̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Chris Abell

10 Cambridge spinouts changing the story of cancer

skbf2 — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 12:57:43 +0000

10 Cambridge spinouts on putting their research into practice to improve outcomes for cancer patients - and why Cambridge is a great place to do this.

Professor Chris Abell FRS, FMedSci (1957 – 2020)

sc604 — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 13:08:48 +0000

A biological chemist, he was a pioneer in the field of fragment-based drug discovery, a successful entrepreneur, a founding director of Cambridge Enterprise, and the ̽��ֱ��’s first Director of Postdoctoral Affairs.

A major focus of his highly interdisciplinary research in the Department of Chemistry was to understand the mechanisms of key enzymes and develop approaches to their inhibition, an approach that could lead to new treatments for diseases such as tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis and cancer.

̽��ֱ��advances he made in fragment-based drug discovery led him to co-found Astex, a world-leading company in this area, in 1999. Fragment-based approaches are now adopted throughout the pharmaceutical industry and in many academic laboratories.

He also made major contributions to the development of microfluidic microdroplets as a platform for experimental science, with applications in cell biology, chemistry and materials science. This interest resulted in the co-founding of Sphere Fluidics (2010) and Aqdot (2013).

He was an undergraduate and postgraduate student at St John’s College, Cambridge, before conducting postdoctoral research at Brown ̽��ֱ��, USA. He was named a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen J Toope said: “Chris’ death is a huge loss to the ̽��ֱ��, and to me personally. Our thoughts and our deepest sympathies are with his wife, Dr Katherine Abell, their son Daniel, and with Chris’ friends and colleagues at the Department of Chemistry, at the Research Operations and Research Strategy Offices, and at Christ’s College.”

Professor Jane Stapleton, Master of Christ’s College, said: “In Christ’s we are devastated by the shocking news of the death of Chris Abell, our warm, wise friend. He has long been held in the greatest esteem by the College to which he devoted so much of his remarkable energy.”

Dr James Keeler, Head of the Department of Chemistry, said: “Chris has for many years been a leading figure in the field of biological chemistry and has been responsible for significant advances in the field. He has also been conspicuously successful in commercialising aspects of his work, most notably as co-founder of Astex. Chris is remembered by us all as an outstanding scientist, a valued and loyal colleague, and a tireless champion for the Department and the ̽��ֱ��.”

A digital condolences book has been set up at: www.remembr.com/professor.chris.abell.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� is saddened to announce that Professor Chris Abell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Todd-Hamied Fellow of Christ’s College, has died suddenly at the age of 62.

Royal Society

Chris Abell

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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How science and innovation are helping tackle COVID-19 testing

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 23:01:11 +0000

This formed part of the largest network of diagnostic testing capability created in British history, including 71 drive-through sites, 15 walk-through sites, 25 satellite test sites, 236 mobile testing units, home-testing and satellite kits and three mega laboratories.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� has been able to share its world-leading research expertise with the innovation and robotics know-how from its two pharmaceutical partners to create a new, high-throughput centre at our rapidly repurposed Anne McLaren Building.

Working together at speed

Forming a collaboration between the ̽��ֱ��, AstraZeneca and GSK and the rapid creation of a state-of-the-art testing facility has been a huge undertaking and is testament not only to the strength of life science in the UK, but particularly to the work happening in the life sciences cluster in Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Testing Centre is a real endeavour of partnership and ingenuity and is just one example of how organisations across the life sciences sector are working together to advance healthcare and science.

Hundreds of volunteers were recruited and trained from across the three organisations to get the Centre up and running, including researchers from the ̽��ֱ��. Each volunteer stepped forward at a time of national crisis with their own reasons for wanting to contribute to the COVID-19 testing programme.

Innovative robotics and automation were installed and an entire supply chain was sourced and implemented to ensure the testing facility was both resilient and highly effective. All of this was done in just five weeks, an operation which would usually take six months

̽��ֱ��Centre – which soon after its launch was brought into the Government’s national diagnostic lab network – is a real example of collaboration at its best, combining the drug discovery and technology expertise of the two pharmaceutical partners with the ̽��ֱ��’s leading interdisciplinary research capabilities.

