Insigneo Newsletter - September 2023

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! 

AI brain imaging technology given funding boost to help revolutionise healthcare research for patients with chronic nerve pain

Innovative AI technology which can identify new biomarkers that could lead to more effective chronic nerve pain treatments, has been awarded a funding boost to revolutionise healthcare.

The pioneering project at the University of Sheffield uses AI-powered magnetic resonance (MR) neuroimaging technology, to discover new biomarkers which may accelerate much-needed new treatments for chronic pain.

Led by Insigneo member, Dr Dinesh Selvarajah, Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Sheffield’s School of Medicine and Population Health, the new project has been awarded £463,000 from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of the Technology Missions Fund, designed to accelerate the responsible development and deployment of AI technologies.     

The funding will support Dr Selvarajah and his team at the University of Sheffield’s Insigneo Institute, to carry out an external validation of the new approach that could lead to much wider, effective treatment of chronic nerve pain, showcasing the real-world impact artificial intelligence is having. Insigneo directors Professor Jim Wild and Professor Haiping Lu are part of the team who will work in collaboration with the PAINSTORM APDP consortium, AstraZeneca and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

Funding boost for revolutionary lung MRI scans which could help cystic fibrosis patients manage chronic condition

The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, together with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, has announced £1.4 million co-funding for two new Strategic Research Centres - one of which will be led by the University of Sheffield. 

The two new centres will target key research priorities identified by people with cystic fibrosis (CF) - a lifelong, life limiting condition with a median age of death of just 38 years old.  

Despite recent treatment breakthroughs, CF remains a cruel condition with no cure.

The Sheffield-led centre will explore whether an exciting new type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could be used to track subtle changes in lung health over time. This could be used to manage the day-to-day health of people with CF, as well as checking the effectiveness of new treatments in clinical trials.

The Pulmonary Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Cystic Fibrosis (MAGNIFY study), will be run by Jim Wild, Professor of Magnetic Resonance Physics and Executive Director of the Insigneo Institute  at the University of Sheffield. 

New robot medics to go where doctors can’t, developed by University of Sheffield scientists 

Game-changing robotics technology that can provide remote medical treatment to casualties in high-risk emergency environments, has been developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield.

Using medical telexistence (MediTel) technology, researchers from the University’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Sheffield Robotics and Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, have successfully created a mobile, robotic-controlled uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV), which boasts virtual reality (VR) capability, to enable medics and operators to assess critical casualties in hazardous environments, allowing them to perform a remote triage while also ensuring their safety. 

The first-of-its-kind, fully integrated medical telexistence solution was developed in just nine months. It features two robotic arms which can effectively remotely operate medical tools to perform a critical initial assessment of a casualty within 20 minutes, including: temperature, blood pressure and heart rate checks; carry out a palpation of the abdomen and administer pain relief through an auto-injector – all while streaming real time data to the remote operator.

The project was led by Insigneo co-research theme directors for smart devices and sensors, David King at the AMRC and Professor Sanja Dogramadzi from the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering.

Blog: Can AI help paramedics reduce the number of ambulance journeys?  

In this NIHR evidence blog, Insigneo member Dr Jamie Miles, a Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield's Division of Population Health, School of Medicine and Population Health, talks about his team's work to develop a tool that can predict which ambulance patients do not need to attend A&E.

His work is also featured in a case study 'AI predictions could reduce pressure on A&E' in the NIHR's new Collection of evidence 'Artificial intelligence: 10 promising interventions for healthcare' which brings together 10 recent studies from the last three years, covering five key health themes.  The Collection provides members of the public and healthcare professionals with insights into the future of AI in healthcare.

Health and care researchers celebrate past, present and future medical innovations

On Saturday 22 July researchers from across Sheffield held the first ever Shaping the Future event at Sheffield Winter Gardens to celebrate past, present and future healthcare innovations.

The event was organised by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in partnership with Sheffield Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Sheffield to mark the NHS' 75^th birthday of the NHS and the annual National Institute for Health and Care Research's (NIHR) Be Part of Research campaign.

