time-dependent health and social care records, and could overcome the problem of files not being shared between GPs and hospitals, saving the NHS money and time when assessing new patients. Ultimately the research could significantly reduce the use of paper records. Elsewhere, an EPSRC-sponsored team from City University London and Coventry University have developed the MyCare card which, while it may look like just another credit card in your wallet, stores personal medical data that could mean the difference between life and death in a medical emergency. It is the first device of its type to be trialled in the UK. World-leading science Advances in research are helping to radically improve our understanding of disease and are enabling the design of treatments better tailored to individual patients. An example of this kind of work, involving cutting-edge research and world-class clinicians, is the world’s first synthetic organ transplant, which Swedish surgeons successfully carried out using a windpipe ‘grown’ from the patient’s stem cells, designed and developed by EPSRCsponsored scientists at UCL. Science and engineering research takes time, energy, patience and inspiration. Take DNA. In 1953 Watson and Crick’s brilliance and persistence unlocked the secrets of DNA, but it took decades of hard work and inspired thinking before we succeeded in mapping the human genome, in 2000.

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Since then, DNA research has accelerated dramatically, but the work still takes time. EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Southampton are leading the way in developing super-fast DNA tests, while Oxford Nanopore, a company set up to commercialise EPSRC-funded research, is developing a sensing system for low-cost mobile DNA sequencing developed at the University of Cambridge. Investing in people To provide the highly-skilled people needed to drive forward research and innovation, EPSRC funds the training of around 9,000 postgraduate students in engineering and the physical sciences (EPS). Indeed, we are the largest UK sponsor of EPS doctoral training, and a great many of the PhD students we support are engaged in multidisciplinary research connected to the life sciences. We are also investing heavily in specific training relevant to the life sciences, including Centres for Doctoral Training, providing industry-relevant PhD training in areas such as biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, imaging and regenerative medicine. Many of the PhD students we sponsor have gone on to receive further support from EPSRC, including standard research grants, programme grants and our Fellowships. An EPSRC Fellowship provides established and future research leaders with the time and resources they need to develop their ideas and build a team around their research – and then take that research to the next level, focusing on long-lasting impact.

To help ensure the life sciences sector has the tools and techniques it needs to develop world-leading medical technology, medical biotechnology, pharmaceutical products, and industrial biotechnology, we are also investing in healthcare-focused Centres for Innovative Manufacturing in areas such as low-cost pharmaceutical products and regenerative medicines. Working alongside a wide range of industrial partners, the Centres accelerate the application of the technologies they develop, potentially leading to their launch on commercial markets. Over 40 per cent of UK medical technology companies were formed in the past decade, including many spin outs arising from universitybased research. Success stories from EPSRCsponsored research include Apatech, whose revolutionary synthetic bone graft material is used by surgeons worldwide, and which was sold to US giant Baxter for $330 million, and medical imaging experts Mirada Medical who supply to hospitals and cancer centres around the world. As the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences, EPSRC has a unique understanding of the research landscape, and a finely-tuned awareness of how each link in our portfolio fits together – mathematicians working with social scientists, chemists with physicians, artificial intelligence experts working with manufacturers of prosthetic limbs.

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Every year, we train around 9,000 doctoral students, many of whom will be engaged in research connected to the life sciences.

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(Continued from previous page) Over the years we have built collaborations with over 650 non-university partners, including the medical profession, the NHS, other Research Councils, the life sciences industry, charities, and co-funders such as the Technology Strategy Board. As Pioneer went to press, we announced a new joint investment with Cancer Research UK, through which we are coinvesting a total of £35 million in universitybased centres to develop cutting-edge imaging technologies for basic and clinical cancer research. This new tranche of funding builds on an initial joint investment in 2008 of £45 million, and will bring together many of the UK’s leading scientists, engineers and clinicians to speed up advances in new technologies and help ensure these are applied rapidly to the benefit of patients. Our joint investment is now £80 million. We are also extending our Strategic Partnership with the Wellcome Trust, which already includes a £45 million coinvestment in four Centres of Excellence in Medical Engineering. Under the Innovative

Engineering for Health initiative we are co-investing £30 million with the Wellcome Trust to find biomedical engineering solutions to major healthcare problems. We shall soon see the publication of a review commissioned by EPSRC into the contribution of engineering and the physical sciences to health and the life sciences. I’m pleased to say the review, chaired by Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge, reflects our thinking on the need for greater multidisciplinary integration across research disciplines, with industry and beyond. The review also highlights the need for greater joined-up thinking at the policy level between major funders, stakeholders, academia and the health and life sciences sector. This is a valid point, and we will be working closely with others to effectively target resources to keep the UK at the forefront of developments in medical and life sciences. We are, however, starting from a good place, as the report makes clear. Throughout the healthcare system, GPs, surgeons, clinicians, nurses, ambulance

providers, social workers and many more are working alongside university researchers, charities, global companies, UK-grown SMEs and other Research Councils. Together we are part of a largely unsung UK success story that is integral to the development of technologies and treatments for 21st century healthcare – from creating synthetic blood to regenerating the human retina, helping the blind to see. These advances will lead to more sustainable healthcare and a better quality of life for all of us. But they also create new jobs and economic growth, and give UK companies the opportunity to compete in a huge global market estimated to be worth up to £170 billion per year. For decades, the UK has punched well above its weight in medical science. It’s time for those less visible in this story to take a bow: researchers from physics, chemistry, maths, computer science and engineering who are conceiving new healthcare technologies and working with others to turn them into reality. This edition of Pioneer shows how EPSRC is supporting them in doing this.

INTEGRATED INVESTMENT EPSRC is investing over £500 million in research and training directly relevant to health. EPSRC’s Healthcare Technologies theme has four main strategic priorities to help drive forward the life sciences sector and support the National Health Service. They are:

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•

Design, manufacture and integration of healthcare technologies: from lab research to commercial reality.

•

Enhanced prediction and diagnosis: in real time and at the point of care: for example, sensor technologies to detect and measure a patient’s physical condition, both in the hospital and at home.

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Novel therapeutic and treatment technologies: advancing research in areas such as regenerative medicine, drug delivery, artificial implants and mathematical modelling.

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Technologies for a healthy life course: for example, to help the elderly retain their mobility and independence; and to enable people to self-manage their health, reducing the need for healthcare professionals to be involved.

THE TREATMENT From major strategic partnerships to Centres for Innovative Manufacturing, EPSRC is investing over £500 million in research and training directly relevant to health. MAJOR PARTNERSHIPS AND INVESTMENTS

£32m

EPSRC has around 440 different collaborators across its healthcare technologies portfolio, and currently invests £513 million. A further £96 million is contributed by collaborators on grants, including world-leading life sciences companies, SMEs and the charitable sector. They include: •

£45 million in joint funding with the Wellcome Trust to support four Centres of Excellence in Medical Engineering. Joint funding has also been agreed with the Wellcome Trust under the Innovative

£98m

invested through cash and in-kind contributions from collaborative partners Engineering for Health initiative, through which £30 million has been committed to research to find biomedical engineering solutions to challenging healthcare problems. •

80 million in joint funding to support a £ network of EPSRC-Cancer Research UK cancer imaging centres. An initial investment of £45 million in 2008, with

£80m

co-funded by EPSRC and Cancer Research UK in cancer imaging centres PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

into three Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations support from the National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council, was complemented by a new joint EPSRC/CRUK investment of £35 million in October 2013. •

£32 million into three university-based Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations (see pages 38-39).

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£25 million with the Medical Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Technology Strategy Board in a national Regenerative Medicine Platform.

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£16.2 million with Research Councils UK and the Technology Strategy Board Nanoscience Programme in nanoenabled transformative diagnostics. £12.2 million for 15 medical engineering research projects, focusing on: Medical imaging with onus on neuroimaging; Acute treatment technology; Assistive technology & rehabilitation and therapies.

•

£10 million initiative to encourage engagement with small charities and SMEs. In 2013 this work is continuing through Healthcare Impact Partnerships.

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£24 million in biopharmaceuticals design and manufacturing research, jointly with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and 20 partner companies.

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Strategic Partnerships with Pfizer AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. These have already led to over £14 million of joint investments in drug discovery-related collaborative research and PhD training.

MANUFACTURING THE FUTURE EPSRC has invested in dedicated healthcare-focused Centres for Innovative Manufacturing in areas such as lowcost pharmaceutical products and regenerative medicines. Working with a range of industrial partners, the Centres accelerate application and commercialisation of the technologies they develop.

£513m

total EPSRC investment in health-relevant research PHD TRAINING EPSRC invests extensively in doctoral-level training, including: •

Centres for Doctoral Training providing industry-relevant PhD training in areas such as medical devices, imaging and regenerative medicine.

•

Industrial CASE. In 2012-2014 EPSRC will support 117 placements for PhD students in life sciences companies.

•

A training partnership with AstraZeneca; establishing a centre of excellence in targeted therapeutics at the University of Nottingham.

£45m

with the Wellcome Trust in Centres of Excellence in Medical Engineering

Fitter, healthier, happier From medical imaging technologies to tissue regeneration; better hospital design to new medical devices; cloud computing to prosthetics; smarter drug delivery to infection control, EPSRC is investing in a host of projects to support health and the life sciences, particularly through research into new healthcare technologies. Here’s a snapshot of some of them. Needle point Margaret Lucas, Professor of Ultrasonics at the University of Glasgow’s School of Engineering, together with researchers at the universities of Dundee and Edinburgh, is developing a new form of surgical needle which vibrates at ultrasonic frequencies. The technology, which is being developed with project partners Ethicon Endo-Surgery and Weidlinger Associates Inc, would allow doctors to penetrate bone with needles with much less force than is currently required, improving the effectiveness of biopsies and allowing a more effective delivery of drugs to parts of the body obscured by bone. Ultrasonic needles could also make it easier for doctors to penetrate areas of hard tissue without affecting the surrounding soft tissue. Potential applications for the technology include neurosurgery, orthopaedics, bone biopsy, oncology and rheumatology.

Watching brief EPSRC-supported researchers at the Newcastle University Research Councils UK Digital Economy SiDE hub have developed sensors for use in digital wristwatch devices to help people suffering from cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. Designed to make use of cloud computing technology, the sensors measure a patient’s activity, bringing in a vast amount of data that can be analysed to help understand their behaviour. In this way, personalised treatments can be designed to enable patients to modify the amount and type of exercise they are getting to alleviate their medical problems. PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

When the patient visits the clinic, a nurse plugs the watch into a computer and within minutes the data is analysed into readable reports for the patient and the doctor.