There has also been a significant contribution from a number of other British partners including Primerdesign and Bigneat, ensuring the supply of reagents and technology could meet testing needs. Teams from each of these companies stepped in to help set up the Centre, sharing expertise and mobilising people and equipment to help get the facility operational in record time.

Sir Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, said: “We are delighted to have been able to set up both an unprecedented partnership and a state-of-the-art testing facility at speed with robotic and automation innovation at its heart. COVID-19 has posed a major challenge for the healthcare and science sectors which is why partnering with other organisations means we can continually push the boundaries of what is possible.”

Using innovation to drive delivery

Everyone at the Cambridge Testing Centre has been using their combined expertise and innovation know-how to create a highly efficient and effective laboratory. From day one, work has focused on streamlining the testing process. Combining molecular biology expertise with automation has led to a step-change in the testing process.

An innovative new COVID-19 test was also specifically designed and created for the Centre with a team from Primerdesign, part of the international diagnostics company Novacyt. ̽��ֱ��technique can be used across a number of different testing platforms to determine the presence of COVID-19 in a sample which creates a more rapid testing process.

Robots have also been installed both for RNA extraction and to automate a crucial but labour-intensive part of sample handling preparation process which improves sample integrity, ensures consistent data and reduces the man-hours required to process each sample. Before the Centre was set up, there were 13 of these robots across the UK. Now there are 14 in the Cambridge Testing Centre alone.

Three of the robots handle potentially infectious samples so are placed in individual, specialised enclosures, allowing scientists to monitor the tests without ever coming in to contact with the virus. UK company Bigneat worked double shifts and 20-hour days to design, build and install these vital new enclosures which are individually created to fit the exact requirements of where they are located, doing in a week what would normally take six.

Tony Wood, Senior Vice President, Medicinal Science & Technology, GSK said: “ ̽��ֱ��innovations introduced at the Cambridge Testing Centre have been made possible by the world-class expertise of everyone involved from across the partnership. Every improvement made drives efficiency and ensures a rigorous and robust testing system is in place for now and in the future.”

Future pandemic preparedness

We wish to extend our enormous thanks to the volunteers from across the ̽��ֱ�� and the pharmaceutical partners for their immense support, as many of them start to transition back to their critical roles in scientific research in the coming months.

̽��ֱ��Centre is now transitioning to a directly employed workforce who will be trained to continue delivering this testing capability. Charles River Laboratories will manage more than 200 full-time scientists now being recruited to support the continued lab operation, which will remain at the Anne McLaren Building at the ̽��ֱ�� and be overseen by AstraZeneca.

̽��ֱ��testing innovation and improvements developed at the Cambridge Testing Centre will help form a strong foundation for a robust and sustainable diagnostics network in the UK. ̽��ֱ��impact of the work at the Centre, along with the combined efforts of the network of Lighthouse Labs, is expected to be long-lasting, contributing to the nation’s COVID-19 recovery strategy.

Chris Abell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Professor of Biological Chemistry, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Our hope is that the innovation implemented at this Centre will support longer-term efforts to provide the strong foundations needed to ensure a resilient rapid diagnostics capability in the UK which is future-proof and robust.”

How you can support Cambridge's COVID-19 research effort

Donate to support COVID-19 research at Cambridge

In April 2020, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge joined forces with AstraZeneca and GSK to create the Cambridge Testing Centre to boost the UK’s COVID-19 testing capabilities through innovation and cutting-edge technology.

How a state-of-the-art COVID-19 facility was built in just five weeks

Yes

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� signs San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment

cjb250 — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 08:09:15 +0000

DORA’s recommendations call for institutions not to use journal-based metrics, such as Journal Impact Factors, as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles when assessing researchers’ contributions in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions. It encourages universities, researchers and others to assess research on its own merits rather than on the basis of the journal in which the research was published and highlights the need to capitalise on the opportunities provided by online publication.

Professor Chris Abell, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is committed to producing excellent research. By signing up to DORA, we want to demonstrate to our researchers that we value the quality and content of their research regardless of how and where it is published.”

