Insigneo Newsletter - November 2022

Welcome to our monthly Insigneo newsletter!  

Our monthly e-newsletter keeps you up to date with events, funding, success stories and information. We hope you will find it useful! 

Professor Suzanne Mason joins healthcare data / AI research theme as Deputy Research Theme Director

We're delighted to announce that Professor Suzanne Mason has joined our healthcare data / AI research theme as Deputy Research Theme Director working alongside Professor Tim Chico and Dr Haiping Lu to shape the theme's research strategy.

Suzanne Mason is Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) and is a longstanding member of the Insigneo Institute.  She is also Clinical Director for Research and Development at Barnsley Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Professor Mason is an NIHR Senior Investigator and is Deputy Director and Theme Lead (urgent care) of the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber (YH) Applied Research Centre (ARC) and National ARC Lead for Urgent and Emergency Care, NIHR Applied Research Centres.

Professor Mason’s research interests include evaluating complex interventions in emergency and urgent care. She has extensive experience in multi-centre mixed methods studies in pre-hospital and emergency department settings. Her research informs the delivery of high quality emergency care to patients and in the evaluation of new roles and alternative pathways of patient care. She is  the data controller for a large linked dataset, CUREd, which is a routine patient data mapping urgent and emergency care journeys for the YH region. She is author of over 200 research publications.

Sheffield healthcare researchers awarded £12 million to accelerate scientific discoveries into new medical treatments

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) has received a £12 million funding boost which will help the centre improve early diagnosis, develop new treatments and improve outcomes for patients with a range of medical conditions, in a region with significant inequalities for health and life-expectancy.

Professor Jim Wild, Executive Director of the Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine said, "We're proud to be contributing expertise across all the clinical themes including the newly established Imaging and Engineering for Health theme being driven by Insigneo."

New robots set to triage UK military personnel in combat

Robots will soon be able to provide medical care to military personnel during combat, as part of new research at the University of Sheffield.

The research is being led by Insigneo Research Directors for Smart Devices and Sensors, Professor Sanja Dogramadzi from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering and David King, Head of Digital Design at the University of Sheffield AMRC.

BIOPOL 2022 - 8^th International Conference on Bio-based and Biodegradable Polymers

On 15 November 2022, Insigneo Director for Biomaterials, Biomechanics and Cell Engineering, Professor Ipsita Roy from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering gave the plenary lecture at the BIOPOL 2022 conference on 'Biobased Materials of Bacterial origin and their use in Biomedical and Environmental Applications'.

SPINNER-EID: PhD theses published

Three PhD theses are now available via the Spinner website. Congratulations to Chloe Techens, Jenny Fayad and Marco Sensale.

Spinner is a doctoral training programme aimed at bioengineering early stage researchers, to train bioengineers to be in a position to design the next generation of repair materials and techniques for spine surgery.

Jen Middleton selected for Cournand Comroe Young Investigator session

Congratulations to Jen Middleton who was selected for the Cournand Comroe Young Investigator session at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions for her work on remote monitoring in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Jen is a PhD student under the supervision of Insigneo Research Director for Smart devices and sensors, Dr Alex Rothman.

MRC Experimental Medicine Award with Abbott Laboratories based on this work will start in Feb 2022: Pulmonary Hypertension: intensification and personalisation of combination Rx (PHoenix)

On the cover: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Congratulations to Insigneo member Tom Sheard from the School of Biosciences whose image 'Visualising cardiac tissue architecture with expansion microscopy - transverse section of a ventricular myocyte, displaying the organisation of ryanodine receptor calcium channels (red) and t-tubule membrane proteins (cyan).' was chosen for the cover of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences special edition on the theme of ‘The cardiomyocyte: new revelations on the interplay between architecture and function in growth, health, and disease’ which includes his paper Three-dimensional visualization of the cardiac ryanodine receptor clusters and the molecular-scale fraying of dyads (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
T. M. D. Sheard, M. E. Hurley, A. J. Smith, J. Colyer, E. White, I. Jayasinghe

New members

We would like to introduce some of our new members who have joined the Insigneo Institute recently:

nanostructure during replication in cancerous cells, and how anti-cancer therapeutics and proteins involved in replication affect their structure and conformation to provide new insight into their mechanism-of-action. She has an MRes in Cancer Sciences from the University of Birmingham where she studied the use of small molecule inhibitors in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, and a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from Newcastle university.  