Sweet success University of Strathclyde researchers, led by Professor Duncan Graham and supported by EPSRC, are developing an easy-to-use nano sensor that detects molecules of glucose. The team hope it could become a major weapon in the battle against the global diabetes epidemic. A potential application for the technology would be as part of a sensor placed under the skin, which could be transformational in the lives of patients who need to draw blood several times a day to test their sugar levels. The technology could also have applications as an early warning system for impending diabetes, with the potential for the sensor to help control the condition by releasing tiny amounts of insulin. The project is in collaboration with King’s College NHS Foundation Trust in London.

Alzheimer’s alert Ground-breaking research taking place at the University of York could lead to Alzheimer’s disease being diagnosed in minutes using a simple brain scan. The research team, co-led by Professor Simon Duckett, are working on new technology that could revolutionise the way in which Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans are used to view the molecular events behind diseases like Alzheimer’s, without invasive procedure, by increasing

the sensitivity of an average hospital scanner by 200,000 times. The York research project is supported by EPSRC, the Wellcome Trust, the Wolfson Foundation, Bruker Biospin and the University of York.

Ambulance award The Emergency Ambulance project, a joint initiative between EPSRC, the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and the Royal Academy of Art, has won the Industrial Designers Society of America Silver Award for Research at the 2012 International Design Excellence Awards. The project, to create a new ambulance interior fit for 21st century healthcare, was developed by bringing together frontline paramedics, clinicians, patients, academic researchers, engineers and designers in a co-design process. A full-size mobile demonstrator of the new ambulance interior was formally launched in 2011. The redesign focuses on improving clinical efficiency and enhancing patient safety. Modular equipment packs containing specific treatment consumables have been incorporated to aid clinical performance, infection control and stock control.

Battling the bugs EPSRC-funded researchers at the University of Leeds are investigating the impact of building design, human behaviour and indoor air flows on airborne pathogens in hospital wards.

The team are using analytical modelling techniques, lab-scale experiments and on-site data to evaluate risk across different ward designs. As part of their research, the team found that hospital superbugs can float on air currents and contaminate surfaces far from infected patients’ beds. This may explain why, despite strict cleaning regimes and hygiene controls, some hospitals still struggle to prevent bacteria moving from patient to patient. It is already recognised that hospital superbugs, such as MRSA and C-difficile, can be spread through contact, resulting in a greater emphasis in hospitals on keeping hands and surfaces clean. But the Sheffield research team showed that coughing, sneezing or simply shaking the bedclothes can send superbugs into flight, allowing them to contaminate recentlycleaned surfaces. The research is co-supported by an EPSRC Challenging Engineering grant held by project leader Dr Cath Noakes.

FluPhone app A mobile phone app that tracks how people behave during an epidemic could be used to limit the spread of disease. The app, which has been developed by EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Cambridge, monitors influenzalike symptoms by prompting questions for the mobile phone owner. The app also captures physical proximity information between individuals by recording other devices nearby via Bluetooth communication.

The team treated E. coli bacteria with different combinations of antibiotics in laboratory experiments. Unexpectedly they found that the rate of evolution of antibiotic resistance speeds up when potent treatments are given because resistant bacterial cells flourish most during the more aggressive therapies.

3D heart monitoring A team of EPSRC-supported University of Sheffield scientists and researchers from the Northern General Hospital and St Thomas’s Hospital London are trialling state-of-theart computer modelling systems that could provide a breakthrough in the treatment of patients with heart failure, which affects 900,000 people in the UK every year. The multi-centre trial uses the latest 3D images of the heart to predict a patient’s response to a common treatment for the condition, specifically through the use of a pacemaker. At present, clinicians have to use traditional tests such as an echocardiogram to assess whether a patient is suitable for a pacemaker. With the new personalised models, they will be able to measure a wider range of important factors to create more personalised models of the heart. Patient John Brewitt, 61, of High Green, who joined the trial, said: “I think this study is a really good progression for patients. Having the computer images done is easy and quick for everyone involved, and so I can really see how this can lead to improvements.”

Star Trek tech A University of Glasgow-led research project is aiming to develop a handheld Star Trek-style ‘multicorder’ capable of quickly providing medical staff with accurate information about their patients’ condition. The EPSRC-supported project includes engineers, chemists and biochemists from the universities of Glasgow and Newcastle, and involves a number of industrial partners. The multicorder will house a selection of custom-engineered sensors to provide a snapshot of an individual’s current condition by measuring samples of blood or saliva. The resulting picture will provide instant feedback on their condition similar to diagnoses made by doctors using the famous tricorder device in the Star Trek films and TV series. Principal investigator, Professor David Cumming, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Engineering, says: “We hope to be able to replicate the capabilities of a whole lab in a single handheld device, making it much easier for doctors, paramedics and other medical professionals to make effective diagnoses. “For countries in the developing world where access to laboratory tests can be limited, multicorder technology could mean the difference between life and death for patients.”

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Project leader, Professor Jon Crowcroft, says: “There are more cell phones than people. And, in most urban areas, network coverage is close to 100 per cent, hence we can get very accurate measurement and sampling of the population.”

Evolution overdrive Research from the University of Exeter and Kiel University in Germany, led by Professor Robert Beardmore, who holds an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship, shows that bacteria can evolve resistance more quickly when stronger antibiotics are used. PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

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Bone disease diagnosis EPSRC-supported academics at Cranfield University are developing a new approach to medical diagnosis for bone diseases such as osteoporosis. Professor Keith Rogers and Dr Peter Zioupos are using expertise in bone mineral chemistry and X-ray diffraction to develop a technique called ‘focal construct technology’. Professor Rogers says: “The current screening approach, known as a Dexa scan, tells a clinician about a patient’s bone density, but this is only part of the story. What’s missing is information on the quality of the bone, and our new technique will indicate this. “In the future, by combining the two screening techniques, there’s the potential for a single result which will offer a much better prediction model to assist clinicians in diagnosis and treatment.”

Fighting burn infection EPSRC-funded scientists at the University of Bath, working with clinicians at North Bristol NHS Trust, are developing a medical dressing that could potentially save the lives of children with serious burns. Alongside clinicians at the South West Paediatric Burns Centre at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, the team have developed a prototype dressing that releases dye from nanocapsules triggered by the presence of diseasecausing pathogenic bacteria.

The dye fluoresces under ultraviolet (UV) light, indicating that the wound is infected. The nanocapsules mimic skin cells in that they only break open when toxic bacteria are present, not responding to the harmless bacteria that normally live on healthy skin. Dr Toby Jenkins is leading the project. He says: “Around 5,000 children a year in England and Wales are hospitalised or treated in hospital with serious burns, mostly scalds caused by tea and coffee. “The big problem for clinicians is the fast diagnosis of infection. Current methods take between 24 and 48 hours to get an answer as to whether the wound is infected. “However our burns dressing gives a simple colour change under UV light if a pathogenic, disease-causing bacteria is present in the burn, meaning clinicians can be alerted quickly to a potential infection.”

Faster DNA testing

The research is supported by EPSRC and the Technology Strategy Board.

Steely determination Materials scientists at the University of Birmingham, led by Professor Hanshan Dong, have devised a way of making stainless steel surfaces resistant to bacteria. By introducing silver or copper into the steel surface (rather than coating it onto the surface), the researchers have developed a technique that not only kills bacteria but is also very hard and resistant to wear and tear during cleaning. Bacteria resistant surfaces could be used in hospitals to prevent the spread of superbug infections on stainless steel surfaces, as well as in medical equipment, for example, instruments and implants.

Researchers from the University of Southampton are developing an innovative technique for super-fast DNA testing for medical conditions that is paving the way to point-of-care tests for medical conditions and faster crime scene analysis.

The technology could also be adapted for use in the food industry and home kitchens.

In partnership with international analytical science company, LGC, the team have developed a new way of fluorescently labelling DNA with special probes, known as HyBeacons. Project leader, Professor Tom Brown, says: “HyBeacons are like little balls of loosely screwed-up string that uncoil easily and find their targets.”

Scientists have developed a way of testing for HIV and early-stage diseases with a colour-changing sensor 10 times more sensitive than current similar technology.

The HyBeacons light up when they attach to a specific target sequence of DNA. Their advantage over existing systems is their very simple structure, which makes them more predictable: they bind faster to their targets and always work. Professor Brown says: “In theory you could diagnose

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any infectious or genetic disease by using HyBeacons on the DNA sequence of bacteria, viruses or people.”

Smart sensor success

The team, from Imperial College London, led by Professor Molly Stevens, have developed a prototype ultra-sensitive sensor that could enable doctors to detect the early stages of diseases and viruses with the naked eye. The researchers say their sensor would benefit countries where sophisticated detection equipment is scarce, enabling cheaper and simpler detection and treatments for patients. Professor Stevens says: “It is vital that patients get periodically tested in order to assess the success of retroviral therapies and check for new cases of infection. “Unfortunately, the existing gold standard detection methods can be too expensive to be implemented in parts of the world where resources are scarce. Our approach affords for improved sensitivity, does not require sophisticated instrumentation and is 10 times cheaper, which could allow more tests to be performed for better screening of many diseases.”

First sighting

a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge, led by Senior Research Associate Dr Neal Lathia.

EPSRC-supported scientists at the University of Aberdeen, led by Professor David Lurie, have developed a radically new type of MRI scanning technique which may ‘see’ disease at an earlier stage than standard MRI – and in greater detail. The scanning method is thought to be the first of its type in the world.

The app’s designers hope it will accumulate a very precise record of what drives people’s emotional peaks, showing, for example, when they are likely to be at their most stressed, or when they feel most relaxed. This could prove particularly valuable for helping people who need specialist psychological support.

It is hoped the team’s method may also reveal ‘biomarkers’ – detectable indicators of disease state or progression – which might eventually help pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, as well as other diseases like cancer.