It was great to see Insigneo members' research represented at this public engagement event with exhibits on:

• Stepping into the future: how we measure mobility with technology (Prof. Claire Brockett, Dr Kirsty Scott and Dr Tecla Bonci, Mobilise-D and Matina, Saleh, Alex , Gloria, and Juntong)
• Inside out: advanced imaging of the heart and vessels (Dr Andy Swift, Dr Pete Metherall, Sheffield 3D Laboratory)
• Damaging the helix (Dr Helen Bryant, Dr Alice Pyne and the TopoStats team)

Blog: Insights from the first Workshop on Multimodal AI

The First Workshop on Multimodal AI, held in Sheffield on 27 June 2023 and supported by Turing Network Funding, convened over 100 researchers and practitioners from AI, data science, and various scientific and application domains. The aim was to discuss challenges, share experiences and solutions, explore collaborations and future directions, and foster a vibrant multimodal AI community.

Insigneo Research Theme Director for Healthcare Data/AI, Professor Haiping Lu, shares his insights in a blog post.

Did you know that Imaging & Engineering is a theme of the NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre?

Theme Lead: Professor Jim Wild    

The NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) drives technology-led clinical research from world-leading innovative approaches in Imaging, Computational Modelling, Smart Devices/Sensor Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Engineering. 

Our theme is highly aligned with the Insigneo Institute and supports the three other clinical themes.

We collaborate with industrial partners, providing transformative approaches that optimise and maximise the use of available medical technologies and digital-data, whilst reducing the cost of expensive diagnostics and interventions with innovative device design, data linkage, AI, digital twins, systems engineering and computational modelling. 

We work with our Equalities, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) programme to develop innovative strategies that reduce avoidable morbidity and mortality. Our data will drive the science, thereby delivering the health technologies with high relevance to patient health and the healthcare system focusing on the most cost-effective technologies relevant to diseases with high burden.

Sub-Themes:

If you conduct research in one of our sub-themes, please get in touch with the theme lead Jim Wild (j.m.wild@sheffield.ac.uk) to find out how the NIHR Sheffield BRC may be able to support you.

N8 CIR Digital Health Mapping Survey

Calling all Digital Health Researchers

N8 CIR has launched a survey to identify the people and the areas of research active within Digital Health, broadly defined, to enable N8 CIR to better support Digital Health scholarship through our events, networks, and funding support. The survey will allow N8 CIR to prepare tailored research and sand-pit events that reflect and respond to the research areas identified in the survey. Please respond to the survey here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNkICaqqcSfi7n0fbCzfndxaYj6EX00l--SSBfqabkEFTRUQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

For more information on N8 CIR, have a look at the website: https://n8cir.org.uk/about/ and sign up to their newsletter: https://n8cir.org.uk/contact/

Sheffield professor scoops prestigious William F. Neuman Award

Congratulations to Dr Richard Eastell, M.D., Professor of Bone Metabolism at the University of Sheffield, who will be presented with the William F. Neuman Award at the 2023 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) Annual Meeting in Vancouver.

The William F. Neuman Award recognizes an ASBMR member who has made outstanding and major scientific contributions in the area of bone and mineral research, and for contributions to associates and trainees in teaching, research, and administration.

MediTel shortlisted for two awards at Robotics and Automation Awards

Congratulations to Insigneo Co-Research Theme Directors for Smart Devices and Sensors, David King, Head of Digital Design at the AMRC and Sanja Dogramadzi, Professor of Medical Robotics and Intelligent Health Technologies at the University’s Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering and Director of Sheffield Robotics whose MediTel project has been shortlisted for two Robotics and Automation Awards:

• R&D Innovation
• Innovation in Extreme Environments

New members

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

My primary research interests are in the areas of theoretical and applied econometrics.

My current research focuses on how to estimate unbiased/efficient low-dimensional causal parameters in the presence of cross-sectional (network/spatial) correlation in a high-dimensional setting using machine learning techniques.

I am interested in undertaking projects at the intersection of machine learning, econometrics, and health.

Research website: https://rowancherodian.github.io/

His research focuses on improving our understanding of blood flow to the heart both in coronary arteries and the microvascular with a particular interest in microvascular angina. Key multidisciplinary themes include computational modelling, integrating machine learning into clinical tools and exploring the role of adding simulated data to clinical trials.

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 share a link to our Online Training Opportunities document here each month.

