̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Sohini Kar-Narayan

Team’s hip replacement surgery invention is set to be world first

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They have just won an award to develop their technology, which aims to make hip surgery more precise and deliver better and longer-lasting outcomes – which is good for patients and the NHS.

̽��ֱ��National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded a £1.4 million Invention for Innovation (i4i) Product Development Award to advance work on the team’s “smart” joint “trial liner”.

̽��ֱ��sensors measure forces passing through the hip joint to help the surgeon assess and balance the soft tissues, which aids the accurate positioning of the implant.

Once measurements are complete using the wireless surgical aid, the surgeon marks the ideal position for the implant, removes the smart trial liner, and completes the operation.

There are currently no technologies that can deliver such readings during an operation and in real-time, and instead surgeons balance the joint based on feel and anatomical landmarks.

This is despite over two million total hip replacements being performed annually, with the number constantly rising due to increasing lifespans. Younger patients are starting to need hip replacements as well, so implants need to withstand higher stresses and last longer, to avoid spiralling into a vicious circle of revision surgery and higher rates of dissatisfaction.

Driving this clinical initiative is the chief investigator from Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust, Consultant orthopaedic surgeon, clinical and research lead of the Young Adult Hip Service, and Affiliate Associate Professor at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Vikas Khanduja.

̽��ֱ��technology development is being overseen by Professor Sohini Kar-Narayan from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, together with Dr Jehangir Cama, who is leading on translational and commercialisation activities. They are joined by Consultant clinical scientist and CUH head of clinical engineering, Professor Paul White.

“We’re really looking forward to this next phase of product development that will see us move towards an actual product that is fit for clinical use, and that has the potential to revolutionise joint replacement surgery,” said Kar-Narayan.

“This funding will bring together wide-ranging expertise to help us further develop our prototype, bringing this technology closer to clinical use,” said Cama.

̽��ֱ��team currently has a prototype version of the device, which has been validated in the laboratory and in other tests. However, the NIHR award is important for further development and finalisation of the design and compliance with regulations before it can be tested in a living patient.

̽��ֱ��team’s underlying sensor technology intellectual property has been protected via a patent application filed by Cambridge Enterprise, the ̽��ֱ��’s commercialisation arm.

“This is a fantastic example of Cambridge’s entrepreneurial clinicians, academics and their institutions working together with forward-looking funders to create a positive impact for markets, society and importantly patients,” said Dr Terry Parlett, Commercialisation Director at Cambridge Enterprise.

Adapted from a CUH press release.

Technology that could transform the future of hip replacement surgery is being pioneered by a team of experts in Cambridge.

SEBASTIAN KAULITZKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images

Illustration of a human hip joint

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 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 – 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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Cambridge researchers awarded European Research Council Consolidator Grants

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̽��ֱ��ERC is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. This year it has awarded €657m in grants to 321 researchers across Europe.

Consolidator grants are given to excellent scientists, who have 7 to 12 years’ experience after their PhDs, to pursue their most promising ideas.

“ERC Consolidator grants support researchers at a crucial time of their careers, strengthening their independence, reinforcing their teams and helping them establish themselves as leaders in their fields,” said President of the European Research Council Professor Maria Leptin. “And this backing above all gives them a chance to pursue their scientific dreams.”

Cambridge awardees:

Dr Eloy de Lera Acedo, STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow at Cavendish Astrophysics and the Kavli Institute for Cosmology of the Department of Physics, has been awarded a grant for REACH_21: Probing the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Re-ionization with the REACH experiment.

De Lera Acedo said: “REACH_21 aims to unveil the mysteries of the infant universe. We want to answer the question: how did the cosmos, that evolved from the Big Bang, become the complex and luminous realm of celestial objects we can see from planet Earth today?

“This unknown missing piece in the puzzle of the history of the universe is now closer to being understood thanks to a new experimental approach that attempts to observe extremely faint radio signals emitted nearly 13.5 billion years ago by the most abundant element at that time: Neutral Hydrogen.”

“This is amazing news for the REACH collaboration. We have been designing our experiment for over five years and are currently awaiting the start of scientific observations in South Africa. ̽��ֱ��ERC grant is going to allow me to use the REACH telescope, analyse its data, and hopefully access a whole new world of information about the early evolution of the cosmos.”

