̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Colin Watts

Brain tumours and brain injury to be focus of new Cambridge laboratories

cjb250 — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 10:07:03 +0000

̽��ֱ��John Pickard Neurosurgical Laboratories, based at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals, will contain purpose built modern laboratories and updated offices, and are named after John Pickard, Professor Emeritus of Neurosurgery. Pickard was Cambridge’s first Professor of Neurosurgery, who was in post from 1991 until his retirement in 2013. ̽��ֱ��suite consists of laboratories dedicated to neurochemistry, and imaging and treating brain tumours.

“Injuries to the brain, either through trauma or diseases such as brain tumours, can have serious lasting effects on individuals, as well as for their families and carers,” says Professor Peter Hutchinson, Head of Academic Neurosurgery at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “Our newly refurbished laboratories will help us to better understand what is happening in response to this damage, putting us in a better position to treat the patients and improve their long-term outcomes.”

̽��ֱ��Neurochemistry Laboratory, led by Dr Keri Carpenter, aims to develop better ways of monitoring and treating brain injury by investigating how the brain responds to injury and how these responses can lead to long-term disabilities. Better treatments are needed to ensure the best outcome for each patient, and alleviate demands on carers, local authorities and NHS resources. ̽��ֱ��findings are potentially also relevant to diseases such as dementia and Parkinson’s, which often manifest at a younger age in brain injury survivors.

̽��ֱ��laboratories will be the leading unit in the UK to use microdialysis, which enables doctors to deliver molecules to and from the injured brain. This technology can be used to monitor, study and potentially treat specific areas of the brain. Researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� have pioneered the use of non-radioactive ‘labels’ administered by microdialysis to track metabolism. Microdialysis is also used to support clinical trials of drugs given intravenously to establish how effectively the drug is able to cross the ‘blood-brain barrier’, transiting from the bloodstream into the brain.

Researchers from the laboratories will work in collaboration with colleagues at the newly-refurbished Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre in the development of advanced imaging techniques, as well as with colleagues in departments such as Chemistry, Clinical Neurosciences and Medicine, and across the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

̽��ֱ��Brain Tumour Imaging Laboratory will be the UK’s first dedicated laboratory for analysing medical imaging of patients with brain tumours. It will use advanced imaging that can be performed on clinical scanners to understand disease-related changes in and around brain tumours – including how far these tumours spread, the effect and impact this spread has on the normal brain, and how treatments such as surgery and radiotherapy affect normal brain function. ̽��ֱ��laboratory will be led by Mr Stephen Price.

̽��ֱ��Lisa Wiles Neurooncology Laboratory – named after a patient treated at Addenbrooke’s – will also be the first of its kind in the UK, and will be integrated with the operating rooms to collect and process tissue samples taken directly from cancer patients being operated on. Led by Mr Colin Watts, the team will use this new facility as a resource available to the whole of the Cambridge Cancer Centre community to support world-class research to improve our understanding of brain cancer and develop new therapies. This should enable faster, more precise diagnoses to improve the treatment of patients – including tailoring treatment to each individual patient.

“We’re very grateful to Professor Pickard and to Ms Wiles for helping us make these new laboratories a reality,” says Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “These facilities will perform an important role in helping make a real difference to the lives of patients with brain injuries.”

Professor John Pickard was the first chairman and clinical director of the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, a leading biomedical imaging centre housing both MRI and PET scanners. More recently he became the first Cambridge Health Technology Co-operative Honorary Director, which is one of eight national co-operatives that receive funding from the National Institute for Health Research. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge co-operative is the only one to focus on brain injury.

A new suite of laboratories aimed at improving outcomes for patients with brain injuries and brain tumours opens today at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

ur newly refurbished laboratories will help us to better understand what is happening in response to brain injury, putting us in a better position to treat the patients and improve their long-term outcomes

Peter Hutchinson

Roger Mommaerts

brain2 (edited)

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Q&A with neuroscientist Dr Talal Al-Mayhani: I believe that peace will come to Syria

amb206 — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 08:38:25 +0000

One evening, a couple of weeks ago, there was a knock on the door of Dr Talal Al-Mayhani’s house in Cambridge. “A man stood on the doorstep – a neighbour I might have spoken to once or twice in the street. He looked at me and said ‘Tell me what I can do for Syria’,” remembers Al-Mayhani. “A few days later, Stephen Tomkins, who was my tutor at Homerton College, phoned to check I was ok. Those simple acts of humanity were something quite wonderful.”