Insigneo events

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

Other events

12 - 14 September
CompBioMed Conference 2023 

13 September
Ideas Bazaar (for University of Sheffield academics and creative practitioners) - register to collaborate and bring your research to life at the Festival of the Mind.

14 September
UKRI KTN: Association to Horizon Europe - Information Webinar, online

14 - 15 September
BioMedEng23, Swansea 

29 September
North of England Cell Biology Forum 2023

10 - 12 October
Avicenna Days 2023

8 - 9 November
Child Health Technology conference (CHT 2023) 

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

Vacancies

Research Associate in Soft Robotic Implantable Technologies for Short Bowel Syndrome (closing date: 22 September 2023)

Publications

PhysVENeT: a physiologically-informed deep learning-based framework for the synthesis of 3D hyperpolarized gas MRI ventilation (Scientific Reports) J. R. Astley, A. M. Biancardi, H. Marshall, L. J. Smith, P. J. C. Hughes, G. J. Collier, L. C. Saunders, G. Norquay, M.-M. Tofan, M. Q. Hatton, R. Hughes, J. M. Wild, B. A. Tahir

In silico assessment of the bone regeneration potential of complex porous scaffolds (Computers in Biology and Medicine) R. Asbai-Ghoudan, G. Nasello, M. Á. Pérez, S. W. Verbruggen, S. Ruiz de Galarreta, N. Rodriguez-Florez

Rapid virtual fractional flow reserve using 3D computational fluid dynamics (European Heart Journal - Digital Health) T. Newman, R. Borker, L. Aubiniere-Robb, J. Hendrickson, D. Choudhury, I. Halliday, J. Fenner, A. Narracott, D. R. Hose, R. Gosling, J. P. Gunn, P. D. Morris

Synthesis and characterisation of photocurable poly(glycerol sebacate)-co-poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylates (Materials Today Advances) M. Aleemardani, L. Johnson, M. Z. Trikić, N. H. Green, F. Claeyssens

A Single-Sensor Approach to Quantify Gait in Patients with Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (Sensors) L. M. A. van Gelder, T. Bonci, E. E Buckley, K. Price, F. Salis, M. Hadjivassiliou, C. Mazzà, C. Hewamadduma

Elastomeric Porous Poly(glycerol sebacate) Methacrylate (PGSm) Microspheres as 3D Scaffolds for Chondrocyte Culture and Cartilage Tissue Engineering (International Journal of Molecular Sciences) D. Singh, S. Lindsay, S. Gurbaxani, A. Crawford, F. Claeyssens

Wearable technology and the cardiovascular system: the future of patient assessment (The Lancet Digital Health) G. J Williams, A. Al-Baraikan, F. E. Rademakers, F. Ciravegna, F. N. van de Vosse, A. Lawrie, A. Rothman, E. A. Ashley, M. R. Wilkins, P. V. Lawford, S. W. Omholt, U. Wisløff, D. R. Hose, T. J. A. Chico, J. P. Gunn,
P. D. Morris

Translational opportunities of single-cell biology in atherosclerosis (European Heart Journal) M. P. J. de Winther, M. Bäck, P. Evans, D. Gomez, I. Goncalves, H. F. Jørgensen, R. R. Koenen, E. Lutgens, G. D. Norata, E. Osto, L. Dib, M. Simons, K. Stellos, S. Ylä-Herttuala, H. Winkels, M.-L. Bochaton-Piallat, C. Monaco

Serverless Approach to Sensitivity Analysis of Computational Model (Proceedings - 23rd IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing, CCGrid 2023) P. Kica, M. Otta, K.Czechowic, K. Zajac, P. Nowakowski, A. Narracott, I. Halliday, M. Malawski

Sex differences in coronary microvascular resistance measured by a computational fluid dynamics model (Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine) D. J. Taylor, L. Aubiniere-Robb, R. Gosling, T. Newman, D. R. Hose, I. Halliday, P. V. Lawford, A. J Narracott, J. P Gunn, P. D. Morris

Genetic risk factors of Alzheimer’s Disease disrupt resting-state functional connectivity in cognitively intact young individuals (Journal of Neurology) L. Kucikova, J. Zeng, C. Muñoz-Neira, G. Muniz-Terrera, W. Huang, S. Gregory, C. Ritchie, Jo. O’Brien, L. Su