In the blood Dr Rob Thomas, from Loughborough University, who holds an EPSRC Early Career Fellowship, is developing tools to manufacture large quantities of medically valuable cells from umbilical cord blood. The project aims to provide manufacturing tools for clinicians to develop new treatments for serious diseases, and produce stocks of manufactured blood or platelets for transfusions while supporting an important new economic activity in the UK. Dr Thomas says: “Umbilical cord blood contains immature cells with powerful properties to repair the human body and is increasingly used instead of bone marrow to treat childhood blood cancers such as leukaemia as there are fewer rejection problems. It could also help in the treatment of other serious conditions such as organ failure and diabetes. “Cord blood cells could also potentially generate large numbers of high value red blood cells or platelets for transfusion, or immune system cells for immunotherapies.” Dr Thomas’ work has evolved from projects in the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine; a national collaboration led from Loughborough University.

Mood swings An Android app which monitors users’ mood swings and works out what might be causing them has been developed by PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

Life saver Surgeons in Sweden have carried out the world’s first synthetic organ transplant using a windpipe ‘grown’ from the patient’s stem cells. The replica organ was designed and developed by EPSRC-sponsored scientists.

Sonic pill A University of Dundee-led project aims to develop a capsule carrying tiny ultrasound technology that can be easily swallowed and passed through the gastrointestinal tract, relaying images which clinicians can use to diagnose any problems. Project leader, Professor Sandy Cochran, says: “So-called pillcams are a developing area of medical technology which have already benefitted more than one million patients. “We aim to develop that technology further to include ultrasound, for the first time seeing beyond the surface of the gastrointestinal tract into the tissue itself. This will bring significant diagnostic benefits for patients. We also want to explore treatment with such pills.”

The surgeons successfully implanted a synthetic windpipe ‘scaffold’ into the throat of a cancer patient. Without the new windpipe, the patient, whose own windpipe had been blocked by an inoperable tumour the size of a golf ball, would have died.

The project includes collaborators at Heriot-Watt University and the University of Glasgow, and is linked with the NHS and with industry partners.

The artificial organ was designed and developed by a multidisciplinary team led by Professor Alex Seifalian at University College London.

Tumour sensors

The team used 3D computerised tomography scans of the patient to craft a perfect copy of his trachea using a glass mould, from which they developed a replica ‘scaffold’ using a biocompatible polymer.

Cell mate A Lancaster University team are developing a routine diagnostic tool called an ‘endotheliometer’ which measures activity within the endothelium, a layer of cells that coats the inside of every blood vessel in the body.

Tiny sensors to monitor tumours in unprecedented levels of detail are being developed in a five-year project at the University of Edinburgh, led by Professor Alan Murray. The devices, about the size of an eyelash, would be implanted into patients’ tumours, where they could ‘spy’ on a cancerous growth’s activity. The team believe the development would allow doctors to administer radiotherapy and, in time, chemotherapy where and when it is most needed, ultimately improving recovery rates.

Professor Aneta Stefanovska says: “Endothelial function declines with age, and diseases such as heart failure have associated endothelial dysfunction. “We can use the tool to check that the state of ageing is within healthy limits and can try to prevent possible complications leading to serious impairment and cardiovascular disease.” The project is funded by EPSRC, the Wellcome Trust and now the Economic and Social Research Council, under its New Dynamics of Ageing programme.

Face value Cancer patients and trauma victims who suffer facial disfigurement can wait weeks before they are well enough to have a soft tissue prosthesis made and fitted. Now, research and development inspired by a 2002 EPSRC-supported research project has shown how waiting times for a new prosthesis can be dramatically reduced while improving the quality of life of the patient at the earliest stage. Words: John Yates

Professor Ric van Noort, of the University of Sheffield’s School of Clinical Dentistry, has seen at first hand the effects that cancer and trauma can have on patients with facial disfigurement in both the developed and the developing world, and has long believed there must be a quicker and less intrusive way of helping rebuild their faces and their lives. He says: “For patients requiring the fitting of a soft tissue prosthesis, such as an ear or nose, the process of making and fitting prostheses is archaic at best. “It requires taking an impression from the patient, then making a mould, then handpainting the prosthesis, and then custom modification during fitting to the patient. “The whole process is time-consuming and the quality of the prosthesis, once made, can be highly variable. We knew there had to be a better, more modern way of making soft tissue prostheses but weren’t sure how it could be done.” A potential solution emerged back in 2002 when Professor van Noort joined forces with De Montfort University’s Professor David Wimpenny on the EPSRC-funded Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering

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Technologies in Surgery project. Professor van Noort says: “David had secured EPSRC funding to look at how a new industrial technology called additive manufacturing – better known as 3D printing – could be applied to the medical field. “We worked with him on the dental side where we explored the use of 3D printing to produce customised jaw joints. That experience convinced me this was a technology that could transform patient care.” In dentistry, the fitting of implants is already becoming a digital process. “The days of the technician sitting by the side of the patient waxing-up a mould will soon disappear. Instead they will be sitting at a computer, designing crowns and bridges which will ultimately be made directly by using 3D printing technology,” says Professor van Noort. But could a technology which makes dental implants with hard materials such as cobalt chrome be adapted to produce soft tissue implants such as an ear or a nose? All the evidence seemed to suggest that this was impossible. Until, that is, Professor van Noort bumped into a young innovator and

entrepreneur at an international conference on additive manufacturing. His name was Tom Fripp, an industrial design graduate from Sheffield Hallam University and an expert in rapid manufacturing processes. “Professor van Noort presented us with a real challenge, but we knew there had to be an industrial design solution,” says Tom Fripp, Managing Director at Fripp Design and Research. Having produced some early prototypes, the company worked closely with the University of Sheffield and was able to secure £8,950 in funding support from the university’s Knowledge Transfer Opportunities Fund and a White Rose Health Innovation Partnership grant of £35,500 to develop the technology. The success of this work led to a joint approach to the Wellcome Trust in January 2009 which secured a Translation Award of £510,000 to develop a commercially viable solution. Four years on, the collaboration is close to realising its goal, with funding for clinical trials being secured by one of their early collaborators, Professor Julian Yates, who is now at the University of Manchester. (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) Professor van Noort says: “Getting to this stage has been challenging. There were so many technical as well as regulatory hurdles to overcome, not least of which was ensuring that the colour and texture of the prosthesis matched perfectly the patient’s skin, and that the materials we used triggered no adverse reactions.” All the hard work paid off, however, when they produced a prototype replacement nose for a nasal cancer patient. Tom Fripp says: “She was delighted. In the past she had had to undergo an invasive process in order to produce an impression from which a model could be cast that would then be used to construct the prosthesis. This could take all morning. Our process, which involved using 3D photogrammetry, took minutes and requires no contact with the patient’s skin.

However, given that patients in Europe and America already have access to highly skilled maxillofacial technologists, the team believe that demand for the new technology is much more likely to come from health systems in the developing world. Professor van Noort says: “What we have created is a method that can produce a reasonably lifelike soft tissue prosthesis really cheaply

UK. “There is a long time interval between surgery and the fitting of a prosthesis in Britain,” says Fripp. “This is a difficult time for the patient. Since our method requires no physical contact and can be made within 48 hours, our prostheses could fill this gap. It would certainly be good enough to act as an interim measure, and the prosthesis can be replaced on a weekly or fortnightly basis as necessary while the scar tissue settles down and when the fit becomes compromised.” For Ric van Noort it is the combination of Fripp’s industrial design expertise and the university’s knowledge of materials and colour mapping that will “improve the quality of life for thousands of soft tissue prosthesis wearers”.

What we have created is a method that can produce a reasonably lifelike soft tissue prosthesis really cheaply and quickly.

“Because the materials we use are lighter, the patient noticed immediately how comfortable the new nose felt and how the more feathered edge made it easier to blend to her face.”

and quickly, and which is also cheap and easy to replace when it wears out. Thus, these prostheses will fill a need for many patients around the world not as fortunate as those who have a maxillofacial technologist on their doorstep.” Nevertheless the technology does have a role to play in patient care here in the

Tom Fripp says: “This project demonstrates what can be achieved when a university works closely with an SME to deliver better solutions to their patients’ needs.”

You can read more about this story in Discover, a magazine devoted to research and much more at the University of Sheffield. discover@sheffield.ac.uk

Printers’ process The system developed by Tom Fripp (pictured opposite) and Professor Ric van Noort (pictured below right) captures facial texture and colour in 2D images which are then mapped onto the scanned 3D image. A 3D copy is then manufactured on a ZCorp 3D colour printer using 100 per cent biocompatible materials. These core materials consist of a form of starch that is later injected with inert silicone that gives the material its flexible, flesh-like texture. Tom Fripp says: “The colour data can be captured with any good digital camera. As 3D scanning technology becomes ever more available, and affordable, so the cost of capturing the patient data becomes more viable across the globe. All we need here in the UK is that data to manufacture the prostheses.” PI0NEER 11 Winter 2013

Above: A prototype replacement nose. The team’s method requires no physical contact, and the prosthesis can be made within 48 hours, using reasonably lifelike soft tissue, both cheaply and quickly. The prosthesis can also be replaced on a weekly or fortnightly basis as necessary, while the scar tissue settles down.

Bursting cancerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bubble Innovative drug delivery techniques based on ultrasound are set to transform the effectiveness of chemotherapy cancer treatment. Words: Chris Buratta

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Vehicle design conjures an image of drag and downforce. But a team of engineers in Oxford are developing very different kinds of vehicle that could revolutionise cancer therapy. Hundreds of thousands of people treated for cancer each year undergo chemotherapy, an established drug treatment that works through repeated doses of a toxin to attack and kill cancer cells. However, once injected the drug affects many healthy cells and organs, causing significant and unpleasant side effects such as hair loss, nausea, vomiting and fatigue. Ultimately, this limits the amount of drug that can be safely delivered. The concept developed by the team at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) at the University of Oxford, is a simple one; put the chemotherapy drug in a capsule or bubble and then burst that bubble using ultrasound when it reaches the tumour area.

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The science, of course, is far more complex. But the implications are game changing. These new delivery systems will dramatically increase the ability to target chemotherapy drugs, increase their impact and reduce side effects. “Typically, when the drug is injected into the patient, less than half of one per cent of that drug dose will actually make it to the target tumour,” says Constantin Coussios, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the IBME. “Using the thermal and mechanical effects of ultrasound to deliver the drug, we can increase that to as much as 25 per cent.” Professor Constantin Coussios and Dr Eleanor Stride have both been supported by EPSRC Challenging Engineering awards. Since 2005, the Challenging Engineering programme has invested £35 million to develop future leaders and keep the UK at the cutting edge of research.

