The Microcosm
June 14th, 2010
Consultant neurologist Professor Adrian Williams of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham has radical ideas about the impact of ageing on the human brain.
Ageing, he suggests, is down to energy trade-offs that prioritise growth, development, reproduction and informatics which then take their toll later on; ageing diseases can therefore be thought of as the ‘side effects’ within a thermodynamically run environment . . . If this is so, will therefore better redox husbandry make us potentially immortal?
Adrian Williams has been the Professor of Clinical Neurology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and University of Birmingham since 1989. Previously he trained at Cambridge, National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, London and NIH Bethesda. He has written several books, including co-authoring Parkinsons: The ‘At Your Fingertips’ Guide. His work on using implants (a kind of brain ‘pacemaker’, and deep brain stimulation inf the treatment of Parkinson’s was recently widely reported. See also the BBC report of this research trial.
In his research work, Professor Williams has recently rediscovered descriptions of Pellagra and its many manifestations including premature ageing and parkinsonism and reinterpreted some aspects of its pathogenesis such as the excess infection rate with NADH supplying symbionts. He first described MPTP poisoning causing Parkinsonism in 1979 and is interested in xenobiotic biochemistry in particular the nicotinamide methylation path and more generally in the evolutionary origins of disease.
Tags: adrian williams, ageing, birmingham, neurology, parkinson's, Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Posted in Changing bodies, People, The Microcosm | No Comments »
June 14th, 2010
We don’t believe ill-health is an inevitable part of growing old, says Janet Lord, Professor of Immune Cell Biology at the University of Birmingham.
That one in five of the population will be aged over 65 by the year 2020 is a cause for celebration, but not for complacency. Some 25% of longevity is determined by genetics, leaving 75% available to be influenced by other factors. Influencing these other factors is key to having a fun and productive old age.
Professor Lord’s work is in understanding our immune system in sickness and in health. She is particularly interested in why our immune system deteriorates as we age making us more susceptible to infections such as pneumoina. However, this interest in immune function extends into developing treatments for a range of diseases that involve the ageing immune system, particularly chronic inflammatory disease (Rheumatoid Arthritis).
Tags: ageing, cell biology, immune system, janet lord, rheumatism, rheumatology, University of Birmingham
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June 14th, 2010
Membrane proteins are crucial drug targets in a wide range of diseases. But, because they’re not naturally abundant, explains Roslyn Bill, a Reader in Molecular Biosciences at Aston University, synthetically generated membrane proteins are what’s needed.
Her research and that of her team (see left) is to find effective and efficient ways to synthesise these synthetic proteins in ‘cell factories’, simple host cells which can be grown on a large scale.
Dr Bill was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Michigan after gaining a First and a PhD at Oxford University, where she also did post-doc work. She was also an Assistant Professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden where she was a start-up shareholder in Gotha Yeast Solutions AB before she came to Aston University.
Her research interests are in understanding the molecular features defining successful protein production in yeasts, with an emphasis on membrane proteins such as water and glycerol channels, tetraspanins and G protein-coupled receptors. Many of these membrane proteins are potential drug targets. Her work is funded by EPSRC, BBSRC and the European Commission and she has worked in collaboration with industrial partners throughout her career, as her research is central to progress in the drug discovery pipeline.
Tags: Aston University, cell factories, molecular biology, roslyn bill
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June 13th, 2010
Imagine waking up and feeling so much pain and stiffness in your joints that every movement is agony . . . but even your consultant rheumatologist tells you s/he doesn’t yet know which type of arthritis you have.
Chris Buckley is one such consultant rheumatologist as well as being Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Birmingham. His work and that of his colleagues, Andrew Filer and Karim Raza, leads him to suggest, however, soon they will be able to create and manage individualised treatments for each patient, such as currently occurs for patients with some kinds of cancer.
Professor Buckley received his MBBS from the University of London in 1990, having obtained a degree in biochemsitry from the University of Oxford in 1985. He trained in rheumatology at the Hammersmith Hospital with Mark Walport (currently Director of the Wellcome Trust) and Dorian Haskard, and then completed a DPhil with David Simmons at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford in 1996 . He then moved to the Rheumatology Unit in Birmingham as a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist and in 2001 was appointed as MRC Senior Clinical Fellow at the Division of Immunity and Infection at the MRC Centre for Immune Regulation. He was appointed Professor of Rheumatology in 2002.
His current research focus is an analysis of mechanisms of leukocyte accumulation in chronic inflammation.
Tags: arthritis, chris buckley, rheumatism, rheumatology, University of Birmingham
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June 13th, 2010
The payoff against an increase in life span has been than health span does not necessarily follow suit, says Helen Griffiths, Aston University’s Professor in Biomedical Sciences and Acting Director of Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing.
Before, many people died suddenly from infection. Nowadays, however, women will typically experience the last 9.1 with chronic, debilitating illness, and men 6.8 years. But the routes to solve the puzzle of ageing are being mapped.
Professor Griffiths’ research interests are proteomic approaches to biomarker determination, and the interplay between lips/sphingolipids and reactive oxygen spaces in inflammataion and ageing.
She won the 1st Catherine Pasquier Prize from the European Society for Free Radical Research, and the Aston Excellence Award in 2009 for Outstanding Researcher of the Year.
Tags: ageing, Aston University, biomedical sciences, helen griffiths
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June 10th, 2010
Clinical trials are a potent force for patient safety, argues Richard Lilford, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Head of the Division of Primary Care, Occupational & Public Health and Director of the Birmingham Clinical Research Academy. Only through epidemiological studies, he says, can we show the true value of treatments.
Formerly a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology and Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Leeds, Professor Lilford’s research interests now are in the methodology of clinical trials, patient safety, statistics and health economics.
Tags: clinical trials, epidemiology, medicine, Richard Lilford, statistics, University of Birmingham
Posted in Cancer, People, The Microcosm | No Comments »
June 10th, 2010
Adverse drug reactions are a major cause of hospitalisation, even death. Understanding drug delivery systems, even the creation of new systems, for sure the understanding of pharmogenomic profiling, can be a major force in drug efficacy and safety.
This is what the research interests of Dr Barbara Conway, a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics at Aston University are about. main research interests — how to optimise the delivery of drugs, using formulation design to improve solubility and dissolution profiles, bioavailability, drug stability, mechanical properties and in vitro-in vivo correlations.
Tags: Aston University, Barbara Conroy, pharmaceutics
Posted in Cancer, People, The Microcosm | No Comments »
June 10th, 2010
Some kinds of leukemia and myeloma have been traditionally very difficult to treat, and put patients through punishing chemotherapy which only sometimes worked. This situation has recently changed dramatically.
Charles Craddock Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit at University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust says there are now exciting novel transplant and drug therapies, transforming patients’ lives, enabling many to live longer and fuller lives than was ever thought possible only a few years ago.
Charles Craddock is Professor of Haematolo-oncology at the University of Birmingham as well as Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit at University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. He has a particular research interest in the development of novel transplant and drug therapies in leukemia and myeloma. He also works with groups researching chromatin structure in acute-myeloid leukemia, mechanisms of drug resistance in myeloma and characterisaation of dysregulated signalling pathways in leukemia using proteomics.
Tags: acute myeloid leukemia, AML, Cancer, leukemia, oncology, Philip Johnson, translational medicine, University of Birmingham
Posted in Cancer, People, The Microcosm | No Comments »
