A study led by Dr Mary Abboah-Offei will look at how health care for people living with HIV/AIDS in Ghana can be improved – backed by £1.5 in funding from the MRC
The study, titled ExtraCECI (Extra community-based enhanced care intervention) aims to recruit around 650 patients. A smaller feasibility study of CECI suggested that participants felt the approach had the potential to improve their quality of life. ExtraCECI is now set to get underway in May, after being backed by £1,468,810 in funding from the Medical Research Council. ExtraCECI will see medics from randomly selected HIV clinics trained to give a holistic assessment of the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual wellbeing, of their patients. This will then allow them to work together to plan and deliver their care. Information will then be collected at regular intervals to see if the person-centred approach to care brings about any improvement in health outcomes.
Led by Dr Mary Abboah-Offei from ENU’s School of Health and Social Care, it will also involve academics and researchers from Kings College London, the University of York, and the University of Ghana. Read the full news story here: https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/news/extraceci
New Publication by Dr Giacomo Russo, Dr Janis MacCallum & visiting PhD student Ilaria Neri (March 2024)
The work is based on the determination of the affinity for biological membranes and plasma proteins of five parabens via biomimetic liquid chromatography and their validation conducting viability assessment on breast cancer cells. PBs are typically added to pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical formulations as preservatives.In our work we demonstrated that PBs with a branched alkyl chain, particularly isopropyl paraben, were able to induce breast cancer cell proliferation to a greater extent than estradiol in physiological concentrations and PBs with a branched alkyl chain were typically more retained in biomimetic LC and were also the ones inducing the greatest proliferation. In this case study, biomimetic LC along with other screening methodologies provided effectiveness in toxicity profiling.
Read the full paper here:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170461
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome If you don’t have it, it is likely that you know someone with PCOS - Thursday 7 Mar 2024 6:00 - 8:30 PM, Craiglockhart Campus
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is the most common hormone problem in women of childbearing years, with around 10% affected. Despite being so prevalent and having so many effects upon health, there is currently poor awareness and understanding of PCOS in our communities. Together, we can raise awareness and understanding of PCOS Join us to discuss the lived experience of PCOS, how a diagnosis is made, and what it really means, what support exists and how research is aiming to make a difference in understanding and treating this disease. But most importantly, we want you to ask the questions that matter, we want you to tell us what’s required. This event is a joint initiative between Edinburgh Napier University and the charity PCOS Relief. It is free and open to all, so if you want to learn more about what PCOS is, and how it affects people, please come along. Advanced registration is essential. Please register at: Raising awareness and understanding of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome – Edinburgh Napier University
How can we meet the growing demand for animal products while minimizing the environmental impact of livestock production?
Improving animal health is the focus being explored in an ongoing research project funded from the Environmental Defense Fund and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Centre is a research partner, working with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), The Mazingira Centre (ILRI), The Centre for Tropical Livestock & Genetics, The Roslin Institute, Washington State University, The Nelson Mandela Institute (Arusha, Tanzania), Mekelle University (Ethiopia), FAO, The Global Research Alliance and the Environmental Defense Fund.
Invitation to join Drug Discovery Project
Dr Usama Ammar has been invited to join a Drug Discovery Project at Prof Oh Chang Hyun Research group within the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (Seoul, South Korea). This project is conducted in partnership with CTC Bio Pharmaceutical Company (South Korea). The group has successfully improved the pharmacokinetic (PK) profile of one of the promising compounds targeting melanoma disease. Hopefully, it will be a potential candidate to pass the next phase of the drug development process.
Outstanding Contribution to Environmental leadership (THE Awards)
Edinburgh Napier University's Lab Plastics Recycling Project, led by the School of Applied Sciences' Lisa McMillan and Jo Brown, has been shortlisted in this year's THE Awards , which will be presented on 7 December 2023.The pioneering recycling method for previously contaminated lab plastics has, to date, ensured that more than 3,200kg of plastic has been re-routed from general waste to dry mixed recycling.
To our knowledge, the scope and extent of this project represents a unique environmental leadership initiative, which has led to a paradigm shift across the HE sector and beyond. Sharing their experiences and motivating others is a key aspect of Lisa and Jo’s work, and interest in their method has grown to include laboratories at King's College London, the Institute for Cancer Research and the National Oceanography Centre, in addition to organisations across the UK.
Lisa and Jo, who also support the research of the Centre, believe that by further developing and, vitally, publishing their validated sterility protocols they can showcase these plastics to be a safe alternative to virgin resources. This game changer will in turn influence the development of the necessary markets, recycling infrastructure and global health and safety policies to stop the broad-scale incineration of lab plastics and safely introduce them to a circular economy.
Congratulations to Lisa and Jo on this well-deserved recognition!
Secured funding for HPV Education Project powered by STEAM:
Exploring Peer-to-Peer Creative Critical Engagement
Dr Eva Malone secured funding along with Dr Richard Firth (SACI) and Dr Carol Gray-Brunton (SHSC) along with colleagues from Maynooth University to work on the project HPV Education powered by STEAM: Exploring peer-to-peer creative critical engagement.
The project is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the ENU share comes to us via Maynooth University. The team is an interdisciplinary, intersectoral international group working with the Irish Cancer Society. In March they travelled to Ireland to work with young people (aged 15 years old)from 5 secondary schools across Kildare and Offaly to support the creation of short films advocating HPV vaccination.
The young people will use the films to support presentations they will deliver to final year primary school children later this academic year.
Summer Studentship
Dr Giacomo Russo was awarded a summer studentship by the Chromatographic Society and the British Mass Spectrometry Society. The project will be co-supervised by Amy Dillon and will provide support for a research project this summer for up to 8 weeks. Giacomo also worked in partnership with Prof Lucia Grumetto from the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Naples Frederico II - Italy, to secure Erasmus+ mobility funds to host Mrs Ilaria Neri, PhD candidate, at SAS for ten days from 15th to 25th May 2023 for training/job shadowing purposes.
Professor Anna Campbell is involved in the workforce and intervention development of PREFERABLE-II (Personalised Exercise-Oncology for improvement of supportive care: a super umbrella trial to demonstrate the (cost) effectiveness of live-remote exercise in cancer survivors), and she attended the first meeting of in Utrecht in November. The PREFERABLE-II consortium receives a €6M grant for a 5-year project from Horizon Europe. In addition to evaluating the intervention, PREFERABLE-II will also work on standards for patient-centered communication including shared decision-making regarding exercise, and on practical, professional, and legal recommendations for offering live-remote exercise for patients with cancer in Europe.
Appointments
Dr Amy Poole secured funding from the RIE internal strategic fund to develop a CPD in bioinformatics, 'Practical Introduction to Bioinformatics'. The course has been developed using a different software that allows it to be fully interactive and applied, yet autonomous, Dr Poole aims to launch it imminently.
Dr Samantha Donnellan been invited to be a STEM mentor for the Fame Lab Academy at the Cheltenham Science Festival for a second year, mentoring young scientists across the Gloucestershire region taking part in the competition.
Dr Fiona Kerr has been appointed as Co-Chair of the Scientific Programme Committee for the ARUK Research Conference 2023. This is the largest annual dementia research conference held in the UK, and will take place in Aberdeen in March 2023.