Over the past five years, Professor Coussios has been working on a type of capsule known as a liposome, which is just a few hundred nanometres in size. One nanometre is equal to one thousand millionth of a metre. The drug is encapsulated within the liposome – a layer of lipid and cholesterol that is naturally present in all cells in the body. When heated, the capsule ‘melts’, releasing the drug within. By only heating the tumour area, the drug is only released in that area, helping protect healthy organs and tissue from exposure to the drug. The project involves clinicians at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, and patient trials are set to take place at the Oxford Cancer Centre in 2014. The trial will utilise the centre’s £1.5 million High Intensity Focused Ultrasound facility (HIFU), one of very few in the country. (Continued on next page)

Photography: Mark Mallett

Bubble act: Professor Constantin Coussios and Dr Eleanor Stride setting up a therapeutic ultrasound transducer for a targeted drug delivery experiment.

(Continued from previous page) HIFU will be used to heat the tumour area to a temperature of around 42 degrees Celsius, not high enough to kill healthy cells, but warm enough to ‘melt’ the capsule and release the drug. “This is the very first time these drug delivery strategies are being trialled on humans,” says Professor Coussios. “We are very excited. If we see some of the benefits that we have seen in pre-clinical models, particularly the much higher concentrations of drug accumulating in the tumour and the ability to achieve drug delivery on demand, then this will change the face of oncology for decades to come.” The concept is clever in more ways than one. Fabricating the capsules to a certain size can increase the concentration in PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

the tumour itself by utilising the so-called Enhanced Permeability and Retention (EPR) effect. This takes advantage of increased fenestration, essentially larger gaps in the blood vessel walls close to a tumour. By developing capsules small enough to pass through these larger gaps, but too big to pass through the blood vessel wall in healthy tissue, it allows higher concentrations of the drug to accumulate in the tumour area. This higher accumulation of drug in the tumour area combined with the ability to trigger its release on demand is, as Professor Coussios suggests, “game changing” for cancer treatment. But unlike the drugs, the team are not in a bubble. Professor Coussios’s office and laboratories are on the lower ground floor of

the Research Building at Oxford University’s Old Road campus. Three floors above him is the clinical pharmacology department making the drugs. Five hundred yards away is the £109 million Oxford Cancer Centre, run by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, where clinical teams have played a key role in developing the technology and where it is likely to be trialled using HIFU technology early in the New Year. These partnerships are essential for maximising impact from the research. The project is also supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, a collaboration between Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and Oxford University to translate basic science into patient benefit.

But, like all good engineers, the team have already identified areas for improvement and are working on the solutions. Professor Coussios says: “If a similar treatment could be applied using a low power ultrasound machine – similar to those used by maternity services up and down the country, which are smaller, lighter and safer for patients – it would be more readily available to hospital units around the world.”

“What we want is something that is not only thermally sensitive but mechanically sensitive, something we can actually ‘pop’ open. “This gives us far more control and the process of breaking the bubble open has advantages in delivering the drug into the target cells.

Dr Eleanor Stride, who moved to Oxford to join the IBME in 2011, is working on an alternative method that can be used with low power ultrasound.

“When we focus the ultrasound the gas gets compressed and expanded just like squeezing a balloon. It is that motion that allows the bubble to get into the cells and eventually breaks down the material to release the drug.”

Instead of using a liposome, Dr Stride encapsulates drugs within a microbubble made from similar materials but which, crucially, contains gas, making it highly responsive to ultrasound. She says:

To achieve even better targeting, Dr Stride includes magnetic nanoparticles in the bubble formulation which allows the bubbles and hence the drug to be localised in a target area using a magnetic field.

There are still barriers to overcome as Dr Stride explains: “Getting the drug into a bubble so it really stays there until we are ready to release it is not trivial in terms of the complex chemistry involved. “What we’d really like to be able to do is combine the advantages of the liposome technique for tumour penetration with the targeting and low energy requirements of the microbubble method. That’s what we’re working together on doing now. “But this is an engineering problem, a vehicle design problem. You do what any engineer would do. You identify the problem you are trying to solve, you break that down and come up with ways to solve it.” It is a simple approach to a simple concept, delivered by world-class engineers, that could burst cancer’s bubble.

Ultrasound in healthcare Ultrasound is the safest and fastest method of scanning the body to provide medical diagnosis. Images are made by directing ultrasonic waves into the body, where they bounce off internal organs and other objects and are reflected back to a detector.

Researcher Dr Apurva Shah manufactures drug carrying liposomes.

Above: Dr Eleanor Stride fine tunes the gas pressure in the microbubble fabrication process.

EPSRC Challenging Engineering Awards Challenging Engineering Awards, which are now part of EPSRC’s Fellowship scheme, are made to the most promising early career researchers who have the potential to become engineering research leaders.

communications technologies and process, environment & sustainability.

Since 2005, £35 million in Challenging Engineering Awards has been invested in nearly 40 researchers in areas such as materials, mechanical and medical engineering, information &

With a five-year lifespan, the awards enable holders to build multidisciplinary teams around them to realise their research vision and push the boundaries of conventional thinking.

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Below: PhD student Rachel Myers examines a new formulation of stimuli responsive nanoparticles.

Award-holders are provided with the resources and flexibility they need to approach traditional challenges in new and exciting ways.

Regeneration man From trainee aerospace engineer to successful biomedical inventor, to membership of EPSRC’s governing body, Professor John Fisher CBE, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds, has enjoyed a career bristling with variety and garlanded with achievements. He tells Pioneer about a life less ordinary – and a yearning for more hours in the day. I have had a very diverse career path. It has made me what I am today. After graduating from the University of Birmingham in 1976, I spent 12 years in industry – initially as a trainee automotive and aerospace engineer. A postgraduate course in design and manufacture en route to becoming a chartered engineer led me to work in the National Health Service as a biomedical engineer.

Research, and now as the university’s first Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

area, which include simulation, modelling, design, manufacture, testing and evaluation.

It has given me great professional satisfaction to see the university’s ranking move up from 25th to 13th as defined by the 2008 national Research Assessment Exercise. This was a major advance for the institution, and something I worked hard to achieve as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research.

You must also be prepared to create new solutions to problems and challenges that are important to society and industry. Your work should not simply be about generating new knowledge. I would like to think we have successfully incorporated this approach and philosophy at Leeds.

My PhD, which involved industry, clinicians and academia, gave me great personal satisfaction, and was transformational in my career. The knowledge I gained from it enabled me to successfully design and bring to market a new kind of porcine bioprosthetic heart valve, in 1990. The valve is still manufactured today by Vaskutec and has led to a wide portfolio of related products. Experiences such as these helped me understand the importance of multidisciplinary R&D at the academic/industry interface. The benefits for both academia and industry are mutual – in each case two plus two can be made to equal 10.

In my role as an educator, I have presided over the training and graduation of over 100 PhD students, many of whom are working in industry and in healthcare systems across the world, making their own impact and contribution to improving the quality of life. I would like to think the multidisciplinary training and approaches and values they experienced en route to achieving their doctorates have contributed to their achievements. My early industry experience in mainstream traditional engineering has been very influential. Engineering in its broadest form is simply the application of science with a defined purpose. I believe that to make progress and move beyond the basic science, beyond the test tube or the laboratory bench, you need to think like an engineer, and adopt professional engineering approaches within the research

My experience in academia, industry and the National Health Service helped me to hone the leadership style I have used for the last 25 years at the University of Leeds, as faculty Pro Dean, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for

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I am proud to have worked with Professor Eileen Ingham for many years. In the 1990s we developed the Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (iMBE) at Leeds into one of the leading multidisciplinary medical and biological engineering centres in Europe. The centre is recognised as a world leader in simulation systems for improved and longer-lasting joint replacements, in collaboration with industry partners across the globe. Contrary to thinking at the time, we felt it was possible to implant biological scaffolds derived from animal tissue without rejection, as a regenerative scaffold, provided we were able to remove the cells and immunological molecules. This has been an important strand of our strategy over the last 10 years and led to the creation of spin out company Tissue Regenix plc.

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biological scaffolds for tissue regeneration (led by Professor Eileen Ingham); and enhanced quality and reliability of the things we make and use, such as implants, biomaterials and regenerative interventions. We are addressing these challenges through seven major centres and programme grants, including the EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine; the EPSRC/Wellcome Trustsupported WELMEC Centre of Excellence in Medical Engineering; the NIHR Leeds

Team dynamic: Professor John Fisher with his colleague and cofounder of Tissue Regenix plc, Professor Eileen Ingham.

(Continued from previous page) Broadly speaking, everything we do at the iMBE relates to the 50 Active Years after 50® healthcare technologies initiative. Driven by patient need, we have three main goals: longer-lasting joint replacements; acellular

Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, in collaboration with Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust; and the EPSRC-supported Innovation and Knowledge Centre in Regenerative Therapies and Devices. I have been involved with EPSRC for many years – sitting on panels, on advisory groups and, since 2010, as a member of its Council, the senior decision-making body responsible for determining policy, priorities and strategy, and for the stewardship of its budget. The strategic and policy role of Council is critical if the UK is to compete in an increasingly challenging global environment. Emerging countries such as India and China are investing substantially in the physical sciences, technology and engineering – and are achieving accelerated research growth and impact as a result. In the UK we have to recognise we are a small provider in terms of global research and innovation (less than five per cent) so we simply have to be the best in terms of quality, benefits and impact. Pictures courtesy Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Leeds

EPSRC CENTRE FOR INNOVATIVE MANUFACTURING IN MEDICAL DEVICES The EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Medical Devices, launched in February 2013, focuses on transforming the way replacement joints and other medical implants are made – helping to improve the quality of patients’ lives. The £5.7 million EPSRC Centre brings together academics, industrialists and clinicians, and aims to address the major day-to-day challenges faced by manufacturers. Instead of doctors ordering, unpacking and fitting implants, the aim is to personalise devices to meet individuals’ needs, made in or near the clinical setting.

The Centre is based at the University of Leeds’ Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (iMBE), one of the UK’s leading bioengineering research institutions. The iMBE, led by Professor John Fisher, has pioneered work on longer-lasting joint replacements, revolutionary spinal interventions and biological scaffolds for tissue repair that grow with the body. The Centre works with the EPSRC-supported Innovation and Knowledge Centre in Regenerative Therapies and Devices at Leeds, also led by Professor Fisher, which largely focuses on research translation and the development of new technologies to prepare for private sector investment.