University of Sheffield Festive Cross-Faculty Fundraiser

The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Research Staff Association (MDHRSA) and the MDH PGR Society invite STEM-based ECRs to join us for our first ever cross-faculty fundraiser and networking event!

There will be activities, live music, and most importantly refreshments including wine, soft drinks, cheese, and vegan alternatives! All this along with the opportunity to network with PGRs and post-docs from across the university, as well as industry sponsors!

For a night of merriment with your fellow researchers make sure you register now using the link below:

Only 130 spaces are available on a first come first served basis!

We have made this event free to all attendees. However, we ask whether you would consider making a small donation to the Sheffield Children’s Hospital using the following link:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/uosfestivefundraiser

We look forward to welcoming you on the 2nd.

Best wishes,

The MDHRSA and MDH PGR Society 

Do you have news to share with us?

If you would like us to include information and/or events to this newsletter please email: news@insigneo.org (the newsletter will be issued during the 2nd week of the month, excluding January and August). 

Insigneo members - please let us know when your students are graduating so that we can celebrate their success!

Please ensure that you submit items for inclusion with a minimum of one week's notice.

Guest Lectures, Conferences & Seminars

**We will continue to share a link to our Online Training Opportunities document here each month (previously circulate by email to our Associate Members**

Insigneo events

25 November
Insigneo Seminar: Dr Raoul van Loon, Swansea University,
Hybrid event: Polaris, 18 Claremont Cresent, Sheffield, S10 2TA

29 November
Insigneo Laboratory Tour: AMRC

5 December 
Insigneo research theme workshop: Healthcare data/AI (15:00-16:30)

7 December
Insigneo Winter Symposium and General Assembly (13:00-15:00)

14 December
ECM & Insigneo Mechanobiology Festive Networking

A selection of Insigneo seminar recordings are available to view on our YouTube channel.

Other events

25 November
Molecular and Cellular Biology external seminar series: Cell metabolism defines tumour-promoting and immunomodulatory functions of CAFs, Prof Sara Zanivan, University of Dundee. Host: Elena Rainero

IICD Department Research in Progress Meeting: Priya Oka - Location of lesions responsible for blood loss in the gastrointestinal tract.  Please contact Sarah Black (sarah.black@sheffield.ac.uk) for connection details.

28 - 29 November
RSE Workshop: Git & GitHub through GitKraken - from Zero to Hero!

28 November
Sano seminar: Piotr Nowakowski, Scientific Programmers Team, Sano Centre for Computational Science, Krakow, PL

1-2 December
Computing Insight UK 2022, Manchester

2 December
University of Sheffield Festive Cross-Faculty Fundraiser

IICD Department Research in Progress Meeting: Thom Locke (in person)  "A prospective cohort study to investigate the transmission and burden of S. aureus in households in Sri Lanka", Iwan Evans "TaDa! Profiling macrophage subpopulations in vivo".  Please contact Sarah Black (sarah.black@sheffield.ac.uk) for connection details.

5 December
Sano seminar: Leszek Grzanka, Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Science and Institute of Computer Science and ACC Cyfronet, AGH

9 December
IICD Department Research in Progress Meeting: Ann Cheng (Briffa/Evans)  "Pig model of cardiopulmonary bypass grafting", Areej O Alahmadi (in person)  "The roles of the novel RNA-binding protein ANKHD1 in shear stress-mediated endothelial dependent-vasoprotection".  Please contact Sarah Black (sarah.black@sheffield.ac.uk) for connection details.

12 December
Sano seminar: Magdalena Otta, Extreme-scale Data and Computing Team, Sano Centre for Computational Science, Krakow, PL

13 December 
Healthy Lifespan Institute Seminar:  Swallowing: My Journey, Past, Present and Future,  Dr David Smithard, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Lewisham and Greenwich Trust & University of Greenwich

16 December
IICD Department Research in Progress Meeting: Paul Hughes (in person)  "DISCO: application in the lungs and demonstration of an analysis pipeline for pulmonary perfusion metric generation".  Please contact Sarah Black (sarah.black@sheffield.ac.uk) for connection details.

