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
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