Professor Steve Russell from the ̽��ֱ��’s Department of Genetics, will chair the DORA Working Group, which will oversee the implementation of the DORA recommendations.

“This is an important step for the ̽��ֱ��, particularly for early career researchers where all too often career progression is based on judgments using flawed metrics,” says Professor Russell. “By signing DORA the ̽��ֱ�� is making very positive step towards developing a culture where research excellence is assessed by the quality of the work and not by the title of the Journal where it is published.”

DORA calls on institutions to be explicit about the criteria used to reach hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions, clearly highlighting, especially for early-stage researchers, that the content of a paper is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it was published.

In addition to research publications, DORA recommends considering the value and impact of all research outputs (including datasets and software) and a broad range of impact measures including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on policy and practice, for the purposes of research assessment.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��’s HR Division will begin implementing a number of changes to ensure the agreement’s recommendations are reflected across its recruitment, reward and promotions schemes.

Brigitte Shull, Director of Scholarly Communications Research & Development at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, added: “ ̽��ֱ��principles of DORA align with our open research strategy and ongoing activities around improved metrics and recognizing author contributions. By signing up to DORA, we want to help improve the way the quality of research is assessed and expand the range of tools to better account for a variety of research outputs.”

In February, Cambridge became one of the first UK universities to publish a position statement on Open Research. Its statement set out the key principles for the conduct and support of Open Research at the ̽��ֱ��, which aims to increase inclusivity and collaboration, unlock access to knowledge and improve the transparency and reproducibility of research.

̽��ֱ��recommendation to sign DORA at the ̽��ֱ�� was made by the Open Research Working Group, chaired by Professor Richard Penty, and at the Press by the Open Research Steering Committee, chaired by Brigitte Shull.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press announced on 8 July 2019 that they have signed up to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), a set of recommendations agreed in 2012 that seek to ensure that the quality and impact of research outputs are 'measured accurately and evaluated wisely'.

By signing up to DORA, we want to demonstrate to our researchers that we value the quality and content of their research regardless of how and where it is published

Chris Abell

kkolosov

Microscope

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Cambridge recognised as Leader in Openness around animal research

cjb250 — Thu, 23 May 2019 08:10:02 +0000

In 2014, the ̽��ֱ�� signed the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research, committing to making available detailed information about its animal research through its website, communications and public engagement activities.

Since then, it has received two Openness Awards for its films looking at how mice are helping in the fight against cancer and how animals, including marmosets, help us understand brain disorders such as obsessive compulsive disorder. These films complement its animal research pages, which include details on the different types of animal used in research at Cambridge and the number of procedures carried out each year.

One of the ̽��ֱ��’s Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body Committees takes part each year in the Cambridge Science Festival. This year, it ran a stand at the family weekend at the city’s Guildhall, providing the opportunity for members of the public to discuss the use of animals in research and animal welfare and showcasing 25 years of the ‘3Rs’ of animal research - Replacement, Reduction, Refinement.

Other activities include the ‘Challenge’ technical programme for students from the age of 13 at the Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology. There, the ̽��ֱ�� and the Academy arrange for employers, research organisations and local universities to showcase and discuss their work, providing open engagement and information to students.

Cambridge is one of 13 Leaders recognised out of 121 signatories to the Concordat.

Commenting on the award, Professor Chris Abell, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “I am proud that Cambridge has been recognised as a Leader in Openness. I believe our institution has a moral obligation to be open about the important research that takes place in its laboratories.

“Our ̽��ֱ�� has been at the forefront of important discoveries in biology and in human and veterinary medicine, and much of this work would not have been possible without the use of animals. However, we are not complacent in our use of animals in research and continuously apply the principles of replacement, reduction and refinement in all of this work.”

Dr Martin Vinnell, the ̽��ֱ��’s Establishment Licence Holder, who is responsible for overseeing its animal research, added: “This award recognises the willingness of all those involved in research here using animals to engage with the public. Our researchers have openly talked about their work using animals to the media and at the Cambridge Science Festival, while the commitment to openness and transparency means that we aim to proactively put as much information as possible on our webpages rather than only responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

“ ̽��ֱ��use of animals in research should not be viewed as a right – and we must therefore ensure the public is well informed of both what we do, and why we do it, whether or not they support this type of research.”

