Insigneo Newsletter - September 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! 

Insigneo celebrates 10-year anniversary!

On Friday 8 July 2022 the Insigneo Institute celebrated its 10-year anniversary by welcoming over 150 delegates, including academics, clinicians, industry and funding bodies, to its annual Showcase event at the University of Sheffield’s Diamond Building.

The event opened with a welcome from Professor Jim Wild, Executive Director of the Insigneo Institute and Professor Sue Hartley, Vice-President for Research at The University of Sheffield.
 
This was followed by a keynote talk by Paul Dimitri, Professor of Child Health and Consultant in Paediatric Endocrinology at the Sheffield Children’s Hospital on ‘Transforming Child Health through Technology’.

Talks for the day were structured around the institute’s five new research themes: 

• Biomaterials / Biomechanics / Cell engineering;
• Computational modelling in medicine;
• Biomedical imaging;
• Smart devices and sensors; and
• Healthcare data / AI

Professor Chris Newman, Interim Vice-President and Head of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health at the University of Sheffield introduced our plenary speaker Andy Parker, Professor of High Energy Physics at the University of Cambridge gave a talk on ‘Collaborating at scale: for decades with a cast of thousands’

Professor Paul Hatton awarded the UK Society for Biomaterials 2022 President's Prize

Congratulations to Insigneo member Professor Paul Hatton, Faculty Director of Research and Innovation for Medicine, Dentistry and Health at the University of Sheffield, who has been awarded the President’s Prize at the UK Society for Biomaterials 2022 Annual Conference which was held on 27 - 28 June at The University of Sheffield. The President's Prize recognises outstanding contributions during a lifetime career to the UK Biomaterials field. 

Dr Enrico Dall'Ara re-elected to the European Society of Biomechanics Council

Congratulations to Insigneo member Dr Enrico Dall'Ara who has been elected to the European Society of Biomechanics Council for the second time and will will fulfill the role of Secretary General.

Denata Syla receives European Society of Biomechanics Travel Award

Congratulations to Insigneo Member Denata Syla on her European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) travel awards. ESB Travel Awards are given to the most worthy applicants, as selected by the ESB Award Committee, to financially help young researchers to participate at the ESB Congress.

Congress of European Society of Biomechanics 

It's great to see such strong Insigneo representation at the 27th Congress of the European Society of Biomechanics which took place 26 - 29 June 2022 in Porto Portugal.  There were presentations from our SPINNER-EID Doctoral Training Programme (see above, Denata Syla presenting) and also our Mobilise-D project, represented by Professor Claudia Mazzà (below).

The International Society for Posture & Gait Research Conference

The Mobilise-D team were also out in force at the International Society for Posture & Gait Research Conference2022 (see above, Kirsty Scott presenting). 

Also in attendance was Insigneo member Luke Cleland, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology (see below).

European Solid Mechanics Conference 2022

Insigneo Members Dr Stefaan Verbruggen and Fiona Gibson from the Department of Mechanical Engineering attended the European Solid Mechanics Conference 2022 in Galway, Ireland, 4 - 8 July.  Fiona gave her first conference presentation on 'Investigating spinal biomechanics in multiple myeloma patients for the reduction of surgical intervention' (see photo above).

Sano Centre: International Neuroimaging Summer School 

The Sano Science Centre held their first International Neuroimaging Summer school in Lipari, 4 - 8 July 2022. 

The event featured five days of inspirational lectures, talks, and practical workshops.

New members

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

The model will incorporate the geometry of the tissue by allowing for: discrete cells in which drugs are metabolised; differing extracellular and intracellular environments; and drug permeation through cell membranes. This model will be parameterised in tandem with in-vitro drug delivery studies undertaken by colleagues in the School of Clinical Dentistry. By using this mathematical model alongside tissue-engineered models, the aim is to extrapolate to new drugs and reduce the need for animal testing.

Sean previously completed his PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Manchester, in which he worked on buoyancy-driven three-dimensional fluid flows.

During my postdoctoral posts – Postdoctoral Research Associate (2014-2016) and Senior Research Fellow (2016-2018) – at the University of Sheffield, I set up a lab within the POLARIS group dedicated to the hyperpolarisation of 129Xe gas for human magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications.

My research interests span fundamental developments in nuclear spin polarisation physics to exploring new biomedical applications of hyperpolarised 129Xe NMR: 

• Theoretical modelling of spin-exchange optical pumping physics.
• Optical detection techniques to map spin polarisation in large-scale SEOP systems
• Implementation of clinical and portable hyperpolariser technology.
• Magnetisation dynamics of 129Xe in biological systems.
• Hyperpolarised 129Xe MRI as a probe for tissue oxygenation.
• Spectroscopic techniques to measure gas exchange in the lungs, brain and kidneys.

Full profile

He was immediately posted abroad, completing the majority 14 years of service overseas in a variety of training, management, liaison, and clinical roles.

He returned to Sheffield University to take up a post as an Academic Clinical Fellow in the Restorative Department in 2020 and is currently splitting his time between clinical training and two research strands. The effect of rare diseases on the oral condition and the use of technology in dental surgery.

Alongside being PI for a national cross-sectional study with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome patients, Jim is currently working to build a large database of dental images containing metal fundal markers. This database will allow him to investigate what further information can be taken from these images for both dental and medical purposes. In addition to this Jim is working to improve the accuracy of outcome coding for treatment in the dental hospital, in the hope of generating better data for analysis in later years.

