Insigneo Newsletter - October 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 at BioMedEng22 Conference

On 8 and 9 September 2022, 400 guests attended BioMedEng 22  – the UK’s largest annual conference in biomedical engineering. Hosted under the umbrella of the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering, the conference was a celebration of interdisciplinary collaboration and the latest advances in the field.

From Insigneo, our Research Director for Healthcare Data / AI  Professor Tim Chico gave a plenary talk on 'Digital Twins in Cardiovascular Medicine'.

Insigneo member Saira Farage-O'Reilly (pictured above) from the Department of Oncology and Metabolism, was shortlisted for the best PhD student oral presentations and won the third prize with the abstract: Effect of the loading direction on the predicted local mechanical properties of the mouse tibia. Congratulations Saira!

Also representing Insigneo several members of the Integrated Musculo-Skeletal Biomechanics group presented including Dr Tecla Bonci from the Department of Mechanical Engineering (below) with her poster 'Effects of different sensor electronics on walking speed quantification' on the results from her work on our Mobilise-D project.

Dr Andy Swift presents at the British Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (BSCI) Annual Meeting, Bath

Dr Andy Swift, Insigneo Research Director for Smart Devices and Sensors, presented at the British Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (BSCI) Annual Meeting held in Bath on 22 - 23 September 2022. He presented on 'The Role of CT and CMR' for the Imaging in Pulmonary Hypertension session, demonstrating how cardiac and great vessel segmentation can be achieved with deep learning.

Market discovery alert: Sustainable bioplastics for eco-friendly bulk and biomedical applications

Are you a plastic manufacturer? Or, are plastics one of the core materials in your business? Are you seeking sustainable alternatives to current plastics, making an impact on the environment without affecting the quality of your products?

PHAsT are looking for you! 

At PHAsT (a University of Sheffield spinout), they have scaled up the production of eco-friendly bioplastics with unique physicochemical properties to match all the properties of fossil-based plastics currently used.

Their natural biopolymers are reputed for their excellent biocompatibility. This means that they are a lovely substrate that support the attachment and growth of many human and animal cells and in vivo conditions.

PHAsT is pioneering the commercial production of special types of PHAs whose properties are mimetic to soft tissues of the body, favouring their wide application in the biomedical space.

They have in their portfolio, a variety of PHAs with wide ranging mechanical and thermal properties, making it possible for our customers to obtain tailored polymeric blends for their specific needs.

Get in touch if you are interested to share your insights of the industry or learning more about our family of products, by writing to them at i.roy@sheffield.ac.uk or amele1@sheffield.ac.uk. 

NC3Rs CRACK IT Challenges open for applications

This year's CRACK IT Challenges are now open for applications. Set by industrial sponsors and the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NCR3Rs) they focus on developing products and services that deliver scientific and 3Rs benefits in key areas of research.

Challenge 43 is Thyroid Tox: Development of an in silico model to predict thyroid receptor mediated human endocrine disruption.

Application deadline: Thursday 3 November, 12.00 (GMT).

Video case studies: making software open and accessible to benefit research

Dr Alice Pyne, Insigneo Research Director for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Materials Science and Engineering discusses the software her team created to analyse changes in DNA structure, and how making it open and accessible has benefited her field.

Dr Pyne is one of the researchers from across the University who has made their research data and software FAIR. 

The research Alice and her team are doing focuses on developing new microscopy equipment capable of seeing individual biological molecules.

Dr Haiping Lu, Insigneo Research Director for Healthcare Data/Al, Department of Computer Science, describes how his team formulated green machine learning principles to create the open software package PyKale.

Dr Alice Pyne wins RMS Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) award

Congratulations to Dr Alice Pyne, from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, who is the winner of the Royal Microscopy Society (RMS) AFM and SPM Award which recognises outstanding progress made in the field of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM).

Dr Neil Lawrence awarded NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship funding

Congratulations to Insigneo member Neil Lawrence who has been awarded funding for an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship on 'Development of a clinical decision support tool for monitoring and treatment of children with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH)' beginning in January 2023. 

