KEELE RESEARCHERS AWARDED £2M FOR OSTEOARTHRITIS RESEARCH

A team of researchers from the Research Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences has been awarded £2,055,000 by the NHS National Institute for Health Research for an investigation into clinical osteoarthritis and joint pain in older people, which will add to best practice for managing osteoarthritis in primary care and enhance the potential for healthy ageing.

The team, led by Professor Peter Croft, will address how to prioritise osteoarthritis care among patients, health professionals and Primary Care Trusts, and how to make osteoarthritis interventions more available and more effective.

They will draw together existing research to assess the costs and benefits of different approaches to primary care osteoarthritis treatment, identifying best strategies and choices for health care commissioners and the public. A second theme brings patients and health professionals together with researchers to develop a "model osteoarthritis consultation" for health workers to use when seeing patients with joint pain, which includes ways to relieve pain and disability, and an understanding of what the patient thinks and wants to know and do.

Theme three investigates ways to help people find the right exercise routine and maintain it over time and theme four looks at unrecognised health problems in osteoarthritis sufferers, such as depression. 

EXCITING NEW LINKS WITH CHINA FOR KEELE'S HUMAN TISSUE ENGINEERING RESEARCHERS

Three members of the Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine (ISTM) are leading a new European project called "Hyanji Scaffold: Hyaluronan-based injectable material for tissue engineering" to link Chinese and Italian Universities in developing new technologies for minimally invasive treatments to repair human joints.

Professor Nureddin Ashammakhi, Professor Alicia El Haj and Dr Nick Forsyth head the Keele biomedial engineering team, specifically bringing ISTM's expertise in developing bioreactors and growing stem cells, and will be involved in staff exchanges with China over the next four years. The Italian partner, Pisa University, has expertise in biomaterials processing, while Sichuan University in China will specialise in drug delivery and Tsinghua University in macromolecule biosynthesis.

The European Commission's Framework 7 Programme has awarded £250,000 to the partnership, the objective of which is to develop an injectable matrix for regenerating human tissues like knee cartilage and tendon without the need for surgery. It will culminate in a major research workshop to ensure European researchers remain at the international forefront of regenerative medicine, linked to the successful existing "Expertissues" Network of Excellence in which Keele is already major partner. 

CLEAN COAL TECHNOLOGIES MISSION

Professor Peter Styles, Professor of Applied and Environmental Geophysics, has been invited by the Foreign Office to be a member of a UK/Australia Clean Coal Technologies Mission next month in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
 
The Australian Government announced the new Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute (GCCSI) in September last year and British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has indicated his full support to the GCCSI and collaboration with Australia on clean coal technologies. The UK and Australia Clean Coal Technologies networking mission is a week-long event that includes visits to research facilities, workshops and networking events with Australian Universities and businesses, with the aim to build on this joint partnership.

Professor Styles will also participate in an EU funded workshop in Delhi on Underground Coal Gasification technologies which has been planned for 11 to 13 March to precede the Australia Visit and he will spend a few days working with research collaborators from the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies after the FCO trip. 

GENDER, WORK AND ORGANIZATION SPECIAL ISSUE

Deborah Kerfoot, Research Institute for Public Policy and Management, and Jennifer Binns  (University of Western Australia) are editing a special issue of the journal `Gender, Work and Organization' following the success of the conference `Engendering Leadership' in Perth, Australia, last year.

More than 120 international delegates attended the gathering at the University of Western Australia Business School, organised by Deborah Kerfoot and UWA colleagues. More than 300 attendees from academia, industry and the public sector also attended a pre-conference gathering `Conversations on Ethical Leadership'. 'Engendering Leadership' was organised in nine streams and Professor Anne Worrall, Criminology at Keele, chaired the Leadership in Criminal Justice Stream. Australian Chief Commissioner of Police, Christine Nixon, was guest speaker.
 
`Gender, Work and Organization' is jointly edited by Deborah Kerfoot and David Knights (Emeritus, Keele). 

KEELE TOUGH GUY

Ben Ambrose, School of Health and Rehabilitation, joined five thousand runners on the annual Winter Toughguy challenge in Perton last Sunday. The Toughguy claims to be the world's most demanding one day survival ordeal.

The ten mile course starts with a gentle run negotiating obstacles and jumping in and out of deep muddy pits. The initial eight mile run is followed by a two mile assault course, appropriately named the Killing Fields, which includes running through fire, crawling under barbed wire and negotiating an underwater tunnel in water barely above freezing.

Money raised will be split equally between Mr Mouse's Farm for Unfortunates and ARCH North Staffordshire, charities that depend on regional donors. Retrospective sponsors should contact Ben. 

ELECTED FELLOW OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

Dr Michael Montenari, Earth Sciences and Geography, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, has been made an Elected Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. This is considered to be one of the highest international accolades a scientist can receive in the fields of Evolution and Biodiversity research.

Dr Montenari receives this honour in recognition of his outstanding contributions to our understanding of the Evolution of Early Life on Earth ("Deep-Life-Hypothesis") and his research on the Evolution of ancient ecosystems.
The Linnean Society of London is the world's oldest and most distinguished biological society. Founded in 1788, the Society takes its name from the famous Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778), who made his contribution by founding such important scientific disciplines as Ecology, Taxonomy and the Binominal Nomenclature. The Linnean Society promotes and fosters the study of all aspects of the biological and palaeobiological sciences, with particular emphasis on Evolution, Taxonomy and Biodiversity.

£134,000 for ISTM RESEARCH

The structural biology research group in the Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine (ISTM) has been awarded a further £134,000 from the Science, Technology and Facilities Research Council for continued research into the structure and function of key proteins of the innate (non-adaptive) immune system. Two of the three awards are for £32K each to Professor Trevor Greenhough, with Dr. Annette Shrive, for structural studies of the collectins and pentraxins using the Diamond synchrotron source. Keele continues to lead the Midlands UK Universities protein crystallography consortium, including the Universities of Birmingham, Leicester, Warwick, Nottingham and Keele, at Diamond. The third award is for £70K to Dr. Annette Shrive, with Professor Greenhough, for complementary structural studies of the effector mechanisms of the human pentraxin C-reactive protein, including its interaction with the complement system and natural targets such as Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Dr. Shrive's research on the human pentraxins includes a collaboration with Dr. Chris Exley, Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics, on complementary structural studies of serum amyloid P component, implicated in various clinical conditions including amyloidosis and Alzheimer's disease. This work also includes two EPSRC supported studentships in ISTM.

EPSAM 'AWAY' HALF DAY

The Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM) held a successful 'Away' Half Day on 'Funding and Funding Opportunities' in Keele Hall.  The meeting, attended by over 60 people was facilitated by Dr Martin Pickard, Keele's EU consultant, who also gave a presentation on funding opportunities in the EU.  Senior EPSAM members with experience of Research Council Panels and a track record of successful applications to Research Councils, charities and industry also shared their experiences in other presentations during the morning.  Contributions from members of Research and Enterprise Services and the EPSAM Office highlighted the availability of Keele's excellent support in the preparation of grant applications to industry, to Research Councils and to other funding agencies.