An immunology bioreactor heart valve used by Professor Fisher and his team.

EPSRC COUNCIL Professor John Fisher is a member of EPSRC Council, the senior decisionmaking body responsible for determining policy, priorities and strategy. It is also accountable for the stewardship of EPSRC’s budget and the extent to which performance objectives are met.

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There are currently 19 members of Council, which is accountable to Parliament, and membership includes senior academics and industrialists. Council consults regularly with EPSRC’s strategic advisory bodies, other advocates, key partners in those

universities which are the major recipients of EPSRC sponsorship, and key strategic partners in business. The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills appoints Council members. Appointments are made on merit and with independent assessment.

Being a member of EPSRC Council is a major societal responsibility. It is not just about helping to formulate strategies and policies that support and sustain the UK research base. It is also about delivering future benefits to the UK – to industry, government, public bodies, universities, students and the UK taxpayer. We encourage innovation and its translation into new technologies, products and processes, and foster joint investment from funders and sponsors as well as universities and industry. This work goes hand-in-hand with ensuring EPSRC is at the forefront of training and development of the next generation of scientists and technical leaders, whose achievements we must strive to ensure rank with the very best in the world. When I look around the research landscape there are many important and challenging areas to address: energy, sustainability, water, transport, manufacturing, information technology.

These challenges do not respect traditional academic disciplines. EPSRC has played a leadership role in developing multidisciplinary approaches and challenge-led research within Research Councils UK, and I hope I have contributed to this in a small way. I think I have the best job in the world. I feel privileged to be an academic in the UK. It is a career full of opportunities and choices. Away from my work, I try to keep healthy and fit; go to the gym; walk in the Yorkshire Dales. We also have season tickets at Old Trafford – my wife is a lifelong Manchester United supporter. I have a large garden which is an ongoing project – supporting the visiting wildlife while keeping moderate order, and a degree of tidiness – but I am not always in control of the balance. Most importantly, it gets me out of the house on a weekend. If I were to be granted one wish, it would be to have more time. There is always much more to do.

BIOGRAPHY John Fisher CBE; FREng; FIMechE; FIPEM; Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Responsibilities: Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Leeds. Professor Fisher also provides leadership to over 200 academic researchers in medical engineering. Positions at Leeds include: Director of the Institute of Medical & Biological Engineering (iMBE); Director EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine; Director of the Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Medical Devices; Co-Director Leeds Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit; Director N8 Regenerative Medicine Centre. Research activities: Joint replacement and substitution; tissue engineering; and pre-clinical simulation. Director: Tissue Regenix plc.

Tissue Regenix, a university spin out company specialising in human tissue regeneration products, is developing cutting-edge technology that could revolutionise medicine – in a global industry worth an estimated $7 billion. Founded in 2006 by Professors John Fisher and Eileen Ingham to commercialise their EPSRC-funded research at the University of Leeds, Tissue Regenix’s first product – a vascular patch derived from pig tissue which repairs damaged human veins – gained its CE mark in 2010 and is now sold globally outside the USA. The company’s proprietary dCELL® technology platform works by removing all cells from the animal tissue, allowing it to be used to replace worn out or diseased body parts – without the need for anti-rejection drugs. Because a patient’s own cells can populate the new biological scaffolds, they are accepted by the immune system and can be repaired like normal tissue. The dCELL® process can be used to make 20-30 different products. Potential applications for the technology, which has been licensed for use in tissue

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banks in the UK and South America, include knee damage repair, heart valves and advanced wound care for leg ulcers. Today, the Tissue Regenix Group has a market capitalisation of over £60 million. The basic research that led to the company’s formation was funded by EPSRC in 2000, and Tissue Regenix continues to receive EPSRC support.

Picture courtesy Tissue Regenix plc

HELPING HUMANS REPAIR THEMSELVES

Professor Eileen Ingham, co-founder, says: “The support from EPSRC and other funders, including the Technology Strategy Board, over many years has been crucial in enabling us to pursue the basic technology and then drive forward its potential. We were able to use the grants flexibly, enabling continuity of employment for key researchers.”

Prescription for success From sensors in patients’ clothing that monitor their condition to smartphones that can diagnose and track the spread of infectious disease, EPSRC is investing £32 million in three major Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations (IRCs) that could help revolutionise healthcare. The investment spans 10 universities and 18 industry and academic partners, and brings together researchers from areas such as pathology, information & communications technology (ICT), and electrical engineering. Scientists and engineers will work with clinicians, industry and policymakers to

collaborate on the three multidisciplinary projects, which will be typically led by one institution.

The five-year IRC initiative benefits from additional funding of £9 million from the project partners.

The research will focus on developing new applications and technologies to tackle increasingly pressing problems, such as an ageing population and severely overstretched hospitals.

The projects are led by Dr Rachel McKendry, from University College London; Professor Mark Bradley, from the University of Edinburgh; and Professor Ian Craddock, from the University of Bristol.

Early-warning sensing systems for infectious diseases University College London, with Newcastle University, Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Infectious diseases are one of the greatest threats to human health. Early diagnosis plays a vital role in treatment, care and prevention. However, worldwide, many infections remain undiagnosed and untreated or are diagnosed at the late stage due to poor diagnostic tools. The result is ongoing transmission of serious infections and delays in the identification of emerging threats such as pandemic influenza. The IRC’s Director, Dr Rachel McKendry, says: “The revolution in mobile communication, nanotechnology, genomics, and big data analysis offers tremendous opportunities to actively manage outbreaks and ultimately to prevent infectious diseases. “To harness this technology we are developing a new generation of diagnostic test and tracking systems that could help save millions of people from deadly diseases such as new strains of influenza, HIV and MRSA.” The key to the system will be its flexibility, enabling it to be used almost anywhere, including GP surgeries, elderly care homes or even at home. Results will be sent securely to healthcare systems, alerting doctors of potentially serious outbreaks with geographically-linked information. It is hoped the technology could also be used in developing countries with challenging healthcare infrastructure. The technology will also be able to track reported illness and symptoms across populations by searching millions of online sources including internet searches and social media posts to identify outbreaks even before people attend clinics. The project brings together expertise in areas such as biomarker diversity, nanosensing systems, microfluids, wireless networks, data mining and health economics; and will cultivate links with partners in more than 100 countries in Africa, Asia and South America.

Project partners include: Microsoft Research, OJ-Bio Ltd, Mologic Ltd, Cambridge Life Sciences Ltd, Zurich Instruments, O2 Health, UCL Partners, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Multiplexed ‘touch and tell’ optical molecular sensing and imaging

SPHERE: Sensor Platform for Healthcare in a Residential Environment

University of Edinburgh, with Heriot-Watt University and the University of Bath.

University of Bristol, with the universities of Southampton and Reading.

Potentially fatal lung complications are a common problem for patients on ventilators in intensive care units (ICUs). Doctors caring for these patients often need to make snap decisions without the information necessary to properly inform their choices.

Britain’s obese and ageing population is at risk of isolation, depression, strokes and fractures caused by falls in the home. SPHERE will develop a 24/7 digital home sensor system to monitor the health and wellbeing of people with different health challenges living at home.

The IRC’s Director, Professor Mark Bradley, says: “This programme is all about multidisciplinary collaboration. It brings together world-class physicists, chemists, engineers, computer experts and clinicians to design, make and test a cutting-edge bedside technology platform to help ICU doctors make rapid and accurate diagnoses that inform therapy and ensure patients get the right treatment, quickly.” The platform will use advanced fibre-optic technology, microelectronics and new sensor arrays to create a small fibre-based probe that can readily be passed into the patient’s lung, blood vessels or other parts of the body such as the digestive tract. The technology will monitor a patient’s condition in real time, without the need for cumbersome equipment or ionising radiation. Initially the research will focus on intensive care unit patients and critically ill babies. Severely unwell babies often need to have blood samples taken to test for oxygen and acid levels. By inserting a probe into their circulation it will be possible to continuously monitor these levels without the need to take blood. Specially developed optical fibres will allow clinicians to view inside the lung; other fibre-based devices will incorporate sensors to measure important parameters such as oxygen concentration. The fibre will also be used to detect specific bacteria, viruses and other damaging processes. The aim is for the technology to be applicable to many healthcare situations.

Project partners include: ST Microelectronics Limited, Carestream Health, Edinburgh Biosciences Limited, UK Astronomy Technology Centre.

An example of SPHERE’s home sensor system could be to detect an overnight stroke or mini-stroke on waking, by detecting small changes in behaviour, expression and gait. It could also monitor a patient’s compliance with their prescribed drugs. Professor Ian Craddock, Director of the IRC, says: “Families, carers, health and social services professionals involved in all stages of care will benefit from the system. SPHERE will address real-world challenges by developing a practical technology to target health concerns such as obesity, depression, stroke, falls, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases.” The system will be general-purpose, lowcost and accessible. Sensors will be entirely passive, requiring no action by the user and suitable for all patients including the most vulnerable. SPHERE will work hand-in-hand with the local community. It will develop practical, user-friendly technologies and pilot systems in a large number of homes over extended periods of time. Leading clinicians in heart surgery, orthopaedics, stroke and Parkinson’s disease, and recognised authorities on depression and obesity, will also be involved.

Project partners include: IBM United Kingdom Limited, Toshiba Research Europe Limited, Bristol City Council, NIHR BRU Nutrition, Diet & Lifestyle, Bristol Health Partners and Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC).

