We have been able to continue our practice of making modest but vital start-up grants to early career researchers. The names of the successful applicants of all these grants, together with their chosen areas of research (and a plainer English explanation where necessary), are as follows:
Year of 2012
Year of 2011
Year of 2010
Year of 2009
Year of 2008
Year of 2012
Professor Paul Townsend £470,000
Faculty of Medicine
Provision of Mass Spectrometer
Dr Nicholas Evans £19,754
Faculty of Medicine
To develop a technology to specifically deliver nanoparticles carrying proteins and small molecules to stem cells in order to promote bone repair and regeneration.
Helping new bone to grow by delivering stimulants to where they are needed using nanoparticles.
Dr Sara Demain £19,952
Faculty of Health Sciences
Understanding rehabilitation burden for families of people with stroke in receipt of Early Supported Discharge.
Measuring the burden of looking after people at home after they have suffered a stroke.
Dr Ian Galea £19,999
Faculty of Medicine
An innovative measure of progressive disability in multiple sclerosis using continuous electronic physical activity monitoring.
A new way of continuously monitoring progressive disability in multiple sclerosis.
Dr Christine Cornforth £18,267 (deferred to 2013)
School of Psychology
An investigation of the prevalence, correlatives and heterogeneity of callous unemotional (CU) traits in disruptive behaviour disorder.
Learning to identify and treat callous and unemotional behaviour in children.
Dr Veronika Jenei £20,000
Faculty of Medicine
The epidermal growth factor receptor substrate Eps8 as a master regulator of pancreatic cancer progression.
Determining whether the progression of pancreatic cancer is due to the presence of a growth factor in the blood.
Dr Massimiliano Mellone £18,000
Faculty of Medicine
Role of the stromal microenvironment in solid tumors and fibrosis: molecular mechanisms regulating myofibroblast differentiation.
How the tissue that surrounds a solid tumour might help it to metastasise.
Dr Marc Tebruegge £20,000
Faculty of Medicine
A proteomic approach to the identification of novel biomarkers in tuberculosis.
Identifying tell-tale signatures of infection with tuberculosis from body fluids.
Year of 2011
Dr Alexander Johnston £19,348
School of Biological Sciences
Polymersome nanoparticle mediated delivery of GSK3B inhibitors as a potential treatment for Alzheimer
Development of a new kind of nanoparticle which could be used to target therapeutic drugs to the brain cells of people with Alzheimer's disease.
Dr Ann-Marie Hughes £19,839
Faculty of Health Sciences £19,839
Open hand for stroke
To develop new software and portable electronic stimulation devices for use at home to restore accurate movement to the arms and hands of stroke victims.
Dr Annette-Louise Hayden £20,000
Faculty of Medicine
To test the hypothesis that novel PCPA analogues allow for the optimisation of selective and potent LSD1 inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for prostate cancer.
To investigate whether a protein which is involved in prostate cancer can be targeted with certain drugs which will lead to killing the cancer cell.
Dr Hans Michael Haitchi £20,000
Faculty of Medicine
Crystal structures of ADAM33 catalytic domain inhibitor complexes to identify novel asthma therapeutics.
To establish the exact shape of this particualr protein which will enable drugs to be designed to fit into its active site and block its harmful activity.
Dr Kai Yang £20,000
Faculty of Electronics and Computer Science
Fabric based medical device.
Development of a new wearable device to improve the hand movement of patients suffering from stroke, brain injury, some spinal cord injuries and certain neurological disorders.
Dr Matthew Rose-Zerilli £18,300
Faculty of Medicine
The development of Next Generation Sequencing for the analysis of B-cell tumours: understanding disease progression in patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia
Analysing patterns of genes in patients with a particularly aggressive form of lymphocytic leukaemia to identify very early diagnosis and prescribe special treatment.
Dr Edd James (supervisor) £80,000
Faculty of Medicine
Molecular characterisation of ERAAP association with ankylosing spondylitis (for commencement in October 2012)
Dr Jonathan Strefford (supervisor) £80,000
Faculty of Medicine
The development of next generation sequencing for the analysis of B-cell tumours: understanding disease progression in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
Dr Ali Tavassoli (supervisor) £80,000
School of Chemistry
Direct stem cell fate with chemical modulators of protein networks
Year of 2010
Dr Barbara Guinn £19,296
School of Medicine
Identification of novel antigens as targets for the immunotherapy of acute lymphocytic leukemia
To identify wehich molecules in the cancer to target in order to mobilise natural defences within the body.