In 2017, researchers at Cambridge carried out just under 160,000 procedures, the vast majority involving mice and zebrafish. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� publishes all of its animal statistics on its website. Last year, the ̽��ֱ�� also began publishing information on the severity of its procedures.

Research involving animals plays an important part in helping researchers understand human biology, and in particular how diseases occur and in the development of new treatments. Without the use of animals, we would not have many of the modern medicines, antibiotics, vaccines and surgical techniques that we take for granted in both human and veterinary medicine.

Some of the important and pioneering work for which Cambridge is best known and which has led to major improvements in people’s lives was only possible using animals, from the development of IVF techniques through to human monoclonal antibodies.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� places good welfare at the centre of all its animal research and aims to meet the highest standards: good animal welfare and good science go hand-in-hand. Although animals will play a role in biomedical research for the foreseeable future, researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� strive to use only the number of animals necessary to obtain sound scientific data. Our researchers are actively looking at techniques to refine their experiments and help reduce – and ultimately replace – their use.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has been presented with a Leader in Openness Award in recognition of its work to promote openness and transparency around its research involving the use of animals.

I am proud that Cambridge has been recognised as a Leader in Openness. I believe our institution has a moral obligation to be open about the important research that takes place in its laboratories

Chris Abell

Fighting cancer: Animal research at Cambridge

Maggie Bartlett, NHGRI

Knockout mice

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New innovation hub aims to take a 'moon shot' at cystic fibrosis

cjb250 — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 14:01:05 +0000

John Winn’s office at Microsoft Research looks like that of any typical academic: on one wall is a whiteboard graffitied with impenetrable equations and mathematical scribblings, on the opposite wall books and files line shelves, and on his desk are photos of his family.

His desk, however, is somewhat different: it can rise or fall, depending on whether he wants to work standing or sitting – and underneath is a treadmill for walking and working at the same time. “There have been times when I’ve been deep in thought and almost fallen off it,” he jokes.

Winn has cystic fibrosis (CF) and keeping fit is an important part of managing his condition: the stronger his lung function, the better equipped he is to fight the potentially life-threatening infections that plague people living with the condition.

CF occurs when an individual inherits two copies of a single genetic variant, one from each parent. ̽��ֱ��disease causes a build-up of thick, sticky mucous in the lungs, intestines and organs, and those affected by the condition are particularly susceptible to lung infections leading to progressive inflammatory lung damage. Although life expectancy for people with CF has almost doubled in recent decades, it is still significantly below average.

Winn is a machine learning specialist and is using his expertise to fight the condition that affects his everyday life. Together with Professor Andres Floto from the Department of Medicine at Cambridge, he is turning data from the daily lives of people with cystic fibrosis into potentially life-saving information.

As part of this study, funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Royal Papworth Hospital, participants have been submitting data – everything from heart rate and lung function through to self-reported wellbeing – via an app that also monitors their activity levels. Machine learning then sifts through the data, looking for patterns and – it’s hoped – building a model that can predict when a patient’s health is about to deteriorate and advise them to seek medical help.

“ ̽��ֱ��overarching principle is about giving people control over their own health data and making it work for them,” says Winn. “There’s some informal feedback that just participating in the study and taking these readings has already improved health outcomes for some individuals: for example, it’s helped with adherence with taking their medications as they noticed that if they missed taking certain medicines, their readings got worse.”

̽��ֱ��project is just one strand of a major new Cystic Fibrosis Innovation Hub based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and run by Floto. ̽��ֱ��Hub is supported through a £5 million commitment from the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and matching funds from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. It will strengthen existing collaborations across the ̽��ֱ�� and with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, as well as build new collaborative research networks with CF centres around the UK. ̽��ֱ��Trust’s Chief Executive, David Ramsden, said it will “provide in CF research across the country”.

Floto agrees with this sentiment: “We have an opportunity to uplift UK CF research in general by providing knowhow, training and reagents in a number of areas including genomics, bioinformatics, stem cells and clinical trials technology.”