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Seeing’s believing A multidisciplinary team at Newcastle University are at the forefront of research with Biblical echoes – helping the blind to see. Words: Roland Pease Of the 40 million blind people around the world, one million have a condition which critically afflicts a key part of the eye – the light-sensing layer in the retina. The condition, Retinitis Pigmentosa, leaves the rest of the retina largely healthy. The dream is that patients with this condition might see again, with the help of the remaining healthy cells. EPSRC-supported research at Newcastle University is bringing that dream closer. The approach, led by Dr Patrick Degenaar (pictured), is a marriage between advanced opto-electronics and gene therapy. The genetic part is to induce a degree of light-sensitivity in the healthy cells at the back of the eye; the electronic element is a prosthetic image intensifier to help the genetically-recharged retina see. How it works In the healthy eye, the process of seeing starts when light is captured by specialised proteins in the rods and cones at the back of the eye, releasing a cascade of electrical signals that travel down nerves into the brain. In Retinitis Pigmentosa, the most common of the degenerative diseases of the eye, the rods and cones themselves deteriorate, leading to blindness. Although those lightdetecting cells are irretrievably damaged, molecular biologists have discovered a way to make the surrounding healthy nerve cells light-sensitive. They do this by re-engineering PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

the cells’ genetic code to produce a type of light-sensitive protein first discovered in swamp algae in 2003. In a Europe-wide consortium, OptoNeuro, Dr Degenaar’s collaborators have shown in experimental mice that this process, known as genetic transfection, does transform cells to allow a degree of light sensitivity. The effect, however, is far weaker than it would be if applied to a healthy retina. This is where biomedical engineer, Patrick Degenaar, comes into the picture. He has developed a miniature electronic projector to assist the cells. “Without intensifying the image, the patient would remain completely in the dark,” he says. “Although science has succeeded in repurposing the nerve cells, which is a fantastic achievement itself, they are extremely inefficient compared to healthy cells – you need extraordinarily intense light to activate them.” Microscopic brilliance With EPSRC support, Degenaar and his collaborators have developed tiny arrays of high-intensity micro-LEDs that can beam an intensified version of the visual field directly into the patient’s eye. Though only 20 micrometres (0.02 mm) across, each LED produces light that is 500 times brighter than the surface of the Sahara desert at midday. The system can also generate images at up to a thousand frames per second, so that smoothly changing video is possible. The team are combining these advanced arrays into a headset akin to that used by Google’s much-vaunted headset-based ‘wearable computer’ system, Google Glass.

The Newcastle team’s headset can image the visual scene, perform retinal image processing, and then transmit the image to the newly re-sensitised retina. With the help of partially sighted volunteers, the team is optimising the digital processing to ensure the projected images are sharp and simple enough to be useful in daily life. The next big leap will be to transfect the sight-giving genes into real patients’ eyes. So far, the procedure, involving the injection of genetically altered viruses, has not been tested on people. Dr Degenaar is confident the European collaboration will be ready to move to human tests in two or three years. But transforming the retina is only the beginning for Patrick Degenaar. Along with a team of neuroscientists at Newcastle University, he hopes to take the procedure directly into the brain. By virally altering neurons in the brain, they plan to make it possible to beam digital signals right into our information-processing centres: digital cameras could transfer images straight into the visual cortex of patients with traumatic forms of blindness; and neural pacemaker signals might calm the pathological electrical activity that underlies epilepsy. Patrick Degenaar says: “Optogenetics marks a dramatic shift in the way we’re able to communicate with the human nervous system. “The capabilities that it gives us make it one of the most exciting times to work as a biomedical engineer. We have only just begun to think of the types of therapy for which it can be used.”

Glowing evidence British soldiers injured in battle and elderly people suffering from chronic ulcers are just some of the patients who will benefit from new wound-healing technology being developed at the University of Sheffield in partnership with a global medical technology company. Words: John Yates

When Professors Stephen Rimmer, Sheila MacNeil and Ian Douglas presented the results of their research into branched polymers to military scientists at Porton Down they were hopeful they would win approval to take their project to the next stage – developing a fast, accurate and possibly life-saving technique for detecting infections in wounds. “They were really interested in our findings,” says Professor Rimmer, who heads an interdisciplinary team of polymer scientists, microbiologists and tissue engineers at the University of Sheffield. “Unfortunately, our timing could not have been worse. No sooner had we arrived back in Sheffield than the Government announced a freeze on all Ministry of Defence spending. With aircraft carriers being mothballed, we wondered if our project could survive the cuts.”

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It transpired that the MoD decided not to further invest in the project, but neither Professor RImmer nor his team were about to mothball the research. That crucial first phase of the joint MoD/ EPSRC-funded project had convinced them they were embarked on a groundbreaking journey that would take them from fundamental science in the realms of polymer physics to the ultimate goal of a medical technology that would immediately detect the presence of bacteria in a wound and then help identify the best form of treatment for the patient.

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Bonding experience: The polymers developed by the team incorporate a fluorescent dye and are engineered to recognise and attach to bacteria. The polymers grab the bacteria, shown here as pink fluorescent spots, clumping them together, and then glow blue.

(Continued from previous page) Kick-start Professor Rimmer says: “The work we did with the Ministry of Defence, jointly funded by EPSRC, was critical to our investigations and really influenced the direction we were to take, which was to look at making medical devices based on the polymer research. It gave us the basic research understanding – which we have recently proved. “The polymers we have developed incorporate a fluorescent dye and are engineered to recognise and attach to bacteria, collapsing around them as they do so. “The level of fluorescence detected will alert clinicians to the nature and the severity of infection. We were the first people to propose this theory. To see the whole process happening was fabulous.” For Professor Douglas, another clever aspect of the team’s work is that it makes for a much more efficient use of antibiotics. He says: “When the polymer collapses it traps the bacteria around it, allowing us to pull the whole thing out without releasing any antibiotics into the wound. This means the bacteria do not develop any antibiotic resistance – which is crucial for elderly patients suffering from chronic wounds who need long-term care.” Although excited by their findings, and despite the publication of papers describing the research in prestigious journals, the funding stream needed to take their project to the next stage seemed to have dried up. It was not until Professor MacNeil was invited to a national science conference in Bradford that the team’s work gained wider public recognition. The four-slide factor Professor MacNeil says: “Each presenter was allowed just four slides to illustrate their work. It meant we really had to simplify what we were doing in order to show the impact our research could have.” With the national media in attendance, the team suddenly found themselves in the spotlight, with their research featuring on the BBC. Dr Mark Richardson, Vice President of Research and Technology at Smith & Nephew Wound Management, had been following the team’s work, and took a keen interest in the academic journals. He says: “It was inevitable that at some time we would talk. We knew the team’s research PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

had been well funded to that point; that it was innovative, of the highest quality, and of global significance for the treatment of wounds. “While we would not normally get involved at the applied research stage, because of the EPSRC funding and the possibility of Technology Strategy Board financial support, we could see the benefits of collaborating with the Sheffield research team in trying to bring their findings to the next stage by building their technologies into some of our existing products.” Successful bid The result was a successful bid for more than £600,000 in funding from the Technology Strategy Board, a Governmentsupported agency focused on helping accelerate the UK’s economic growth through business-led innovation. The joint University of Sheffield and Smith & Nephew teams are using the new funding to develop a technology that will provide enhanced care for patients suffering from chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers. Dr Richardson says: “Chronic wounds such as these are major health and economic burdens in most developed countries and are primarily wounds of the elderly. With the rise in the levels of obesity/diabetes this problem can only get worse. “These are critical wounds. If they become infected they can be very problematic for the patient, in some cases leading to the amputation of digits or limbs. The early and accurate detection of infection is very important, but at the moment we have no point-of-care diagnosis for wounds. Clinicians can take swabs, but this can mean a delay of up to 48 hours to get a result, during which time the patient is potentially at risk.” Providing the clinician and the patient with a tool that alerts them early to a potential infection – and which also reassures them when there is no infection – could transform the care of wounds and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics. It could also help prevent wounds becoming colonised by an established layer of bacteria (called biofilms) which are more resistant to normal antibiotic treatment, and can lead to protracted care. Rapid response

with up to 60 per cent of these being infected. By finding a way of detecting and treating these cases earlier, and more effectively, the team are confident their research will improve patient care and reduce the cost burden on the National Health Service. But this can only happen through collaboration. Dr Richardson says: “The team at Sheffield have the in-depth knowledge of the fundamentals that we don’t have, while our chemists have the skills to translate this research into something that can be turned into a practical medical treatment. It is a powerful formula.” Professor Rimmer agrees. He says: “Smith & Nephew are taking our technology and making it work in a wound dressing, that’s why both sides are putting a real effort into making this happen. It will have an enormous impact on patient care. We would hope the new technology will be available within the next five years. “Who knows, the Ministry of Defence may one day be using our wound dressings to help save the lives of soldiers in the battlefield.”

The research team at the University of Sheffield have the in-depth knowledge of the fundamentals that we don’t have, while our chemists have the skills to translate their research into something that can be turned into a practical medical treatment. It is a powerful formula. Dr Mark Richardson, Vice President of Research and Technology at Smith & Nephew Wound Management

In the UK alone there are over 200,000 patients suffering from chronic foot ulcers,

Each presenter was allowed just four slides to illustrate their work. It meant we really had to simplify what we were doing in order to show the impact our research could have. Professor Sheila MacNeil, University of Sheffield

Healing wounds The new technology being developed will look very like conventional wound dressings but will contain a hydrogel membrane, which is a thin, flexible sheet made of the same material as contact lenses and containing water. Another option being explored is to deliver the polymers as solutions. A handheld device is being developed which will be able to detect changes in the colour of the dressing, indicating the presence of bacteria and how best to treat it.

The work we did with the Ministry of Defence, which was jointly funded by EPSRC, was critical to our investigations and really influenced the direction we were to take. That piece of work kick-started the next step in terms of making medical devices based on the polymer research. Professor Stephen Rimmer, University of Sheffield

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Spin cycle

Sublimely soft yet staggeringly strong, silk is one of natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s supermaterials. Potential applications for it range from tissue regeneration and repairing damaged nerves to sustainable construction material. The trick, says Dr Chris Holland, is working out how to recreate it synthetically, on an industrial level. Words: Matt Shinn PIONEER 09 Winter 2013

All pictures courtesy of the Oxford Silk Group/Dr Chris Holland

It’s amazing stuff, silk. The art of making it has been mastered by many different creatures, such as caterpillars and spiders. The fact that these creatures have all come up with a similar manufacturing process, and a similar end-product, suggests they’re really on to something. Light and highly elastic, silk is also incredibly tough – some kinds of spider silk are tougher than Kevlar. What’s more, silk is among the greenest materials around – it’s biodegradable, and when it is made the only

waste product is water. Spider silk is able to stretch four times its original length without breaking. Now, researchers are looking at what we can learn from this strangest of natural substances, as we design the materials of the future. For someone who’s spent so much of his career around spiders, it’s perhaps surprising that Dr Chris Holland started off his arachnid research a little nervous of them. “I wasn’t afraid of spiders,” he says,

“but I’m still acutely aware of where they are in a room.” With the help of an EPSRC Fellowship for early career researchers, Chris has put together a team, based at the University of Sheffield, which aims to show how understanding the natural process of silk production, in spiders as well as various other creepy-crawlies, can be used to engineer high-quality but sustainable materials, which could have mulitiple uses – from food to healthcare.