Al-Mayhani was brought up in Aleppo, Syria, a historic city now split into two by warring factions. He graduated in 2003 as a Medical Doctor (MD) from the ̽��ֱ�� of Aleppo, and undertook clinical training in Damascus and Aleppo. In 2006-2010 he took a PhD at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� under Dr Colin Watts at the Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair. His career objectives were to contribute to the fields of scientific research and healthcare in his native Syria.

While still based in Cambridge, Al-Mayhani helped to set up a Cancer Research Unit (CRU) at the ̽��ֱ�� of Aleppo. He was assisted by Watts and Cambridge colleagues. ̽��ֱ��CRU launched a project to bring together basic and clinical techniques and teams to study six of the most common types of cancer in Syria.

“It seemed a good time for research and for science in Syria – things were really blooming. However, they were not sustainable in a war environment,” he says. “When the political situation deteriorated, and tensions within Syrian society escalated, some members of the CRU team got arrested and others had to escape. It was simply not possible for us to maintain the CRU in Aleppo.”

Late in 2012, Al-Mayhani made the decision to settle in Cambridge. Since then he has taught neuroscience to undergraduates at Sidney Sussex College and worked on brain cancer, specifically stem cell models of cancer organisation, in Watts’ lab. “ ̽��ֱ��lab is one of the few centres for research into brain cancer in the UK. It brings clinical and basic science together for the benefit of patients. Being part of this group has been a great opportunity for me in so many ways,” says Al-Mayhani.

But Syria has never been far from Al-Mayhani’s thoughts. “For the past three years, I’ve worked on my medical research during the week and on peace initiatives at weekends,” he says. “I founded the Centre for Thought and Public Affairs (CTPA), a London-based think tank that focuses on conflict resolution. I’m motivated by total belief that peace will come to Syria – and that education, communication and long-term investment in human capital will ensure that peace will happen.”

Earlier this year, in collaboration with the peace-building organisation International Alert, the CTPA and a number of Syrian organisations and individuals set up the Syrian Platform for Peace (SPP). Acting as an umbrella, SPP aims to bring the Syrians in diaspora together to lobby for peaceful change, and to raise awareness among the public in the UK. In mid-September Al-Mayhani gave a short talk at the Conflict Café: Syria, a pop-up restaurant on the South Bank in London that champions peace through food.

In the next few months, Al-Mayhani plans to step down from his role as director of the CTPA to focus on his career as a medical doctor, ideally in East Anglia. However, making a contribution to bringing peace back to Syria remains his life mission.

In the Q&A below, Al-Mayhani answers some of the questions about Syria that he is most frequently asked in the UK. Top of the list are: What is happening? Why is it happening? And what can we do about it?

What is happening in Syria – and why?

Syria is a country of ethnically and religiously diverse populations of 23 million. In 2011, demonstrations took place in different parts of Syria, and the authorities tried to oppress them. ̽��ֱ��use of violence led to things getting out of control, and Syria became a stage for conflict, and a proxy war ensued between regional and international powers. ̽��ֱ��conflict in Syria has gradually manifested itself as sectarian strife and civil hatred, and medieval pre-modern identities have become fuelled by extreme thoughts and out-dated political mythologies used by warlords and other violent actors. Those identities have become so prominent under current circumstances that they hide the concepts of citizenship and belonging to the modern Syrian state, and create an environment for ongoing atrocities committed by the warring factions.

Millions of Syrians found themselves trapped amid this bloodshed, with estimated figure of 250,000 victims and hundred of thousands of wounded and disabled. Destruction is widespread, and many Syrians, including my family, lost their houses and businesses due to this war. I watched a youtube video of my grandfather’s house, which had been in our family for 200 years, being bombed. It stood on a central square in Aleppo. In minutes it was ruined, and all memories had gone forever.

According to UNHCR around 8 million people have left their homes and have become internally displaced within Syria. But living in Syria today is not compatible with any standard of living in the 21st century. Even if you are lucky enough to not be bombarded, killed, arrested or kidnapped, there is shortage in basic services. In Aleppo, where some of my family still live, there is little access to electricity, water, healthcare and education. Many school buildings have become army bases, prisons or refugee camps.

A further 4 million Syrians have left the carnage to take refuge in neighbouring countries. Two million have fled to Turkey and 1.5 million to Lebanon. Only a small proportion of Syrians have tried to come to Europe. Attitudes towards leaving the country differ. For example, older people tend to say: we lived here all our lives, we want to die here. Many younger people think differently. They are reluctant to leave the country they’ve been brought up in, but try to see a positive future in front of them somewhere else, and want to find safety and schools for their children.

What can we do about it?

On an immediate basis, we can donate money to relief and humanitarian organisations, and we can welcome refugees who will add value to the diverse and multicultural society in the UK. We need to do both of these things. But more than anything we need to help the people of Syria find a peaceful solution, stop the war and put this terrible time of bloodshed behind them so that millions can return to the lives, and contribute to the building of their country.

In the UK, the Department for International Development (DFID) shows a clear interest in peace policies in Syria, and supports many initiatives and projects in this regard. These efforts should be up-scaled and paralleled with other deliverable policies and action plans with wider impact.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ��, with its reputation for academic excellence and long history of welcoming political exiles, can play a role here. In the 1930s and 1940s, Cambridge and other British universities provided places for academics fleeing the Nazis. That’s how Max Perutz, the Austrian-born Nobel Laureate and supervisor of Francis Crick, came to work in Cambridge. Perutz is just one of many examples.

As a response to the present crisis, Cambridge can provide the platforms for student unions, staff, researchers and the public to raise the awareness, call for co-ordinated action to pressure for peace, in addition to helping Syrian scientists, academics and students to resume their research and education through scholarships and fellowships. St Anthony’s College, Oxford, and St Andrew’s ̽��ֱ�� are showing the way – and in Cambridge, Clare Hall is offering scholarships to Syrian graduates. Much more could be done.

What are the routes to peace?

̽��ֱ��majority of Syrians want peace, but this majority lacks the platforms and means to express itself. When some colleagues and I set up CTPA we identified two objectives. First, we wanted to encourage Syrian intellectuals to think deeply and critically about the Syrian crisis, and its roots. We also saw that there was the need for Syrian lobbying for peace, and hence it is essential to bring Syrians together to make this happen.

Out of CTPA have come other initiatives to build bridges between Syrians who hold polarised attitudes and opinions on what is going on in their country. Our initiatives include activities of trust-building, engagement, providing the platforms, and encouraging people to recount and share their stories, pains, feelings and hopes – activities that we envisage as potential ingredients for peace.

In August, the CTPA hosted a workshop on “peace-building across Syrian divides” in Lebanon. This workshop was the result of partnership with the UK-based Peaceful Change Initiative (PCI), and it aimed to strengthen a network of peace-resources inside Syria. Being there was a thrilling experience, not only to see Syrians with different attitudes and opinions sitting together in the same room, but to watch them working together on joint initiatives on conflict resolution and management, and to see their faces lit up with a sense of hope.

Greater awareness among the general public in the UK and elsewhere is also really important. This awareness can make a change and it will. Earlier this month, there was a march in London to welcome refugees. There was a huge feeling of support – just to see all those thousands of people was something quite wonderful and life affirming. This show of solidarity gave us in the CTPA a new energy to keep going.

Nothing happens without the will of the people – but we have to reach out to them. Peace will come about as a result of bottom-up grassroots pressure, as well as through policies of international and regional powers. This is a universal responsibility that should be shared by all humans who believe in and dream about peaceful world for all.

How have you kept a sense of optimism?

My optimism stems from my belief in Syria, and the people of Syria. Not merely in political Syria which was established in 1918, but in cultural Syria with its contribution to human civilisation across millennia. It also stems from the sense of solidarity that I encounter in my surroundings here in Cambridge. This optimism allows me to emerge psychologically intact from this crisis, and gives me the motivation to translate hope into reality.

