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Research overview

The School of Medicine supports a Medical Science team, to deliver the science and scholarship elements of the undergraduate curriculum. This team contains a number of world class research scientists covering areas such as neurobiology, parasitology, regenerative medicine, proteomics, orthopaedics, cardiovascular, and cellular and molecular medicine. The team is closely aligned with the Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine and Faculty of Natural Sciences. Opportunities are available for postgraduate laboratory research for short-term periods or towards postgraduate degrees at MSc and PhD level.

We also have a strong Academic Pathway for our undergraduates from academic Student Selected Components, Summer Studentships and Student Research Showcases and Intercalated Master’s degrees, all of which are available to students who wish to develop careers in academic medicine. We work closely with the student body to support student led research clinics and research meetings.

We have a newly-appointed Director of Medical Science to support staff and students as Scholars and Scientists, and to co-ordinate links with other researchers in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and across the wider University.

The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences includes three flagship multidisciplinary Research Institutes. Research is necessarily limited to areas demonstrating international excellence. The Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine is focused on diagnostics, cardio-pulmonary and renal disease, and regenerative medicine. Applied health research in the Institute for Primary Care & Health Sciences is unquestionably world leading as reflected in grants awarded, the Queen’s Prize for Higher Education, and its designation as the Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre. The need to grow clinical research in conjunction with the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) has been recognised by the establishment of a clinically focused Research Institute for Applied Clinical Sciences and the appointment of a number of new clinical chairs.

The three Faculty Research Institutes are:

Some of our teaching staff undertake research in other University Research areas:

• Natural Sciences Research
• Humanities and Social Science Research

The School of Medicine has renewed its commitment to research and scholarship in medical education. This has already strengthened, and will continue to strengthen, our teaching and enhance the professional lives of our staff and our students’ career prospects. Our medium term aim is to build collaborations across the University and to contribute to a REF submission in education by Keele. We are active collaborators in The Higher Education Network at Keele (THiNK). We have active research links with the Universities of Aberdeen, Sheffield and Otago (NZ).

We have two research programmes:

• Feedback to students on their performance: interrelated projects investigating how students use feedback from formative and summative assessments and how the effectiveness of feedback can be optimised. We are also investigating how feedback can be enhanced by mobile devices, studying students’ and teachers’ interactions with the technology. 
• Transition from learner to practitioner: cross-sectional and longitudinal studies investigating the transitions doctors in training undergo; from student to doctor; from Foundation doctor to higher medical trainee. This includes evaluating how our curriculum prepares students for practice and how it impacts on career choices.

Please follow the link to our Medical Education Research Group.