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(Continued from previous page) Chris’s interdisciplinary collaborators include theoretical modellers, materials scientists, engineers and physical chemists, as well as biologists like Chris himself, who “know which end of a silkworm you put the food in”. In the case of the mulberry-leaf-munching silkworm, the know-how for producing silk goes back thousands of years, forming the basis of a hugely lucrative textile industry. When it comes to the silk threads produced by spiders, though, which are much tougher than those of silkworms, nobody has yet managed to produce them on an industrial scale, and artificial silks have fallen way short of what spider silk can do. Before you get to thinking that all you need to mass-produce spider silk is to gather together millions of arachnids into a silk factory, think again – herding spiders together in this way has a serious flaw. They will eat each other. Researchers such as Chris Holland (pictured) are only just coming to understand the mysterious process by which a spider’s feedstock – the liquid gel inside its body, a substance called an ‘aquamelt’ – gets turned into hard, solid fibre, through spinning. It’s this process of spinning that makes silk a unique material – a protein fibre that has evolved for use outside the body. The really clever thing is that the spider, in producing silk, which is a kind of natural polymer, does so using far less energy than we need to produce polymers from oil. Chris Holland’s team use devices that mimic the actions of natural silk glands, but that produce silk under a much wider variety of conditions, for example, at different temperatures, than a spider has to deal with. The goal is to be able to produce fibre with predictable properties, and in large enough amounts, to allow for new industrial applications. For Chris, though, the aim is not just to produce fibres with some of the properties of spider silk, but to do so as energyefficiently as spiders do. He says: “Energy efficiency is the currency of biology – it is the thing that millions of years of evolution have selected for. And it is by understanding the in-built efficiency of nature that we will be able to act more sustainably.”

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Given that the manufacture and processing of materials causes over 20 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, with many structural materials being sourced from non-sustainable supplies, and given that the production of man-made polymers alone accounts for five per cent of crude oil use, understanding the process of silk-spinning could bring huge benefits for the environment. Chris says: “We need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels: we can’t keep on digging up buried sunshine. But the materials we use in the future can be based on an understanding of the lessons of evolutionary history. In silk we can see 400 million years’ worth of R&D.”

In silk, we can see 400 million years of research and development. Silk threads •

Silk is the strongest natural fibre known to man

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The strongest silk is a nano-scale ribbon produced by the highly venomous Brown Recluse spider

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When exposed to water, some spider silks will shrink up to 50 per cent of their original length

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Typical spider silk is able to stretch four times its original length without breaking

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The Darwin’s Bark spider produces silk that is considered to be 10 times more durable than Kevlar

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A silk worm eats 40,000 times its own weight between birth and pupation

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Silk from silkworms has an average width of 20 millionths of a metre

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A single silkworm cocoon is made out of a single thread one kilometre long

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Silk has been used to make everything from parachutes to rugs, from medical sutures to prosthetic arteries

EPSRC Fellowships Dr Chris Holland (pictured above with a co-worker) is an early career researcher supported by an EPSRC Fellowship. EPSRC supports three career stages: Postdoctoral, Early Career and Established Career. Fellowships are central to EPSRC’s commitment to developing the next generation of world-leading scientists and engineers; and are a direct investment in Britain’s most talented individuals to help them develop ground-breaking ideas across a range of fields. An EPSRC Fellowship provides established and future research leaders with the time and resources they need to develop their ideas and build a team around their research – and then take that research to the next level, focusing on longlasting impact. Fellowships are particularly valuable in helping talented people build reputations and strike out in new directions to become new research leaders. Working with universities, EPSRC provides tailored support for individuals with leadership potential across all career stages, in bespoke packages that closely match their needs.

SILK UNRAVELLED: THE OXFORD SILK GROUP

Much of the underpinning research on silk has been pioneered by Professor Fritz Vollrath at the University of Oxford’s Department of Zoology, whose Oxford Silk Group (of which Chris Holland is a former member) seeks to unravel the evolution, ecology, physics and chemistry of this perplexing material.

The research is both influential and potentially lucrative. Several members of the group have received academic career advancement grants from EPSRC, and a number of PhD students have put their skills to unusual practical uses, working with the Williams Formula One team, as well as with the European Space Agency.

In their Oxford labs, Fritz and his team use state-of-the-art techniques to reveal the secrets of the spinning process. They also use ‘super-microscopes’ at facilities such as the ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source at Oxford’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, run by the Science and Technology Facilities Research Council, which enables scientists to study materials at the atomic level.

Even more practically, the Oxford Silk Group’s research has led to a number of spin out companies. Regenerative medicine is a promising area where using silk can add value: many silks are bio-compatible, making them excellent materials for use in the body.

To collect the silk, it is slowly wound out of immobilised spiders taken from (and after a day’s work returned to) the Oxford Silk Group’s greenhouses. To keep the spiders in tip-top condition, they are fed on flies – themselves living on fine fruit donated by the local market. Fritz Vollrath, who has held several EPSRC research grants in the past, says: “Silk research is in some ways the flagship for the very idea of bio-inspired design; it’s one of the most clear-cut examples of how we can do better by learning from nature.” PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

With funding from the Technology Strategy Board and the Medical Research Council, Oxford-based Orthox Ltd, which has its roots in UK research council funding, including from EPSRC, has developed a new kind of implant to replace knee cartilage in patients suffering from conditions such as osteoarthritis. The implants are made from fibroin, an extract of silk fibres, which encourage the growth of replacement tissue; over time they become a living part of the body. Orthox has enlisted the expertise of a team from the University of Huddersfield’s EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in

Advanced Metrology to measure the devices in order to characterise their surfaces. To be effective, the knee joint’s bearing must be wear-resistant, with a surface texture that is precisely fit for purpose. The team are employing atomic force microscopy and optical interferometry to measure the composite material at nanometre level, or one billionth of a metre. Project leader, Dr Leigh Fleming, says: “The purpose of the measurement is to make sure the devices are smooth enough so that people can walk with free movement in their knees. “People think engineering is all about machines, but engineers play a big part in the medical field, too, and you can see real improvements in people’s quality of life as a result.” Another spin out from the Oxford Silk Group, Neurotex, uses fine silk filaments to join together damaged nerves. Severed nerves grow along the silk like plants along a trellis, eventually joining back together and working again. In the past, the Oxford Silk Group has also worked with the engineering company Arup on new types of lightweight tensile structures, based on an understanding of spiders’ webs and how they work.

20-20 vision

Medical science never stands still, and new breakthroughs are being announced all the time. But what would you wish for if you had the chance to gaze 20 years into the future? We asked eminent scientists and prominent public figures for their wish lists.

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Remote wound care “Technology is going to transform wound care. Patients are increasingly being sent out into the community; therefore, more care is taking place in the home environment. We need to consider: can our products be used by non-healthcare professionals? And is there a remote way of giving healthcare professionals information about what’s going on in the wound, which means they may not need to visit the patient? “We can look at ways of sensing what’s going on in the wound and then transmitting that information remotely to a mobile phone or a server – and so then, electronic sensor dressings become a potential future technology.” Mark Richardson, Vice President, Research and Technology at Smith & Nephew

Saving the brain “Ten years ago I met someone whose mother had been misdiagnosed with, and wrongly treated for, Alzheimer’s Disease. The correct diagnosis of Dementia with Lewy Bodies was only discovered at autopsy. Diagnosis is still a challenge for many forms of neurodegenerative disease. It causes distress to patients and their families, frustrates medical practitioners treating their symptoms, and places constraints on research to protect against, or cure, these disorders. What if we could detect preliminary chemical changes in the brain at an early stage, when cells are threatened but not yet dying? How much more quickly could research into protection and cure advance if early diagnosis was improved? At the University of Warwick, we recently founded the Trace Metals in Medicine Laboratory in the School of Engineering, where we are working to identify patterns of chemical change in the brain that can be detected with simple brain scans, and testing how specific these changes are to each disease.”

In the blood “The breakthrough I would like to see would address the unmet clinical need for improved monitoring and prediction of abnormal blood clotting responses to therapy or disease. Thromboembolic disease and associated blood clotting abnormalities cause significant morbidity and mortality in Western society, with stroke being the third leading cause of death in the UK. Correlation of standard clotting tests to clinical outcome has been unsatisfactory, with uncertain healthcare benefits. Improved techniques for the monitoring of abnormal clotting are urgently required. My wish list would include the development of technologies which enable clinicians to remotely monitor and diagnose clotting abnormalities as they arise, and to couple this with a means of intervening in the clotting process (perhaps through triggering the subcutaneous release of anticoagulants). In addition to clinical advances, this could have marked benefits in terms of quality of life for people who must presently attend clinics, such as for INR testing.” Professor Rhodri Williams Swansea University

Professor Williams leads research in complex fluids at Swansea University’s College of Engineering. With colleagues at the College of Medicine, the Centre for NanoHealth and the NHS he is involved in projects which exploit haemorheological techniques to better understand, monitor and predict abnormal blood clot formation. This work has received support from EPSRC, the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research and the Royal Society. Professor Williams was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship in 2012 to pursue the commercialisation of a new test for clotting abnormalities. (Continued on next page)

Dr Joanna Collingwood, University of Warwick

Rebuilding me

“There are so many incredible innovations I would like to see in the world of medicine but, obviously, genuine strides forward in tissue regeneration have a particular interest to me. I suffered 49 per cent burns when my platoon was bombed by Argentine jets during the Falklands War, and had over 70 operations to reconstruct my face. By the year 2033 I would hope to see major advances in tissue regeneration and wound healing, building on work that’s already happening.

Photography: Deborah Titherington

For example, researchers at the Healing Foundation Centre for Tissue Regeneration at the University of Manchester are learning how some animals, such as frogs, are able to repair wounds without scars or, in some cases, regenerate amputated limbs.

Beating cancer

cancer early and treat it in a more targeted way.

“Our understanding of the biology of cancers has accelerated hugely over the past decade, thanks to first-class UK biological and clinical research and new technologies that have allowed us to dissect the pathways involved in the disease in an ever more precise way.

We will need expertise in a range of technology areas, including sensors, imaging, robotics, data analytics and computational modelling, chemical biology and nano-engineering.