Dr Daniel Hodson, of the Department of Haematology, has been awarded a grant for Unwind-Lymphoma: RNA helicases; switched paralogue dependency as an exploitable vulnerability in aggressive B cell lymphoma.

Hodson said: “This ERC-funded project, Unwind Lymphoma, will explore sex-specific, cancer cell addiction to the DDX3 family of RNA helicases, proteins that unwind secondary structure in mRNA.

“We will develop recent findings from our lab showing that whilst most male Burkitt lymphoma cells have deleted the X-chromosome gene DDX3X, they instead become uniquely addicted to the Y-chromosome paralogue DDX3Y, a related protein that is silenced in most normal cells. By unravelling the molecular basis of this ‘switched paralogue dependency’ we will expose a potential therapeutic Achilles Heel in this devastating form of blood cancer.

“I am thrilled to receive this award, which I hope will take me one step closer to a tenured position in Cambridge or beyond.”

Sohini Kar-Narayan, Professor of Device and Energy Materials of the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, has been awarded a grant for BIOTRONICA: Bio-Electronic Integrated Devices for Healthcare Applications.

Kar-Narayan said: “My research focuses on the development and characterisation of novel functional polymers and nanocomposites, and their application in functional devices using microscale additive manufacturing methods. It covers novel energy harvesting nanomaterials to microfluidic biosensors, to materials and devices for next-generation flexible and wearable electronics.

“I am absolutely delighted to have been awarded a Consolidator Grant to develop new tools for remote health monitoring and personalised medicine. These include novel non-invasive ‘point-of-care’ biosensors, which could potentially be self-powered through energy harvested from the body, thus enabling a step change in health monitoring and patient care.”

Dr Elisa Laurenti, ̽��ֱ�� Associate Professor in Stem Cell Medicine and Wellcome Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow of the Wellcome Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Department of Haematology, has been awarded a grant for HEXAGEN: Harnessing haematopoietic stem cell EX vivo Adaptation for GENe therapy.

Laurenti said: “Blood stem cell-based gene therapy has the potential to cure an expanding range of debilitating genetic diseases. HEXAGEN seeks to further improve gene therapies and their outcomes by overcoming the loss of stem cell function observed in current clinical protocols. Using cutting edge single cell technologies, we aim to identify how blood stem cells adapt to the invitro environment, dissect how this negatively impacts their function, and design new strategies to improve gene therapy.

“This award gives my team the unique opportunity to be ambitious and complete a full circle from basic stem cell biology to improving gene therapy for patients with many diseases. I am very excited, because unlocking blood stem cell behaviour outside our bodies will also drive many other clinical applications.”

Dr Naomi McGovern, of the Department of Pathology and the Centre for Trophoblast Research, has been awarded a grant for PMDR: Placental macrophages: Their development and role in the placenta.

McGovern said: “My team’s research focus is human placental macrophage biology. We are interested in determining the role of these cells in mediating healthy placental function and in protecting the placenta from infection. By developing our understanding of these cells, we will be able to provide new insight into pregnancy disorders.

“I am delighted that our proposal was selected for an ERC Consolidator Award. It is an acknowledgement of the exciting research my team carries out. ̽��ֱ��hard work of my team and the additional expertise provided by our supportive collaborators all helped to form the basis for this proposal. ̽��ֱ��award will provide my group with the time and resources to undertake high-risk research to inform on placental biology. It is now up to us to deliver on this generous investment.”

Professor Robert Phipps, of the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, has been awarded a grant for IonPairEnantRadical: Transforming Enantioselective Radical Chemistry using Ion-Pairing Catalysis.

Phipps said: “Chemical reactions that are driven by radical mechanisms are rapidly growing in importance, but it is an ongoing challenging to control enantioseletivity in those that form stereocentres. This grant will fund an ambitious program which will apply innovative and unexplored ion-pairing strategies to control enantioselectivity in a variety of important radical chemistries for which there are no or limited existing methods for imposing enantiocontrol.

“I am extremely grateful that my proposal was selected for funding in this very competitive call. I am excited about the chemistry that my group will be able to explore over the coming five years with this fantastic opportunity!”

Akshay Rao, Professor of Physics of the Cavendish Laboratory in the Department of Physics, has been awarded a grant for SPICE: Spin-Exchange and Energy Transfer at Hybrid Molecular/Lanthanide Nanoparticle Interfaces to Control Triplet Excitons.

