̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Medical Research Council (MRC)

Winners of science fellowships announced

pbh25 — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 09:44:18 +0000

Senior Research Associate Dr Clémence Blouet is among the four winners of the 2014 L’Oréal-UNESCO UK & Ireland For Women In Science Fellowships (FWIS).

Dr Blouet is an MRC New Blood Fellow at the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit, which is based at the Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science.

She was selected for her work on the consequences of high-fat intake on the hypothalamus and the mechanism behind obesity.

̽��ֱ��FWIS UK & Ireland fellowships have been designed to provide flexible financial help to four outstanding female postdoctoral scientists to continue research in their chosen fields.

Chair of the judging panel, Pratibha Gai, Professor of Chemistry and Physics, Founding Professor of Electron Microscopy and co-director of the York Nanocentre at the ̽��ֱ�� of York commented on the winners: “We had an absolutely outstanding shortlist this year, and these four women – Dr Clémence Blouet, Dr Tracy Briggs, Dr Eva-Maria Graefe and Dr Sneha Malde exemplify perfectly what the For Women in Science Fellowships stand for.

“They are deeply talented, committed and hard-working scientists, who have huge passion for their research areas. I am excited to see what they all achieve in the coming year, and am confident that the influence and dedication of the female scientific community in the UK is well represented by these remarkable women.”

̽��ֱ��fellowships, worth £15,000 each, can be spent on whatever they may need to continue their research.

̽��ֱ��four winners stated that they will be using their prize money for a range of support such as equipment, field trips, attendance at conferences, childcare and collaborations.

Winners were selected by a jury of scientists and included Royal Society Vice President Professor John Pethica and Professor Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission.

̽��ֱ��awards are run in partnership with the UK National Commission for UNESCO, the Irish National Commission for UNESCO, with the support of the Royal Society.

Image credit: Drew Gardner.

Cambridge academic among winners of 2014 L’Oréal-UNESCO UK & Ireland For Women In Science Fellowships.

These four women exemplify perfectly what the For Women in Science Fellowships stand for.

Chair of the judging panel, Pratibha Gai

Drew Gardner

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Behind the scenes of cancer research

rw485 — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 11:09:12 +0000

Professor Venkitaraman’s Unit will be opening its doors on Sunday 23 March for the event Behind the scenes of cancer research. Visitors will be able to join scientists from the MRC Cancer Unit and the Hutchison/MRC Research Centre to find out more about how they are trying to improve the detection and treatment of cancer. They will also be able to take a look at DNA mutations and unusual chromosomes, and have a go at some of the experiments the researchers do in the lab every day.

Professor Venkitaraman said: “Research at the MRC Cancer Unit focuses on understanding the earliest stages in the development of cancer, and using this new knowledge to find better ways of detecting and treating the disease before it advances. My colleagues and I believe that research on early cancer progression, detection and treatment has tremendous potential to improve the survival rates of cancer patients.

“ ̽��ֱ��Cambridge Science Festival is an excellent opportunity for us to speak to the public about our science, and our hopes for the future of cancer detection, treatment and prevention. We also hope our event will give visitors a small insight into what goes on in some of our labs, and perhaps even inspire the next generation of cancer researchers.”

Speaking about some of the latest research, Dr Ireena Dutta, Scientific Communications Manager at the MRC Cancer Unit said: “One area in which we're making significant strides is the screening and monitoring of patients at risk of developing oesophageal cancer (cancer in the gullet). Research undertaken by Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald has developed a new device called the Cytosponge, which can be used to collect cell samples from patients, and is much less invasive (and cheaper) than traditional monitoring methods such as endoscopies. This makes it suitable for use in a screening programme, and it is currently being assessed in a large-scale clinical trial. Visitors can find out more about this and other research we are currently doing on the day.”

On the same day, there will be another similar event, Be a cancer research scientist for a day, which is being run by the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Institute. They are inviting visitors to don a lab coat and be a scientist for a day. Visitors will be able to enter their mini science lab, run a DNA gel, stain tissue sections and look at them down a microscope, and try out virtual reality radiotherapy with CRUK’s clinical cancer colleagues.

Drug development is a major part of cancer research and visitors to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus will be able to discover more about this aspect of medical research with two further events also being held on Sunday 23 March.

During the first event, Making medicines from A to Z, visitors will be able to learn how AstraZeneca scientists discover and develop new medicines. In this interactive experience, they will be able to explore how chemistry and 3D modelling are used in the design and build of new drugs and then explore how these drugs, alone or in combination, are tested in humans to treat diseases such as cancer. This event will also take place on Sunday 16 March at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.

̽��ֱ��second event is Developing new drugs: have a go at pharmacokinetic sampling! ̽��ֱ��National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Investigation Ward is involved in many research studies working towards the development of new treatments for cancer. During the development of new drugs detailed studies are undertaken to establish how quickly the body absorbs the drug and how long it stays in the body. Visitors will able to find out more about this aspect of medical research and have a go at ‘pharmacokinetic’ sampling.

Other talks, debates and demonstrations relating to cancer research include:

Saturday 15 March, as part of ThinkCon 2014, Kat Arney will be talking about the Evolution of Cancer.
Tuesday 18 March, Transmissible cancers in dogs and Tasmanian devils. Andrea Strakova will reveal unexpected findings about two unique cancers that have adapted to transfer by the means of living cancer cells between their hosts – Tasmanian devils and domestic dogs. We will explore how a cancer can become transmissible, despite the fact that it is usually considered to be a malignant transformation of cells of your own body.