Neil is a clinical research and teaching fellow in paediatrics and child health working between the University and Sheffield Children's Hospital. Originally having studied Civil Engineering, Neil completed a degree in medicine and then the NIHR academic foundation programme that lead to an NIHR academic clinical fellowship. He completed the National Medical Director's Clinical Fellow Scheme working for NHS Digital within the Data, Insights & Statistics division, where he developed his interest in data analytics using R. He is combining his interest in health technology and computing with an interest in paediatric endocrinology, working to create a clinical decision support tool that will help clinicians manage Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia in the future. A keen interest in medical statistics is supporting this work, aiming to harness the power of real world data through advanced statistical modelling to improve outcomes for patients and better support clinicians in the future.

Turing online learning courses in responsible AI funding award for Dr Haiping Lu

Congratulations to Insigneo Research Director Dr Haiping Lu, and Dr Shuo Zhou from the Department of Computer Science who have been successful in their funding application to the Turing On-line Learning Courses in Responsible AI Call: “An Introduction to Transparent Machine Learning”. A live delivery is scheduled in November, open to all. 

Royal College of Radiologists oral abstract award for Dr Samer Alabed

Congratulations to Insigneo Member Dr Samer Alabed who received the oral abstract award at the Royal College of Radiologists Global Congress, held in Dubai 29 September - 1 October 2022.

PhD viva success

Well done to Insigneo Members, Fiona Gibson in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Zhicheng Lin in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, on passing their confirmation review vivas.

New members

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

In 2021, I completed my master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Sheffield. During 20/21 academic year, I undertook a project in biomechanics, a finite element study of the lumbar spine tumour model over the cross-link stabilisation system, of which outcomes have been presented in 2022 SIMULIA Regional User Meeting (RUM). I was deeply inspired by my supervisor, Professor Damien Lacroix, and by all generous conversations from whoever I met at Insigneo Institute.

My passion of transforming the future of healthcare technology drives me to devote time to fundamental research, moreover, my main research interests focus on multiscale modelling of the musculoskeletal system in particular to human knee joint in OA. OA is a common chronic disorder with complex pathogenesis, and it is indispensable for anticipation of OA onset or development to elucidate inflammatory molecular pathways that also interact with physiological loadings. Accordingly, my research project aims to develop a computational approach combining paramount factors (obesity and nutrition) of OA with physical loadings at temporal and spatial scales.

All these fall under the umbrella of Monte Carlo methods, my main field of interest. I have specifically used concepts from differential geometry and stochastic calculus to develop novel schemes or recast existing ones to achieve higher efficiency.

Prior to this, I completed my B.Tech in Civil Engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, India and M.E. also in Civil Engineering (with a specialisation in Structural Engineering) from the Indian Institute of Science, India. 

I joined the Department of Computer Science here at the University of Sheffield this September as a post-doctoral researcher on the EPSRC funded project ‘In-Procedure Personalized Atrial Digital Twin to Predict Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Outcome’. I am working with Professors Richard Clayton (University of Sheffield), Richard Wilkinson (University of Nottingham) and Steven Niederer (Kings College London). The work aims at getting one step closer to using digital twins in-procedure such as atrial fibrillation ablation to guide the procedure itself. In particular, it involves development, calibration and use of a digital twin of the cardiac model for a specific patient to predict the outcome of atrial fibrillation ablation faster than real-time, whilst respecting various uncertainties (in the modelling, measurements, etc.), which should guide the decision to perform the procedure in real-time.

Full profile

I’m also working on the manufacturing and testing of sensor-ised garments for the detection and monitoring of diseases.

After graduating from the University of Sheffield in Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Science in 2012, I went on to complete my PhD in Bone tissue engineering in 2017. Since then I have taken up PDRA positions at both Departments of Materials Engineering and Clinical Dentistry here at Sheffield. I have worked with tissue engineering, cornea implants, 3D printing, microbiology and stem cell research. 

My research interests are the interaction of materials with biology, considering chemical and mechanical compatibility, with a focus on bioelectronic medical devices. I aim to develop both internal and external bioelectronic devices to enable the monitoring and treatment of a wide range of medical issues.  

Full profile

Cardiovascular Modelling: Basic Science to Clinical Translation

Insigneo Member Dr Alberto Marzo is organising a conference titled 'Cerebral blood flow modelling: Basic Science to Clinical Translation' which aims to disseminate and promote discussion between academics, clinicians and industrialists working in this area. The conference will be held at the Hôtel de Ville de Tours, France on 13 - 14 December and is co-hosted by Le Studium and the iBrain Lab at the University of Tours.