Dr Jonathan Dawson £18,412
School of Medicine £18,412
Clay-based gels for neo-vascularisation of allogeneic bone graft skeletal regeneration
Using special materials to assist the growth of healthy blood vessels in bone grafts.
Dr Roxana Carare £19,400
School of Medicine
Age-related changes in the basement membranes of cerebrtal blood vessels: implications for extracellular fluid homeostasis in Alzheimers disease
To discover why the natural drainage of waste particles from thye brain worsens with age (and thus potentially causes Alzheimers disease).
Dr Salah Mansour £19,750
School of Medicine
A new technology for the study of lipid-specific T cell responses in Tuberculosis
To identify fats made by the TB microbe with a view to boosting immunity levels.
Dr Valentina Di Pietro £19,754
School of Medicine
In vitro characterisation of mild traumatic brain injury
To identify signs of mild brain damage which might otherwise go unnoticed.
Mr Aminul Ahmed
£19,750
Endogenous stem cell activation in the adult cortex following traumatic brain injury
Finding a way to kick-start the brain cells to undergo a repair process
Mr John Conti £20,000
School of Medicine
The role of tumour in colorectal invasion and metastasis
Cancer cells can 'talk' to surrounding normal cells and this leads to varying degrees of aggressive behaviour from the cancer cells. This investigation will seek to listen in to the conversations with a view to distorting and calming the message.
Mr Ramsey Cuttress £19,991
School of Medicine
A blood test to screen for breast cancer
Early detection of breast cancer biomarkers to indicate the best potential therapy.
Professor John Heckels £1,382
Faculty of Medicine
Meningitis Research
Supply of 2 x Liebherr GG4010 Laboratory Upright -20°C Freezers
Professor Paul Townsend £75,000
Faculty of Medicine
MudPIT and iTRAQ LC-MS/MS breast and prostate cancer proteomic biomarker discovery
Professor Paul Townsend £19,989
Faculty of Medicine
States of Guernsey Fellowship: Detection of aggressive prostate cancer in Guernsey--a proteomic approach
Year of 2009
Dr Amrit Mudher
£15,000
School of Biological Sciences
Using fruit flies to unravel the pathogenic mechanisms that underlie Alzheimer's Disease
Dr Cheryl Metcalf
£19,783
School of Health Sciences
Hand opening to grasp 'virtual' objects during reaching tasks in a rehabilitation robot : a proof of concept study
Whether electrical stimulation of the wrist and finger muscles can enable patients to open their paralysed hand to grasp 'virtual' objects, using a computerised 'virtual reality' experiment
Dr Geert Verheyden £19,223
School of Health Sciences
Combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with robotic hand training for the severely impaired hand after stroke
Whether stimulating the brain with electric currents passed through the skull can help stroke patients develop better hand movements
Dr Jessica Teeling £19,849
School of Biological Sciences
Linking the immune system to the central nervous system: a role for antibodies and Fcy receptors in neuronal damage
Investigating whether some of the effects of lupus (an autoimmune disease), including depression and memory loss, might be caused by antibodies passing from the blood into the brain and causing inflammation.
Professor Mark Cragg
£20,000
School of Medicine
Development of Free-Flow Electrophoresis for the identification of novel surface markers on malignant and pre-malignant B cells
B cells become malignant in a type of cancer called lymphoma and identifying cell markers on their surface would allow treatments to be developed for this condition.
Dr Sarah Buchan
£18,300
School of Medicine
Investigation of the role of LIM-Nebulette in activated CD8+ T cells
To understand how T cells (white blood cells) become activated by the body to kill cancer cells.
Year of 2008
Dr Graham Burdge
School of Medicine
Innovation Grant - Mechanisms for induced changes in the epigenome during early development
How environmental factors make permanent changes to the DNA of developing embryos.
Dr Jens Madsen
School of Medicine
Innovation Grant - Recombinant Surfactant Protein D as a Potential Therapeutic against Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections
Using a human lung protein produced in bacteria as a drug to treat respiratory viral infections.
Dr Sandrine Williame-Morawek
School of Medicine
Innovation Grant - Brain tumour development: role of the neural stem cells and their microenvironment or niche
Do stem cells in the brain promote brain tumours?
Dr Tom Wilkinson
School of Medicine
Innovation Grant - Ex-Vivo modelling of infection and Therapeutics in COPD and Asthma
Testing treatments for asthma using a mock-up of the lining of the lung.
Dr Wolff Schlotz
School of Psychology
Innovation Grant - Prenatal adversity and brain development
The effect of poor conditions in the womb on brain development.
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