Rao said: “Our project, SPICE, will explore the physics and chemistry of a new class of hybrid materials, organic molecules connected to lanthanide doped nanoparticles.

“Although we are still at an early stage of research, if we succeed it may create transformative applications in areas ranging from optoelectronics, data communication, photocatalysis, optogenetics and 3D bio-printing. Over the long term this kind of blue-sky science is what drives technological innovation helping to drive improved productivity in industry, but also directly tacking major societal challenges such as climate change and health.

“We are delighted that our project has received the support of the European Research Council. This is a great opportunity for us to pursue high-risk high-gain blue-sky science and push the limits of our understanding of these materials and take them towards application. ̽��ֱ��award also serves as recognition of the excellent science done by our PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, who’s tireless efforts to push the scientific frontier have made possible the breakthroughs that have brought us here.”

Dr Milka Sarris, Assistant Professor of the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, was awarded a grant for LongWayFromFlam: ̽��ֱ��uncharted journeys of inflammatory cells and their functional implications.

Sarris said: “My group studies how cells of the immune system move in the body to generate and resolve inflammatory responses. To study these processes, we use state of the art microscopy techniques and genetic approaches in zebrafish, a small vertebrate model organism.

“I am absolutely thrilled to have won this award at a key stage of my career and to be able to pursue an ambitious new line of fundamental research. It was a long process and I remain very grateful to my university colleagues, the peer reviewers and the evaluation committee for their feedback.”

Eight researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have won European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grants

Photos provided by winners

From clockwise: Eloy de Lera Acedo, Daniel Hodson, Sohini Kar-Narayan, Elisa Laurenti, Naomi McGovern, Robert Phipps, Akshay Rao and Milka Sarris.

̽��ֱ��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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Cambridge researcher named one of Top 50 Women in Engineering

sc604 — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 11:18:28 +0000

Now in its sixth year, the 2021 WE50 celebrates the wealth of female talent within engineering and related disciplines. ̽��ֱ��annual celebration is aligned with International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) which takes place on 23 June.

Some of Kar-Narayan’s happiest childhood memories involved taking apart cassette players and VCR recorders, and that curiosity is what drew her to her current role. Her research involves developing new polymeric materials for harvesting energy to power health monitoring devices and integrating materials into versatile sensors. She has also been working on developing self-powered devices for patients.

“I am absolutely thrilled by this award, and to be recognised as an ‘Engineering Hero’ will go down well with my kids,” said Kar-Narayan, who is a Fellow of Clare Hall. “My late father was diabetic and suffered from heart disease, and this played a role in my desire to use science and engineering to improve patient care by developing self-powered devices that can offer personalised healthcare and remote health monitoring, and new technologies to study and manage the progression of disease at a cellular level. I am so grateful to WES for this award, and of course, to all the people who have supported me over the years, including my brilliant research group without whom this would not have been possible.”

One of the aims of Kar-Narayan’s research is the development of early-stage prototypes and eventual commercialisation of energy harvesting and self-powered sensing technologies. An example is the spin-out company ArtioSense Ltd that she has recently co-founded, which seeks to deliver low-cost conformable sensors that can aid orthopaedic surgery through real-time force monitoring in joints.

Even in the current climate, the number and standard of nominations were high, emphasising the exceptional achievements made by women in this field. ̽��ֱ��WE50 awards were judged by a panel of industry experts.

“It was wonderful to read about the achievements of these extraordinary women and the impact that they are making on society with their talent, hard work and dedication,” said Head Judge Professor Catherine Noakes OBE CEng FIMechE FIHEEM. “ ̽��ֱ��COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how truly important science, technology and engineering are to the health of our planet. ̽��ֱ��2021 WE50 personify the inventive and inclusive thinking needed to build a sustainable future. If there was ever a time that we needed these heroes in engineering, it is now.”

INWED celebrates the achievements of women in engineering and related roles and highlights the opportunities available to engineers of the future. ̽��ֱ��WE50 was created to raise awareness of the skills shortage facing the industry, highlighting the huge discrepancy between the number of men vs. women currently in engineering professions. ̽��ֱ��theme of WE50 changes each year to recognise women working in different fields and from varying routes into engineering. This year’s theme is ‘Engineering Heroes.’

Dr Sohini Kar-Narayan from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy has been named one of the top 50 Women in Engineering 2021 by the Women’s Engineering Society.

Sohini Kar-Narayan

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