Confirmed speakers:

• ­Prof. Gaetano Burriesci, University College London - UK
• Prof. Alfons Hoekstra, University of Amsterdam - NL
• Dr Jean-Michel Escoffre, Imaging and Brain laboratory (iBrain) / INSERM, University of Tours - FR
• Prof. Damien Lacroix, Insigneo Institute for In Silico Medicine, University of Sheffield - UK
• Dr Ana Paula Narata, NHS Foundation Trust University, Hospital Southampton  - UK 
• Dr Clément Papadacci, French Institute of Health and Medical Research / Inserm - FR 

Abstracts for oral presentation should be submitted before Wednesday 2 November 2022.  Please upload your abstract during the registration or send it before the deadline to maurine.villiers@lestudium-ias.fr.

The number of oral presentations is limited, convenors will process a selection and confirm your presentation not later than Monday 7 November  2022.

BRS Basic Course in Bone Biology and Cartilage Biology and Disease

New to the field of bone and joint research? Wanting to catch up on the latest in bone and joint diseases? Organised by the Bone Research Society, this 2-day residential course is for all basic and clinical postgraduate students, postdocs and research fellows who may be starting out in this field, or who want to catch up in preparation for their postgraduate viva.

The course is taught by experts in bone and joint biology from across the UK and is an opportunity to meet senior scientists in the field as well as network with colleagues and potential collaborators. You will gain a detailed understanding of the basics of bone and joint biology and become familiar with common and rare bone diseases and their pathophysiology.

Spaces for this course, priced at just £150 (inclusive of meals and refreshments) are now available to book via the BRS website: https://boneresearchsociety.org/meetings/basicbone2022/

Registration Deadline: 2 November 2022. Book early to avoid disappointment!

For all queries about the course, please contact the organising committee at om-bone-biology-course@sheffield.ac.uk

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

17 October
ECM & Insigneo Mechanobiology Interest Group Seminar: Coping with mechanical stress: tissue dynamics during development, homeostasis and repair

20 October
Insigneo research theme workshop: Computational Modelling in Medicine
(15:00 - 16:30)

4 November
Insigneo Seminar: Systems-Mechanobiology of Health and Disease

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

25 November
Insigneo Seminar: Dr Raoul van Loon, Swansea University

29 November
Insigneo Laboratory Tour: AMRC - save the date!

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

7 December
Insigneo Winter Symposium and General Assembly (13:00-15:00) - save the date!

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

Other events

14 October
Data Connect workshop, Sheffield

14 October
10:00 IICD, Cardiovascular Disease Theme Department Research in Progress Meeting – Hamza Zafar 'Subcutaneous Interstitial pressure in Acute and Chronic Heart Failure', Jen Middleton (Title TBC). Please contact Sarah Black (sarah.black@sheffield.ac.uk) to arrange access.

19 October
CompBioMed Seminar: DNA Point Mutations in the Absence
and Presence of Electric Fields 

20 October
Demonstrating Impact in Research Grant Applications (open to University of Sheffield staff and PGR students)

21 October
10:00 IICD, Imaging Theme Department Research in Progress Meeting – Joshua Astley 'The role of deep learning in structural and functional lung MRI', Magdalena Otta 'Sensitivity Analysis of a Model of Lower Limb Haemodynamics'. Please contact Sarah Black (sarah.black@sheffield.ac.uk) to arrange access.

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

24 October
Science in the media: The view from the frontline between science and news' by Fiona Fox, Chief Executive of the Science Media Centre (SMC) (for academics and early career researchers in the Faculties of Engineering, Science and MDH)

28 October
10:00 IICD, Infection & Immunity Theme Department Research in Progress Meeting Stuart Gaines & Hugo Penny (Titles TBC) Please contact Sarah Black (sarah.black@sheffield.ac.uk) to arrange access.