A major part of the Hub’s activities will be around developing new drugs that target chronic inflammation in CF, in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company GSK as part of the GSK/Cambridge Strategic Partnership, as well as new antibiotic therapy for the main causes of lung infection in the condition.

Finding new drugs against these bacteria is becoming increasingly urgent – Floto and Professor Julian Parkhill at Sanger recently showed that Mycobacterium abscessus, the pathogen behind one of the most serious infections, is becoming increasingly multi-drug resistant and spreading globally. This is one reason why people with CF are advised not to meet each other.

“Clearly the techniques that we develop – and the drug-like molecules that come out of it – will have more general applicability to patients with other multi-drug resistant infections,” Floto says. This will be welcome news to England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, who has warned of a future where “any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics.”

̽��ֱ��timing of all this is particularly good: Papworth Hospital, whose Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre has gained a national and international reputation for its treatment of patients and its contribution to research, is due to move to the Biomedical Campus later in 2018. ̽��ֱ��CF wards will feature state-of-the-art air flow systems, designed with Floto’s work on the spread of multi-drug resistant CF pathogens in mind.

This close proximity between the patients and the researchers will help Floto test the new treatments he is pioneering. He is particularly excited about the potential for new cellular therapies he’s developing with Professor Ludovic Vallier at the Department of Surgery. Floto describes these as their “moon shot”. These would involve taking cells from a CF patient, re-programming them – correcting the genetic defect along the way – and then re-injecting them into patients. “This could provide a way to regenerate damaged lungs,” he says.

Floto knows his plans for the Hub are ambitious, but given that it’s almost 30 years since the gene that causes CF was discovered and there is still no cure for the disease, believes it’s time to take this shot at the moon.

Floto’s collaborators in the CF Innovation Hub include Chris Abell (Chemistry), Sir Tom Blundell (Biochemistry), Julian Parkhill and Ludovic Vallier.

Almost 30 years on from the discovery of the genetic defect that causes cystic fibrosis, treatment options are still limited and growing antibiotic resistance presents a grave threat. Now, a team of researchers from across Cambridge, in a major new centre supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, hopes to turn fortunes around.

We have an opportunity to uplift UK cystic fibrosis research in general by providing knowhow, training and reagents in a number of areas including genomics, bioinformatics, stem cells and clinical trials technology

Andres Floto

Cambridge Biomedical Campus

A no-strings-attached scientific relationship

Professor Claire Bryant, like Floto, works on an inflammatory lung disease as part of the GSK/Cambridge Strategic Partnership. In her case, she’s looking at chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

COPD is a condition caused by smoking, pollution and severe asthma. Bryant is looking in particular at how COPD makes the lungs ‘stickier’ to bacteria, increasing the risk of infections.

She holds two grants under the GSK/Cambridge Strategic Partnership, which aims to develop the next wave of ‘game-changing’ medicines by bringing academic and industrial expertise together to tackle often intractable disease. Based at Cambridge’s Department of Veterinary Medicine, Bryant currently has a three-day-a-week sabbatical at GSK’s headquarters in Stevenage. As such, it’s arguable whether anyone embodies the partnership more than she does.

̽��ֱ��three-year sabbatical provides Bryant with three postdocs, two PhD students and budget, with access to GSK resources, but with “no strings attached”. ̽��ֱ��only proviso is that if she works with a GSK reagent, they have first rights on what she does with this. Crucially, she says, it gives her “the space to think”.

Bryant is embedded in GSK’s Respiratory Drug Discovery Unit and attends its lab meeting every week. “I’ve met really smart, clever scientists at GSK, with different skills to those of us in academia,” she says. “I get to see all aspects of what happens at GSK, everything from how a target is identified to how drugs are developed to target it, through to taking these drugs to clinical trials. I see the whole spectrum.”

It is, though, a mutually beneficial programme, she stresses. Bryant brings her knowledge of innate immunity and her experience of multi-disciplinary collaborations, particularly in imaging. “It’s effectively like being a consultant,” she says. “I want them to get as much out of me as I do out of them.”

