HYMS
sheet
NOVEMBER
2014
Typical transmission site for visceral
leishmaniasis in Bihar, India (story below)
Wellcome Trust award for CII Director
Professor Paul Kaye, Director
of the HYMS Centre for
Immunology and Infection, has
been given a prestigious
Wellcome Trust Senior
Investigator Award to continue
his research on visceral
leishmaniasis.
© HYMS 2014
The awards are given by the
Wellcome Trust to support exceptional,
world-class researchers, who hold an
established academic position.
Leishmaniasis is one of the major
neglected diseases of poverty, affecting
over one million people worldwide and
the most severe form, visceral
leishmaniasis or kala azar, is responsible
for tens of thousands of deaths every year.
This parasitic disease is spread
through the bite of a female sandﬂy, that
itself has become infected by biting
someone that is either sick from the
Top ten for
HYMS
disease or carrying the parasite without
knowing it.
To develop tools that will help break
the cycle of disease transmission, more
needs to be known about how these
parasites spread around the body, how
they are acquired by sandﬂies and how
variations in host immune response affects
these processes.
Professor Kaye’s research addresses
these questions using new models of
leishmaniasis transmission, state of the art
techniques in cellular immunology and
molecular pathology, and computational
modeling. The research will provide new
knowledge directly applicable to the ﬁght
towards eliminating this devastating
disease.
The preliminary research supporting
this new program of work was conducted
in bespoke facilities for sandﬂy research
established at York using funds awarded
through a Research Pump Priming Award
from the Centre for Chronic Diseases and
Disorders. 
Prize for Patrick
CONGRATULATIONS to Year 4
student Patrick Campbell who
has won a poster prize at the
Annual meeting of the European
Society for Dermatological
Research in Copenhagen for his
research “Germline mutation in
EGFR resulting in epithelial
inflammation and metabolic
abnormalities”.
Patrick is co-author on two
papers which have been published as a
result of this research. 
ASPiH conference
YEAR 5 student Alan Gopal will
give two presentations at the
Association for Simulated
Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH)
conference this month and has
also had a poster accepted for
the event. 
HYMS is named in the Times Higher Education supplement as among the top 10 best
universities nationally this year for student satisfaction, slightly behind Brighton and
Sussex Medical School, but ahead of both our parent institutions, the Universities of Hull
and York. 
Calendar November
of events 19
Short course
For full details of all
these events, plus
many more lectures,
seminars, conferences
and social events, visit
www.hyms.ac.uk/events
For details of student
events and societies, visit
the MedSoc website
www.hymsmedsoc.co.uk
Conﬁdence in kidney care
20
December
Lecture
1-2
Making medicine more
precise for patients with
leukaemia and lymphoma
[email protected]
Bowland Auditorium, Berrick
Saul Building, University of
York 
20
26
Hospice lecture
Lecture
Huntington’s disease
The life of breath: New
directions in medical
humanities
Tickton Grange, Beverley 
Dove House Hospice,
Chamberlain Road, Hull 
Short course
M R breast training
course
MRI Centre, Hull Royal
Inﬁrmary 
18
Professor Jane Macnaughton
INSPIRE careers event
Best Western Pavilion Hotel,
York 
[email protected]
Treehouse, Berrick Saul
Building, University of York 
Research publications
Book of the month
RECENT publications by HYMS staff:
A BOOK by HYMS Professor of Palliative
Medicine Miriam Johnson has been named
Palliative Care Book of the month by the
International Association for Hospice and
Palliative Care (IAHPC). “From Advanced
Disease to Bereavement by Miriam Johnson,
Karen Hogg and James Beattie provides a
wealth of information about the supportive and
palliative care of patients with heart failure. 
HYMS Senior Lecturer in Biomedical
Sciences Dr Francisco Rivero is coauthor of a study, published in Human
Molecular Genetics, which has broad
implications for the prevention of hearing
loss. 
AN article by Associate Dean (Research)
Professor Ian Chetter comparing three
types of treatment for varicose vein has
been published in the New England Journal
of Medicine. 
Nicolson DJ, Macleod U, Weller D.
“Disparities in Cancer Outcomes: A UK
Perspective.” Impact of Energy Balance on
Cancer Disparities. Bowen DJ, Denis GV,
Berger N A (Eds) Springer, 2014. 
Chen H, Komaromy C, Valentine C.
“From hope to hope: The experience of
older Chinese people with advanced cancer.”
Health (London) 1363459314555238, ﬁrst
published on October 19, 2014
doi:10.1177/1363459314555238. 
Johnson MJ, Hui D, Currow DC.
“Opioids, Exertion, and Dyspnea: A review
of the evidence”. American Journal of
Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published
online 7 October 2014. DOI:
10.1177/1049909114552692 
Keynote speakers
SENIOR lecturers Peter Bazira (Clinical
Anatomy) and Gabrielle Finn (Medical
Education) have been invited to represent
the Anatomical Society at the American
Association of Anatomists. They will give
keynote lectures at a symposium sponsored
by the Anatomical Society which aims to
showcase the best of anatomy pedagogy
research within the UK. The symposium
will be part of the Experimental Biology
conference in Boston in April 2015.
From lab to marketplace
A COMPANY, SimOmics, co-founded by
Senior Lecturer in Immunology Dr Mark
Coles, has won its ﬁrst major contract as
part of a consortium led by the Centre for
Immunology and Infection. The business is
based on innovative computer modelling
software which can help drug developers
predict the effects of new drugs on
autoimmune diseases. 
Stories with the mouse symbol  have more information in the news section
of the HYMS website, where you will also ﬁnd breaking news, updates and images.
www.hyms.ac.uk/news
Medical imaging centre
A new £6.8 million research
centre based across two
Yorkshire universities will aim to
transform diagnosis and
treatment of patients suffering
from cancer, heart disease and
musculo-skeletal diseases with
the help of new medical imaging
facilities to be created at Leeds
Teaching Hospitals and the
University of York.
The funding from the Medical
Research Council is part of a package
worth more than £230 million for
universities across Britain announced
by Chancellor of the Exchequer
George Osborne.
Researchers from the University
of Leeds and the University of York,
including HYMS, will work on a new
imaging method which could see the
signal in MRI scanners increase up to
100,000 fold. This will give medical
professionals new insights into the
workings of the human body in health
and illness. The new method also has
the potential to make the
development of new drugs more
effective. 
If you have any
contributions for
this internal bulletin,
please send them to
val.parker
@hyms.ac.uk