31 October - 11 November
The Alan Turing Institute: Research Software Engineering with Python 2022, online 

1 November
N8 CIR Machine Learning Theme Launch, University of Leeds

4 November
10:00 IICD, Infection & Immunity Theme Department Research in Progress Meeting Hailey Hornsby (Title TBC),  Tom Burgess 'Tuning the innate immune system in Candida albicans infection'.  Please contact Sarah Black (sarah.black@sheffield.ac.uk) to arrange access.

9 November
N8 CIR Library Carpentry Event, Lancaster

9 & 11 November
N8 CIR Introduction to Text-mining for Digital Health, online

17 - 18 November
BRS Basic Course in Bone and Cartilage Biology and Disease, Sheffield

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

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

Publications

A novel approach for the prevention of ionizing radiation-induced bone loss using a designer multifunctional cerium oxide nanozyme (Bioactive Materials) F. Wei, C. J. Neal, T. S. Sakthivel, Y. Fu, M. Omer, A. Adhikary, S. Ward, K. M. Ta, S. Moxon, M. Molinari, J. Asiatico, M. Kinzel, S. N. Yarmolenko, V. San Cheong, N. Orlovskaya, R. Ghosh, S. Seal, M. Coathup

Synergistic effect of type and concentration of surfactant and diluting solvent on the morphology of emulsion templated matrices developed as tissue engineering scaffolds (Reactive and Functional Polymers) B. Aldemir Dikici, S. Dikici, F. Claeyssens

Preparation of Interconnected Pickering Polymerized High Internal Phase Emulsions by Arrested Coalescence (Langmuir) E. Durgut, C. Sherborne, B. Aldemir Dikici, G. C. Reilly, F. Claeyssens 

Bioactive Composite for Orbital Floor Repair and Regeneration (International Journal of Molecular Sciences) F. AL-Hamoudi, H. U. Rehman,Y. A. Almoshawah, A. C. S. Talari, A. A. Chaudhry, G. C. Reilly, I. U. Rehman 

The inspection paradox: An important consideration in the evaluation of rotor lifetimes in cardiac fibrillation (Frontiers in Physiology) E. V. Jenkins, D. Dharmaprani, M. Schopp, J. X. Quah, K.Tiver, L. Mitchell, F. Xiong, M. Aguilar, K. Pope, F. G. Akar, C. H. Roney, S. A. Niederer, S. Nattel, M. P. Nash, R. H. Clayton, A. N. Ganesan

JAG1-NOTCH4 mechanosensing drives atherosclerosis (Science Advances) C. Souilhol, B. T. Ayllon, X. Li, M. R. Diagbouga, Z. Zhou, L. Canham, H. Roddie, D.Pirri, E.V. Chambers, M. J. Dunning, M. Ariaans, J. Li, Y. Fang, H. F. Jørgensen, M. Simons, R.Krams, J. Waltenberger, M. Fragiadaki, V. Ridger, S. De Val , S. E. Francis, T. J. A. Chico, J. Serbanovic-Canic, P. C. Evans

Right ventricular remodelling in pulmonary arterial hypertension predicts treatment response (Heart) Z M. Goh, N. Balasubramanian, S. Alabed, K. Dwivedi, Y. Shahin, A. M. K. Rothman, P. Garg, A. Lawrie, D. Capener, A. A. R. Thompson, F. Alandejani, J. M. Wild, C. S. Johns, R. A. Lewis, R. Gosling, M. Sharkey, R. Condliffe, D. G Kiely, A. J. Swift

Omega-9 Modifies Viscoelasticity and Augments Bone Strength and Architecture in a High-Fat Diet-Fed Murine Model (Nutrients) M. Omer, H. Ali, N. Orlovskaya, A. Ballesteros, V. San Cheong, K. Martyniak, F. Wei, B. E. Collins, S. N. Yarmolenko, J. Asiatico, M. Kinzel, C. Ngo, J. Sankar, A. Calder, T. Gilbertson,T. Meckmongkol, R. Ghosh, M. Coathup

Integrating particle tracking with computational fluid dynamics to assess haemodynamic perturbation by coronary artery stents (PLoS ONE) L. Boldock, A. Inzoli, S. Bonardelli, S. Hsiao, A. Marzo, A. Narracott, J. Gunn, G. Dubini, C. Chiastra, I. Halliday, P. D. Morris, P. C. Evans, C. M. Perrault