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences receives Wellcome funding to support translational research

cjb250 — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 16:19:57 +0000

Cambridge is one six institutions to receive funding to create partnerships with Wellcome. ̽��ֱ��others are the Universities of Bristol, Edinburgh and Manchester, Imperial College London, and Oxford ̽��ֱ�� through the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit.

Researchers can face a number of barriers to taking the first step to translating their research – and often need more than financial support, including mentorship and regulatory advice, say Wellcome. Making the transition between discovery science and translation easier is one of the core aims of Wellcome’s Innovation for Impact strategy.

Through its new translational partnerships, Wellcome says it will explore new ways of supporting transition and to share best practice. Support through the new partnerships will be primarily, but not exclusively, for Wellcome-supported scientists and will include a portfolio of activities, such as: developing seed funds, identifying mentors and entrepreneurs in residence; offering access to Wellcome’s network of advisers, experts and mentors; and providing introductions to potential partners to take promising advances forward.

"We want to make sure there’s every opportunity for the people and organisations we support to translate great scientific discoveries into innovations with broad, lasting impact," says Stephen Caddick, Director of Innovation at Wellcome.

Wellcome says it will continue to identify new partners in order to build a broad global network to help share and spread great ideas and practice in translation and innovation.

Professor Chris Abell, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, says: “We are very grateful to Wellcome for its support, which will help us foster new and innovative approaches to important health questions. ̽��ֱ��funding will allow us to encourage unique and unexpected collaborations that bring in expertise from across the ̽��ֱ��, including from outside traditional biomedical disciplines.

“We expect, too, to capitalise on our position within the largest biotech cluster outside the United States, to stimulate new partnerships with industry. These collaborations will provide an important pipeline of ideas that we hope will ultimately translate to tangible patient benefits.”

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences (CATS) has been awarded £1million over two years by Wellcome as a part of a new scheme to find new ways to translate scientific discoveries into real world impact.

̽��ֱ��funding will allow us to encourage unique and unexpected collaborations that bring in expertise from across the ̽��ֱ��, including from outside traditional biomedical disciplines

Chris Abell

̽��ֱ��Future of Medicine

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Global collaboration takes off

ag236 — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 14:35:01 +0000

An alliance between the ̽��ֱ�� of California Berkeley, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the National ̽��ֱ�� of Singapore has moved into its next phase following the first joint call for research proposals and the approval of five inaugural projects.

̽��ֱ��successful proposals, in the areas of “Cities”, “Precision medicine” and “Smart systems”, will be supported through a joint fund of £723,900 –including a contribution of £301,000 from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

These are the first projects set up under the auspices of the Global Alliance, a partnership between UC Berkeley, Cambridge and NUS formalised at the end of 2015.

̽��ֱ��aim of the partnership is to promote collaborative and multidisciplinary research on a global scale.

Its focus is on finding solutions to global challenges that cannot be solved by a single institution, or even through bilateral collaboration.

Prof Chris Abell, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said:

“ ̽��ֱ��projects supported under this first call show the many ways in which our joint resources will let us tackle global problems more effectively. They are the first in a series of research collaborations that will allow our three institutions to work together for the global good.”

̽��ֱ��five successful projects were:

“Toward an open and secure internet-of-things reference platform” (Cambridge PI: Prof Simon Moore)
“Modelling interacting high-dimensional phenotypes – Kronecker Products for imaging, genetics and imaging genetics” (Cambridge PI: Prof John Aston)
“Mathematical and statistical theory of imaging” (Cambridge PI: Dr Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb)
“Smart design: human-centric planning of urban districts” (Cambridge PI: Prof Koen Steemers)
“Translucent city” (Cambridge PI: Dr. Ruchi Choudhary)

Funding for the five projects will be released between November 2016 and February 2017.

A further call for proposals will be published in May 2017 (deadline September 2017).

For more information, contact Dr Kata Fülöp, International Strategy Office, Kata.Fulop@admin.cam.ac.uk

Funding approved for research projects involving UC Berkeley, Cambridge and the National ̽��ֱ�� of Singapore

̽��ֱ��projects supported under this first call show the many ways in which our joint resources will let us tackle global problems more effectively.

Prof Chris Abell

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes