270,000 REASONS TO REMEMBER GUY

The Guy Hilton Research Centre at UHNS this week received a £160,000 boost from the parents of Guy Hilton, John and Ro Hilton. The building was named after 12-year-old Guy, who died from asthma in 2002, when it opened in 2006. This donation was John and Ro's second major gift to support clinical research and takes their total fund raising on behalf of the Guy Hilton Trust to £270,000.

Professor Warren Lenney, Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine and former NHS R&D Director at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, said: "The research centre which houses basic scientists alongside clinical academics provides a focus for clinical translational research and is a fitting tribute to Guy. I firmly believe this staggering donation will help to save lives in the future. This is by far the largest donation we have received from private individuals and our warmest thanks go the John and Ro for their fund raising. It is very important that as a university hospital we are at the forefront of research in the region and this donation will certainly help."

The photograph shows, left to right, Professor Andy Garner, Dean of the Faculty of Health, Professor Lenney, Ro and  John  Hilton and Professor Gordon Ferns, Director of the Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine and Director of R&D at UHNS.

SUMMIT ON AMBULATORY CARE

A Keele academic shared the platform with the President of the World Association of Primary Care Organisations in Toronto this week. Dr Kay Mohanna, who is senior lecturer and director of postgraduate programmes in the School of Medicine, was one of five international speakers invited to speak at the University of Toronto Summit on Ambulatory Care. She spoke on the subject of developing excellence in ambulatory care education.
 
Dr Mohanna, pictured, said: "This conference was about the place of primary care in medical provision in a country where it is commonplace in some communities to keep a gun in case of attack from bears. Preparing doctors to work, often in professional isolation, requires imaginative teachers and those teachers need innovative faculty development schemes. It was an honour to be invited to speak and share some ideas from UK GP training and professional development."

POLICY REPORT TO THE UN

Dr Ambreena Manji, Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice presented a report on 'Legal Aspects of Gender and Access to Land in Africa' to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in Rome.

Her policy report on land tenure and women's equitable access to property was written with Professor Susana Lastarria-Cornhiel, Department for Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was presented by video-conference from Keele. The policy report was then debated by three international respondents and by members of the UN FAO.

The event marked the launch of the FAO's Gender and Land Rights Database which will provide a wide range of comparable country profiles containing information on the social, economic, political and cultural issues affecting gender equity in land rights. Dr Manji was later interviewed by the US newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, for a report on 'Africa's coming land wars'.

SEISMOLOGY TRAINING DAY

Dr Ian Stimpson, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, has hosted the second training day for the Keele and Partners – Seismology (KAP-SEIS) project. Six seismometers, capable of detecting large earthquakes anywhere in the world have been provided to schools in the region to add to the seven instruments that were given away last year.

The seismometers, this year funded by a grant of £2,000 from the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, are designed so that they can be used to teach physics principles such as simple harmonic motion and electro-magnetic induction, as well as earth science. The schools can share their data with other UK and Irish schools involved in the Seismometers for Schools project, as well as schools involved in a similar project in the United States.

Dr Stimpson, pictured, provides mentoring and support for those schools in the West Midlands region.  The schools receiving seismometers this year (as well as a computer to record the data, generously provided by IT Services) are Newcastle Community High School, St. Joseph's College in Stoke, St. Edward's Junior High School in Leek, Adams Grammar School in Newport, King's School in Macclesfield and Hillside High School in Bootle.

FROM FISH TO CHIPS

Professor David Hoole, Biology, pictured, this week gave the latest lecture in the University's programme of Inaugural Lectures for 2009/2010. The title of the lecture was "From fish to chips: understanding fish diseases".

Every year there are numerous warnings from leading authorities on the current situation of global seawater and freshwater fish stocks, and whilst governments debate and try to implement solutions to the declines recorded, one success story over the past three decades has been the rearing of fish in captivity. Professor Hoole's lecture reviewed how knowledge of the fish-pathogen interaction can assist in producing healthier fish and in the development of new pathogen control strategies, such as vaccination and increased resistance.

The other lectures in the series are:

Tuesday, 16 February 2010, Professor David Maxwell, History, "Researching the Luba Soul: The Production of Colonial Knowledge in Belgian Congo"; Tuesday, 30 March 2010, Professor Coel Hellier, Astrophysics, "Discovering new planets"; Wednesday, 12 May 2010 Professor David Shepherd, Cultural Theory, "The Theory of Culture and the Culture of Theory".

KEELE ACADEMIC ON CHANNEL 4 NEWS

Dr. Ruth Fletcher (School of Law and Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice) was interviewed on Channel 4, Sky, and UTV radio news this week about a landmark abortion rights case heard by the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday.

Three women, known as A, B and C, are challenging Ireland's restrictive abortion laws on the grounds that their Convention rights (2, 3, 8 and 14) were infringed by having to travel abroad for an abortion. Together with Doctors for Choice (Ireland), and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, Dr. Fletcher submitted expert commentary to the Court in Strasbourg on the problems caused by the legal restriction of abortion and having to travel for abortion care.

HOUSE OF COMMONS RECEPTION

A House of Commons reception organised by the network of Science Learning Centres to promote their work across the country was well attended by MPs and affiliate partners. The Keele-based West Midlands centre was supported Pro Vice-Chancellor, Kevin Mattinson, and the Dean of Natural Sciences, Professor Pat Bailey, as well as Staffordshire University and Staffordshire LA partners.

The reception highlighted the world-class science CPD the network is delivering to schools across the country, emphasising the importance of future political support in order to build upon and expand the successes already gained, to re-shape science lessons in schools, thus helping to create a new and expanding generation of scientifically literate citizens.

SPEAKER AT INTERNATIONAL LECTURE SERIES

Professor Matthias Klaes, of Keele's Centre for Economic Research, last week gave the opening lecture to an invited international lecture series on "Epistemological Aspects of Economic Science", hosted by the Interdepartmental Research Centre in Epistemology and History of Science of the University of Bologna.

During his visit, he was also a guest of the Microfinance International Observatory where he offered an overview of the rapidly evolving field of P2P Finance.

EXPLORING DARWIN'S LEGACY

Professor David Amigoni (English, Research Institute for Humanities) was a keynote speaker at the international conference '(Dis)entangling Darwin', held at the University of Porto, Portugal last week.

The interdisciplinary conference, which brought together experts from the humanities, the life sciences, palaeontology and the history of science, explored Darwin's legacy from the perspective of his bicentenary year. Professor Amigoni's lecture focused on the way in which Darwin's theories of inheritance were understood, represented in literary treatments, and contested, during the year of his centenary in 1909.

PAPER PRIZE

Esther Moss, an Honorary Clinical Lecturer in the Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, has been awarded the Edgar Gentilli Prize by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology for her paper to be published in Genes, Chromosomes and Cancer in January 2010. Esther's work investigated the role of candidate tumor suppressor Fau in ovarian cancer and was carried out with co-workers, Dr Mirna Mourtada, Dr Mark Pickard, Charles Redman and Professor Gwyn Williams, during her PhD at Keele.

GRAND VENUE FOR PHARMACISTS EVENING

Keele Hall Ballroom this week hosted one of a series of professional evenings for the local branch of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the professional regularity body for pharmacists.

The event focused on educating current and future pharmacists, with Dr Stuart Oultram hosting a debate on the rationing of health care. The 130 guests then enjoyed a festive buffet, followed by a quiz that tested them on their pharmacy knowledge.