But to save more lives, we also need to detect more cancers earlier, so we need to open up new avenues of research in early detection and understanding early disease, which will involve a broader range of scientific disciplines. We will need the skills and creative ideas of physicists, bioengineers, chemists and mathematicians to develop new ways to detect

Cancer Research UK looks forward to collaborating with EPSRC to enable the very best scientists – from all disciplines – to explore new ways of beating cancer sooner.” Dr Harpal Kumar, Chief Executive, Cancer Research UK

Nipping infection in the bud “With the rapid spread of multi drug resistant bacteria and a lack of new antibiotics, we are close to reaching a point where common infections and diseases are untreatable. Urgent action is needed and I believe that science can help us avoid a return to the preantibiotic era where everyday infections were fatal. The need for R&D to develop new drugs is accepted, but greater recognition of the importance of improving rapid diagnostic testing to optimise patient

The team hope that one day their research will make a difference to the lives of people who have survived trauma or disease or have a congenital deformity. When I was recuperating in hospital, having my dressings changed was a lengthy, painful and traumatic process. Anything to alleviate the stress and pain this causes, especially in children, would also be on my wish list.” Simon Weston OBE

Simon Weston’s story has been well publicised and he has been the subject of five major BBC television documentaries. Along with his work with a number of charities he is also a professional motivational speaker. Simon is lead ambassador for The Healing Foundation. www.thehealingfoundation.org.uk

care is required. For example, antibiotics do not work against viral infections but they are often prescribed because we cannot tell if an infection is due to a virus or bacteria. A simple test that, within minutes, can effectively identify the cause of an infection before the patient leaves the consulting room would be a great step forward to ensure antibiotics are not prescribed for viral infections.” Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England

Personalised healthcare “Over the next decade the opportunity to configure wireless communications, data processing and multiplex clinical diagnostics onto a single lab-on-achip based sensor will pave the way for autonomous personalised heath management capabilities. Such technology will not only be capable of monitoring trends and changes in an individual’s bio-physiological profile, it will also be able to advise or even administer customised treatment of both short- and long-term therapies. Data acquired from such technology will also be invaluable in developing a better clinical understanding of the complexity of disease pathology at an individual level within diverse communities.” Professor Steve Haswell University of York

Early diagnosis “The high costs of new treatments and the benefits of timely intervention have facilitated the need for early diagnosis. But we need further research into better assessment methods for precise quantification of disease progression and patient response. MRI and its variants are widely used in the diagnosis and monitoring of patients. The sensitive imaging it enables allows for objective and effective assessment of how a patient is responding to therapy; it also ensures that the costly treatments are justified by patients’ benefits. However, in daily clinical routine and clinical research, information visualised by MRI is often assessed visually using a reader’s judgement, which gives subjective and inconsistent results.

In my opinion, sensitive imaging, such as MRI, including Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI, which is widely used in the diagnosis and monitoring of patients, allows for fast, repeatable and reliable diagnosis. Imaging would play a crucial role as a physican’s aid in understanding patient condition as well as communicating it to the patient.” Dr Olga Kubassova CEO Image Analysis

Olga Kubassova founded Image Analysis in 2007 to commercialise her EPSRC-funded PhD research at the University of Leeds. Among other things, the company’s software automates the process of reviewing MRI scans to avoid the lengthy manual review by medical staff. It is now used in hospitals and clinical departments across Europe.

Making an industry

much higher. This has a huge social and financial cost. I am part of an EPSRC-funded multidisciplinary team at University College London who are trying to do something about this.

“In 20 years the application of stem cells and similar technologies will be revolutionising medicine. Some of us have the job of working out how to move the promising biological science currently in the laboratory into the healthcare system so that these new therapies can be used by clinicians to give benefit to patients. Our focus is making these therapies in the right place at the right time in an affordable way. This bridging of biology, medicine and engineering is one of the most exciting areas of multidisciplinary science – and will deliver a new manufacturing industry.” Professor David Williams Loughborough University

Professor Williams is Director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Regenerative Medicine, a collaboration between Loughborough, Keele and Nottingham universities.

PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

We are developing wearable assistive materials designed to support the walking function without the need for bulky motors or visible splints so that people can enjoy a normal life without having to use a wheelchair.

Walking the walk “I look forward to living in a society where wheelchairs don’t exist. Not because I don’t want the elderly and injured to get around, but because I hope exoskeleton technology will be practical reality for all in 20 years’ time.

Ultimately our goal is to develop an exoskeleton technology which can be worn underneath clothes and will allow everyone the freedom and mobility of being able to walk, that currently so many are denied.” Professor Mark Miodownik University College London

Professor Miodownik is an engineer, materials scientist, writer and broadcaster.

There are an estimated 1.2 million wheelchair users in the United Kingdom. The numbers of those who need assistance to walk, either through injury or old age, is

Numbers game Dr Ellen Brooks-Pollock, an EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship holder at the University of Cambridge Veterinary School, describes how a love of maths changed the course of her career from aspiring doctor to epidemic modeller. Her current research, predicting the spread of TB in cattle, couldn’t be more timely as the debate on UK badger culling takes centre stage. Ellen (pictured) says: “I always enjoyed maths at school, but thought that medicine was the best way to use science to work with people and benefit society. As a medical student, I came across a brilliant book, Essential Public Health Medicine by Donaldson & Donaldson (little did I know that the co-author was Liam Donaldson, the future Chief Medical Officer for England). The book quotes a statistic that, in the UK, children in low income groups are 10 times more likely to die in a fire than children in high income groups. From then onwards, I wanted to understand these statistics and how public health medicine differs from individual patient medicine. This desire to see the bigger picture and a passion for rigour, combined with my inability to remember mnemonics for bones

PIONEER 10 Summer 2013

and drugs, meant that I switched to a maths degree. I went on to successfully complete a PhD in mathematical epidemiology.

This means that a population with a high proportion of elderly people is very different, in terms of TB, from a younger population.

Now, armed with an EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, I have the freedom to develop my own models for chronic infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB), which includes collaborating with scientists and clinicians around the world.

My work is developing a methodology to understand the effect of demographics on TB transmission and control. As well as explaining the differences between TB in ageing populations in South-East Asia and growing populations affected by HIV in Africa, the ideas I’m developing can be applied to other mammals affected by TB.

It might sound amazing, but epidemics are surprisingly predictable. A simple set of equations can do a pretty good job at capturing the course of an epidemic – not exactly who will get infected but the number of people that will, how quickly the disease will spread and the kind of measures required to control it. TB is an ancient disease that has infected humans and other mammals for at least 10,000 years and still kills two million people a year. Despite many advances in epidemic prediction, we still don’t fully understand how TB spreads and survives in a population. TB disease can develop years after infection, with a probability highly dependent on age.

I have just finished some work quantifying the age-varying risks of bovine TB infection in cattle and the resulting differences between TB in dairy and beef herds. At a time when bovine tuberculosis and the badger cull are rarely out of the news, I am working, together with other mathematicians, vets and policymakers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), on predicting the impact of controlling infection in badgers. If our predictions prove to be correct, we may be able to show where badger culling could be effective, and where it may not be necessary.”

Rule of thumb

An international research team have created a new keyboard that enables faster thumb-typing on touchscreen devices. The KALQ keyboard enables people to thumb-type 34 per cent faster on tablets than when using a QWERTY keyboard. Two-thumb typing using a touchscreen device is ergonomically very different from typing on a physical keyboard. Most users are limited to typing at a relatively slow rate of around 20 words per minute on a regular split QWERTY tablet keyboard. Dr Per Ola Kristensson, from the University of St Andrews, is part of the team behind KALQ, and has been investigating how to use techniques from artificial intelligence to create a more fluid and efficient way to input text on mobile devices. Dr Kristensson, who holds an EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, says: “The legacy of QWERTY has trapped users with suboptimal text entry interfaces on PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

mobile devices. We believe KALQ provides a large enough performance improvement to incentivise users to switch to and benefit from faster and more comfortable typing.” Dr Kristensson worked with scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Germany and Montana Tech in the USA. Dr Antti Oulasvirta, from the Max Planck Institute, says: “The key to optimising a keyboard for two thumbs is to minimise long typing sequences that only involve a single thumb. It is also important to place frequently used letter keys centrally close to each other. “Experienced typists move their thumbs simultaneously: while one thumb is selecting a particular key, the other thumb is approaching its next target. From these insights we were able to derive a predictive

behavioural model we could use to optimise the keyboard.” KALQ minimises thumb travel distance and maximises alternation between thumbs. After a training programme in how to make the most out of the new keyboard, users reached a rate of 37 words per minute (with a five per cent error rate). This is the highestever reported entry rate for two-thumb typing on touchscreen devices. A better understanding of how to increase the efficiency of everyday user interfaces could inform new designs that reduce ergonomic strain and improve the user experience for users with disabilities. KALQ is available as a free app for Androidbased smartphones, and the keyboard is available for free on Google Play.

The search is on... To mark its 20th anniversary in 2014, EPSRC is inviting universities and other partners to nominate the inspirational individuals they believe have contributed to the very best in UK science and engineering. The Recognising Inspirational Scientists and Engineers (RISE) Awards will celebrate the incredible innovation that has taken place over recent decades by honouring the exceptional individuals who made these achievements possible. The RISE Awards will honour both established leaders and future leaders in the making. Universities, industrial partners, professional bodies and learned institutes will be invited to submit up to three nominations for scientists and engineers who deserve recognition for their work. An independent judging panel will select the top 10 nominees who can be held up as

PIONEER 11 Winter 2013

beacons of science and engineering. In turn, each of the top 10 will nominate someone they see as a future world-class talent, with the skills and vision to undertake and lead internationally excellent research. The nominees will be honoured at a gala event in summer 2014. Sharing and learning An EPSRC team will follow these inspirational scientists and engineers throughout 2014, pairing them with individuals less familiar with the world of research so that they can learn about the work they do, and champion this research and the impact it might have. Insights from

these personal exchanges will be shared on EPSRCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s web site and in other media. Science is the key to creating a more prosperous society for us all; fuelling growth and innovation, and providing solutions to some of the biggest problems we face. It is time for the exceptional people behind this work to be recognised for their vision, dedication and achievements.

Get involved and keep up to date: www.epsrc.ac.uk/rise #inspirescieng

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Engineering Engineering and and Physical Physical Sciences Sciences Research Research Council Council

the next 50 years

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