Would you ever return to live and work in Syria?

It’s my dearest wish to return to Syria. I will go back there – it’s only a question of when. I’m incredibly grateful to the UK, and to Cambridge, for the opportunities I’ve been given to study and to develop my skills and knowledge. But I am also indebted to Syria, and I’ve always wanted to live and work there, and to pay back part of my debt to my country.

When I think about Syria, and about my childhood in Aleppo, I remember its beauty, its warmth, its history, its wonderful diversity, the small aspects of everyday life – from morning greetings in the busy ancient streets and markets to families sitting around tables of delicious food of the Syrian cuisine – such as kubba (meat balls with wheat) and muhshi (stuffed aubergine). I know that many Syrians leaving now miss these small things, share these same nostalgic feelings, and dream about making them real again.

How do you feel watching the plight of Syrians through the lens of the British media?

̽��ֱ��media focus is quite understandably on the plight of people risking their lives in tiny boats, and crossing Europe on foot to find safety. What we never see or capture is what people have left behind – their houses, shops, businesses. Those Syrians have no idea of whether they will ever get these things back, and their individual narratives are never mentioned, or at best get diluted and marginalised within the tragedies of mass crisis.

It is one thing to realise how ugly the war is, but it is totally another thing to realise how much beauty has been destroyed by an ugly war. An English colleague of mine said that when he saw the picture of the little boy found dead on the beach, he felt terribly sad. Then he saw a picture of the same little boy, standing bright-eyed with his father and brother, just a few days before he drowned – that’s when my colleague cried.

Inset images: Dr Talal Al-Mayhani with medical colleagues on an old district on Aleppo in 2012. Since 2012 most of Aleppo's old districts have been destroyed by the ongoing war; From a workshop on "peace building across Syrian divides" hosted by the CTPA where Al-Mayhani serves as its director; Aleppo at night; Aleppo citadel. ̽��ֱ��citadel is considered one of the main historical and symbolic landmarks of Aleppo. Parts of the citadel have been affected by the ongoing war.

He trained as a medical doctor in Syria and did a PhD at Cambridge in order to set up a cancer research unit in Aleppo. In 2012, Dr Talal Al-Mayhani found himself in an impossible situation and decided to settle in the UK. He has worked hard for peace in Syria ever since – and is convinced that it will come. When it does, he will return to Aleppo.

I’m motivated by total belief that education, communication and long-term investment in human capital will ensure that peace will happen

Talal Al-Mayhani

Talal Al-Mayhani discusses the Syrian crisis in an interview in " ̽��ֱ��World this Evening", a programme by BBC Arabic

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Staff of the university can donate, through their payroll, to charities which support refugees. To find out more visit: www.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk/pay-benefits/cambens-employee-benefits/financial-benefits/payroll-giving.

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“Trojan horse” treatment could beat brain tumours

tdk25 — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 07:00:12 +0000

A “Trojan horse” treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer, which involves using tiny nanoparticles of gold to kill tumour cells, has been successfully tested by scientists.

̽��ֱ��ground-breaking technique could eventually be used to treat glioblastoma multiforme, which is the most common and aggressive brain tumour in adults, and notoriously difficult to treat. Many sufferers die within a few months of diagnosis, and just six in every 100 patients with the condition are alive after five years.

̽��ֱ��research involved engineering nanostructures containing both gold and cisplatin, a conventional chemotherapy drug. These were released into tumour cells that had been taken from glioblastoma patients and grown in the lab.

Once inside, these “nanospheres” were exposed to radiotherapy. This caused the gold to release electrons which damaged the cancer cell’s DNA and its overall structure, thereby enhancing the impact of the chemotherapy drug.

̽��ֱ��process was so effective that 20 days later, the cell culture showed no evidence of any revival, suggesting that the tumour cells had been destroyed.

While further work needs to be done before the same technology can be used to treat people with glioblastoma, the results offer a highly promising foundation for future therapies. Importantly, the research was carried out on cell lines derived directly from glioblastoma patients, enabling the team to test the approach on evolving, drug-resistant tumours.