Full profile

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

Insigneo events

20 September
Insigneo research theme workshop: Smart devices (10:30 - 12:00)

18 October
Insigneo research theme workshop: Computational Medicine (10:30 - 12:00)

22 November
Insigneo research theme workshop: Biomedical Imaging (11:00 - 12:30)

20 December
Insigneo research theme workshop: Healthcare data/AI (11:00 - 12:30)

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

Other events

6 - 9 September
VPH2022 Conference: Digital twins for personalised treatment development and clinical trials 

7 - 9 September
21st Annual UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence (UKCI 2022), Sheffield

8 - 9 September 
BioMedEng22, UCL

13 - 14 September 2022
BIOREME Sandpit Event: Understanding Long COVID

14 September 2022
OpenFest - a free, interdisciplinary in-person event for all University of Sheffield researchers

18 - 22 September
MICCAI2022

5 October
Healthy Life Span Institute Annual Meeting, Sheffield

21 - 23 October
Brainhack Krakow 2022 – the satellite event of the Neuronus Forum 2022

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

Publications

Position of the AI for Health Imaging (AI4HI) network on metadata models for imaging biobanks (European Radiology Experimental) H. Kondylakis, E. Ciarrocchi, L. Cerda-Alberich, I.Chouvarda, L. A. Fromont, J. M. Garcia-Aznar, V. Kalokyri, A. Kosvyra, D. Walker, G. Yang, E. Neri & the AI4HealthImaging Working Group on metadata models

Large-scale investigation of deep learning approaches for ventilated lung segmentation using multi-nuclear hyperpolarized gas MRI (Scientific Reports) J. R. Astley, A. M. Biancardi, P. J. C. Hughes, H. Marshall, L. J. Smith, G. J. Collier, J. A. Eaden, N. D. Weatherley, M. Q. Hatton, J. M. Wild, B. A. Tahir 

Early life vitamin D depletion and mechanical loading determine methylation changes in the RUNX2, RXRA, and osterix promoters in mice (Genes & Nutrition) N. Krstic, N. Bishop, B. Curtis, C. Cooper, N. Harvey, K. Lilycrop, R. Murray, R. Owen, G. Reilly, T. Skerry, S. Borg 

Characterisation of the transient mechanical response and the electromyographical activation of lower leg muscles in whole body vibration training (Scientific Reports) I. Rigoni, T. Bonci, P. Bifulco, A. Fratini

A constrained mixture-micturition-growth (CMMG) model of the urinary bladder: Application to partial bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) (Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials) F. Cheng, P. N. Watton, G. Pederzani, M. Kurobe, E.-I. Takaoka, C. Chapple, L. Birder, N. Yoshimura, A. M. Robertson

Thermal based surface modification techniques for enhancing the corrosion and wear resistance of metallic implants: A review (Vacuum) D. R. Unune,
 G. R. Brown, G. C. Reilly

Resource saving by optimization and machining environments for sustainable manufacturing: A review and future prospects (Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews) D.Y. Pimenov, M. Mia, M. K. Gupta, Á. R. Machado, G. Pintaude, D. R. Unune, N. Khanna, A. M. Khan, Í. Tomaz, S. Wojciechowski, M. Kuntoğlu

A practical guide for in situ mechanical testing of musculoskeletal tissues using synchrotron tomography (Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials) E. Dall’Ara, A. J. Bodey, H. Isaksson, G. Tozzi

A theoretical analysis of the scale separation in a model to predict solid tumour growth (Journal of Theoretical Biology) B. M. Quintela, S. Hervas-Raluy, J. M. Garcia-Aznar, D. Walker, K. Y. Wertheim, M. Viceconti

Reproducibility of Densitometric and Biomechanical Assessment of the Mouse Tibia From In Vivo Micro-CT Images (Frontiers in Endocrinology) S. Oliviero, V. S. Cheong, B. C. Roberts, C. A. Orozco Diaz, W. Griffiths, I. Bellantuono, E. Dall'Ara

The Use of Digital Coronary Phantoms for the Validation of Arterial Geometry Reconstruction and Computation of Virtual FFR (Fluids) G. Pederzani, K. Czechowicz, N. Ghorab, P. D. Morris, J.P. Gunn, A. J. Narracott, D. R. Hose, I. Halliday

Computational Psychiatry and Computational Neurology: Seeking for Mechanistic Modeling in Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience) L. Kucikova, S. Danso, L. Jia, L. Su

Analytical Approaches for the Segmentation of the Zebrafish Brain Vasculature (Current Protocols) E. C. Kugler, A. Rampun,T. J. A. Chico, P. A. Armitage

Revealing Localised Mechanochemistry of Biomaterials Using In Situ Multiscale Chemical Analysis (Materials) N. T. H. Farr

The Latest in Animal Models of Pulmonary Hypertension and Right Ventricular Failure (Circulation Research) O. Boucherat, V. Agrawal, A. Lawrie, S. Bonnet

Refining Our Understanding of the Flow Through Coronary Artery Branches; Revisiting Murray’s Law in Human Epicardial Coronary Arteries (Frontiers in Materials) D. J. Taylor, J. Feher, I. Halliday, D. R. Hose, R.Gosling, L. Aubiniere-Robb, M. van ‘t Veer, D. Keulards, P. A. L. Tonino, M. Rochette, J. Gunn, P. D. Morris