For more information about the Cambridge Science Festival or to book tickets for any of these events, please visit: www.cam.ac.uk/science-festival

Further news stories about the Cambridge Science Festival can be viewed here: www.cam.ac.uk/science-festival/news

You can also follow us on:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cambridgesciencefestival Twitter: https://twitter.com/camscience

To download the Festival app, please visit: www.cam.ac.uk/csf/app

Ends

About Cambridge Science Festival

Now in its 20^th year, the Cambridge Science Festival gives the public the opportunity to explore Cambridge science. Thanks to the support of the ̽��ֱ��, our sponsors and partners, most of the events are free.

̽��ֱ��Science Festival aims to provide the public with opportunities to explore and discuss issues of scientific interest and concern and to raise aspirations and career awareness in the areas of science, technology, engineering or mathematics.

Patrons of the Science Festival are: Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor John Barrow, Dr Claire Cockcroft, Dr Henry Gee, Lord Rees of Ludlow, Professor Malcolm Longair, Mr Tim Radford, Professor Barbara Sahakian, Professor Jeremy Sanders, Dr Andrew Sugden, Ms Carol Vorderman, Professor Jim Secord, Mr Ian Harvey, Professor Andrea Brand, Professor Ron Laskey, Professor Bill Sutherland, Professor John Naughton, Professor Alan Barrell.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Science Festival is sponsored by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, the Medical Research Council, Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ��, AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Royal Society of Chemistry, AAAS Science International Inc., TTP Group plc., BlueBridgeEducation, Linguamatics, Abcam plc., RAND Europe, Society of Biology, ̽��ֱ��Babraham Institute, British Association for Psychopharmacology , the Pye Foundation, Walters Kundert Charitable Trust, and Cambridge City Council. Other Festival partners are Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals, the Cambridge Science Centre, Hills Road Sixth Form College and National Science and Engineering Week. ̽��ֱ��Festival's media partner is BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Cancer will affect one in three of us at some point in our lives, so research into this disease is vital. Most cancer patients will see their doctor when the disease is already advanced and harder to treat, according to Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cancer Unit in Cambridge.

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Synaesthesia is more common in autism

sj387 — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 08:07:50 +0000

Synaesthesia involves people experiencing a ‘mixing of the senses’, for example, seeing colours when they hear sounds, or reporting that musical notes evoke different tastes. Autism is diagnosed when a person struggles with social relationships and communication, and shows unusually narrow interests and resistance to change. ̽��ֱ��team of scientists from Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� found that whereas synaesthesia only occurred in 7.2% of typical individuals, it occurred in 18.9% of people with autism.

On the face of it, this is an unlikely result, as autism and synaesthesia seem as if they should not share anything. But at the level of the brain, synaesthesia involves atypical connections between brain areas that are not usually wired together (so that a sensation in one channel automatically triggers a perception in another). Autism has also been postulated to involve over-connectivity of neurons (so that the person over-focuses on small details but struggles to keep track of the big picture).

̽��ֱ��scientists tested – and confirmed – the prediction that if both autism and synaesthesia involve neural over-connectivity, then synaesthesia might be disproportionately common in autism.

̽��ֱ��team, led by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��, tested 164 adults with an autism spectrum condition and 97 adults without autism. All volunteers were screened for synaesthesia. Among the 31 people with autism who also had synaesthesia, the most common forms of the latter were ‘grapheme-colour’ (18 of them reported black and white letters being seen as coloured) and ‘sound-colour’ (21 of them reported a sound triggering a visual experience of colour). Another 18 of them reported either tastes, pains, or smells triggering a visual experience of colour.

Professor Baron-Cohen said: “I have studied both autism and synaesthesia for over 25 years and I had assumed that one had nothing to do with the other. These findings will re-focus research to examine common factors that drive brain development in these traditionally very separate conditions. An example is the mechanism ‘apoptosis,’ the natural pruning that occurs in early development, where we are programmed to lose many of our infant neural connections. In both autism and synaesthesia apoptosis may not occur at the same rate, so that these connections are retained beyond infancy.”

Professor Simon Fisher, a member of the team, and Director of the Language and Genetics Department at Nijmegen’s Max Planck Institute, added: “Genes play a substantial role in autism and scientists have begun to pinpoint some of the individual genes involved. Synaesthesia is also thought to be strongly genetic, but the specific genes underlying this are still unknown. This new research gives us an exciting new lead, encouraging us to search for genes which are shared between these two conditions, and which might play a role in how the brain forms or loses neural connections.”

Donielle Johnson, a Cambridge Gates Scholar who carried out the study as part of her Master’s degree, said: “People with autism report high levels of sensory hyper-sensitivity. This new study goes one step further in identifying synaesthesia as a sensory issue that has been overlooked in this population. This has major implications for educators and clinicians designing autism-friendly learning environments.”

People with autism are more likely to also have synaesthesia, suggests new research in the journal Molecular Autism.

Genes play a substantial role in autism and scientists have begun to pinpoint some of the individual genes involved

Professor Simon Fisher

Richard E. Cytowic

Synesthetic number form

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