̽��ֱ��study was led by Mark Welland, Professor of Nanotechnology at the Department of Engineering and a Fellow of St John’s College, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and Dr Colin Watts, a clinician scientist and honorary consultant neurosurgeon at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. Their work is reported in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal, Nanoscale.

“ ̽��ֱ��combined therapy that we have devised appears to be incredibly effective in the live cell culture,” Professor Welland said. “This is not a cure, but it does demonstrate what nanotechnology can achieve in fighting these aggressive cancers. By combining this strategy with cancer cell-targeting materials, we should be able to develop a therapy for glioblastoma and other challenging cancers in the future.”

To date, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) has proven very resistant to treatments. One reason for this is that the tumour cells invade surrounding, healthy brain tissue, which makes the surgical removal of the tumour virtually impossible.

Used on their own, chemotherapy drugs can cause a dip in the rate at which the tumour spreads. In many cases, however, this is temporary, as the cell population then recovers.

“We need to be able to hit the cancer cells directly with more than one treatment at the same time” Dr Watts said. “This is important because some cancer cells are more resistant to one type of treatment than another. Nanotechnology provides the opportunity to give the cancer cells this ‘double whammy’ and open up new treatment options in the future.”

In an effort to beat tumours more comprehensively, scientists have been researching ways in which gold nanoparticles might be used in treatments for some time. Gold is a benign material which in itself poses no threat to the patient, and the size and shape of the particles can be controlled very accurately.

When exposed to radiotherapy, the particles emit a type of low energy electron, known as Auger electrons, capable of damaging the diseased cell’s DNA and other intracellular molecules. This low energy emission means that they only have an impact at short range, so they do not cause any serious damage to healthy cells that are nearby.

In the new study, the researchers first wrapped gold nanoparticles inside a positively charged polymer, polyethylenimine. This interacted with proteins on the cell surface called proteoglycans which led to the nanoparticles being ingested by the cell.

Once there, it was possible to excite it using standard radiotherapy, which many GBM patients undergo as a matter of course. This released the electrons to attack the cell DNA.

While gold nanospheres, without any accompanying drug, were found to cause significant cell damage, treatment-resistant cell populations did eventually recover several days after the radiotherapy. As a result, the researchers then engineered a second nanostructure which was suffused with cisplatin.

̽��ֱ��chemotherapeutic effect of cisplatin combined with the radiosensitizing effect of gold nanoparticles resulted in enhanced synergy enabling a more effective cellular damage. Subsequent tests revealed that the treatment had reduced the visible cell population by a factor of 100 thousand, compared with an untreated cell culture, within the space of just 20 days. No population renewal was detected.

̽��ֱ��researchers believe that similar models could eventually be used to treat other types of challenging cancers. First, however, the method itself needs to be turned into an applicable treatment for GBM patients. This process, which will be the focus of much of the group’s forthcoming research, will necessarily involve extensive trials. Further work needs to be done, too, in determining how best to deliver the treatment and in other areas, such as modifying the size and surface chemistry of the nanomedicine so that the body can accommodate it safely.

Sonali Setua, a PhD student who worked on the project, said: “It was hugely satisfying to chase such a challenging goal and to be able to target and destroy these aggressive cancer cells. This finding has enormous potential to be tested in a clinical trial in the near future and developed into a novel treatment to overcome therapeutic resistance of glioblastoma.”

Welland added that the significance of the group’s results to date was partly due to the direct collaboration between nanoscientists and clinicians. “It made a huge difference, as by working with surgeons we were able to ensure that the nanoscience was clinically relevant,” he said. “That optimises our chances of taking this beyond the lab stage, and actually having a clinical impact.”

̽��ֱ��full research paper can be found at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c4nr03693j

A smart technology which involves smuggling gold nanoparticles into brain cancer cells has proven highly effective in lab-based tests.

By combining this strategy with cancer cell-targeting materials, we should be able to develop a therapy for glioblastoma and other challenging cancers in the future

Mark Welland

M Welland

A cancer cell containing the nanoparticles. ̽��ֱ��nanoparticles are coloured green, and have entered the nucleus, which is the area in blue

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