19 December
Sano seminar: Szymon Plotka, Health Informatics Team, Sano Centre for Computational Science, Krakow, PL

2023

09 January
Sano seminar: Jaroslaw Kwiecien and Piotr Krajewski, Cancer Center Sp. z. o.o., Wroclaw PL

16 January
Sano seminar: Adam Sulek, Clinical Data Science Team, Sano Centre for Computational Medicine, Krakow, PL

23 January
Sano seminar: Bartosz Balis, Institute of Computer Science and ACC Cyfronet, AGH, Krakow, PL

21 - 22 March 
AI UK 2023, London - save the date

For a full list of upcoming events visit: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/insigneo/overview/events

Publications

Imaging biomarkers of lung ventilation in interstitial lung disease from ¹²⁹Xe and oxygen enhanced ¹H MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) M. Tibiletti, J. A. Eaden, J. H. Naish, Paul J. C. Hughes, J. C. Waterton, M. J. Heaton, N. Chaudhuri, S. SkeochfIa, N. Bruce, S. Bianchi, J. M. Wild, G. J. M.Parker

Calibrating cardiac electrophysiology models using latent Gaussian processes on atrial manifolds (Scientific Reports) S. Coveney, C. H. Roney, C. Corrado, R. D. Wilkinson, J. E. Oakley, S. A. Niederer, R. H. Clayton 

From novel discovery tools and biomarkers to precision medicine-basic cardiovascular science highlights of 2021/22 (Cardiovascular research) P. C Evans, S. M. Davidson, J. Wojta, M. Bäck, S. Bollini, M. Brittan, A. L. Catapano, B. Chaudhry, M. Cluitmans, M. Gnecchi, T. J. Guzik, I. Hoefer, R. Madonna, J. P. Monteiro, H. Morawietz, E. Osto, T. Padró, J. C Sluimer, C. G. Tocchetti, K. Van der Heiden, G. Vilahur, J. Waltenberger, C. Weber

Editorial: Computational modeling for the assessment of the biomechanical properties of the healthy, diseased and treated spine (Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology) E. Dall’Ara, H. Schmidt, M. El-Rich, G. D. O’Connell, F. Galbusera

Digital volume correlation for the characterization of musculoskeletal tissues: Current challenges and future developments (Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology) E. Dall’Ara, G. Tozzi

Connecting real-world digital mobility assessment to clinical outcomes for regulatory and clinical endorsement–the Mobilise-D study protocol (PLoS ONE) A. S. Mikolaizak, L.Rochester, W. Maetzler, B.l Sharrack, H. Demeyer, C. Mazzà, B. Caulfield, J. Garcia-Aymerich, B.Vereijken, V. Arnera, R. Miller, P. Piraino, N. Ammour, M. F. Gordon,T. Troosters, A. J. Yarnall, L.  Alcock, H. Gaßner, J. Winkler, J. Klucken, C. Schlenstedt, H. Watz, A.-M. Kirsten, I. Vogiatzis,Nikolaos Chynkiamis, E. Hume, D. Megaritis, A. Nieuwboer, P. Ginis, E. Buckley, G. Brittain, G. Comi, L. Leocani, J. L. Helbostad, L. G. Johnsen, K. Taraldsen, H. Blain, V. Driss, A.Frei, M.  A. Puhan, A. Polhemus, M. Bosch de Basea, E. Gimeno, N. S. Hopkinson, S. C. Buttery, J. M. Hausdorff, A. Mirelman, J. Evers, I. Neatrour, D. Singleton, L. Schwickert, C. Becker, C.-P. Jansen, and members of the clinical validation study (WP4) on behalf of Mobilise-D consortium

Electrical/Spectroscopic Stability of Conducting and Biodegradable Graft-Copolymer (Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics) A. C. Da Silva, V. H. Paschoal, M. C. C. Ribeiro, S. I. C. de Torresi

Fully automatic cardiac four chamber and great vessel segmentation on CT pulmonary angiography using deep learning (Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine) M. J. Sharkey, J. C. Taylor, S. Alabed, K. Dwivedi, K. Karunasaagarar, C. S. Johns, S. Rajaram, P. Garg, D. Alkhanfar, P. Metherall, D. P. O'Regan, R. J. van der Geest, R. Condliffe, D. G. Kiely, M Mamalakis, A. J. Swift