£1.9m To Tackle The Grand Challenge In Nanotechnology For Healthcare, UK

Main Category: Blood / Hematology
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Article Date: 13 May 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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A multidisciplinary team of scientists at Swansea University has been awarded a major grant by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to address a Grand Challenge in the application of Nanotechnology to Healthcare. The team's project was ranked first in the UK - in the EPSRC's priority order for funding - and has been awarded £1.9million over a period of three years.

Professor Rhodri Williams, Lead Investigator of the EPSRC Portfolio Partnership in Complex Fluids and Complex Flows at Swansea University's School of Engineering, who leads the Swansea Grand Challenge team said:

"Our aim is to improve the sensitivity of early clot detection. This will allow more accurate assessment of abnormalities and the targeting of clots at the earliest stage of development. The project team, drawn from Swansea University's School of Engineering, School of Medicine and School of Physical Science's Computer Science department, will address thromboembolic disease and associated blood coagulation abnormalities that cause significant disease and death in Western society."

Vice Chancellor of Swansea University, Professor Richard B Davies, said: "It is further evidence that Swansea University is now playing in the research premier league. More than that, this project shows that we have an established reputation for research which makes a difference.

"This is a highly prestigious award achieved in competition with some of the best research minds in the UK. Moreover, success generates success: awards such as these allow us to continue to attract the best students and staff to our University."

The Grand Challenge in Nanotechnology for Healthcare project will exploit advances in blood clot detection, already made under Professor Williams' Royal Society Brian Mercer Award, by linking this work with the ultra-sensitive nanomaterials development being undertaken at Swansea University's Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre. As such, the project will lay the foundations for a 'Point of Care (POC)' diagnostic system that, eventually, will provide at-risk patients with a safe and easy-to-use device for monitoring of clots. The Clinical Haemorheology Laboratory located at the ABM University NHS Trust's Morriston Hospital, is a vital part of this aspect of the project.

The project will also provide a new technological basis for thromboembolic disease screening. Thromboembolism is the formation in a blood vessel of a clot (thrombus) that breaks loose and is carried by the blood stream to plug another vessel. The clot may plug a vessel in the lungs (pulmonary embolism), brain (stroke), gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, or leg.

The team draws on a tremendous breadth of expertise in nanosensors (Professor Steve Wilks, Professor Huw Summers, Dr Thierry Maffeis and Dr Owen Guy), human-device interaction (Professor Harold Thimbleby), printing technologies (Dr Tim Claypole), surface characterization (Dr Chris Wright), biopolymer rheology (Dr Karl Hawkins) and blood coagulation (Dr Adrian Evans). Dr. Matthew Barrow will focus on the rheometrical aspects while Dr Mark Penny will develop the nanosensors incorporated within the point of care device.

The project also involves collaboration with experts in drug delivery research at the University of London's School of Pharmacy. Professor Kostas Kostarelos, who leads the team at the University of London, said: "The Swansea-London team is hoping to translate powerful nanotechnologies and reap benefits against one of the major killer pathologies in our society. Any incremental improvement we can offer for the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of stroke will be an achievement."

To help guide and support the project team, an International Advisory Panel is being established with UK representatives including Professor Marc Clement, Honorary Chair of Medical Innovation at Swansea University, and Professor Stephen Bain, Director of Research at the ABMU NHS Trust.

Notes

- Swansea University is a world-class, research-led university situated in stunning parkland overlooking Swansea Bay on the edge of the Gower peninsula, the UK's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Founded in 1920, the University now offers around 500 undergraduate courses and 150 postgraduate courses to more than 13,800 students.

- Swansea University's School of Engineering is one of the leading Engineering Schools in the UK, as recognised by the outstanding performance in the recent Research Assessment Exercise - where the Multidisciplinary Nanotechnology Centre (MNC) was ranked 5th in the UK out of 52 institutions submitted to the General Engineering category. Eighty percent of the staff were rated as internationally leading or internationally excellent. This mirrors `excellent' rated teaching for the School's undergraduate and postgraduate courses which are state-of-the-art and support the changing needs of the industry. The School has an international reputation for innovation and developing new technologies designed to make a real difference to people's lives. For further information, please visit: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/engineering

- Established in 2001, Swansea University's School of Medicine aim to be a centre of excellence in world-class research and medical education has been recently boosted by scoring over 50% for internationally leading or internationally excellent research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and the award of the full Graduate Entry Medicine degree from the September 2009 student intake. For further information, please visit: http://www.medicine.swan.ac.uk/

- The School of Physical Sciences at Swansea University is home to world-class researchers and facilities, and excellent research-led degree programmes in Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics. For further information, please visit: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/physical_sciences

- ABM University NHS Trust is the largest in Wales; with 16,000 staff covering a population of 600,000 across Swansea; Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend and the Western Vale of Glamorgan. For further information, please visit: http://www.abm.university-trust.wales.nhs.uk

- The University of London's School of Pharmacy is the only free-standing specialist school in the UK dedicated entirely to teaching and research in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences; with world-class teaching and a top rated research quality profile. Its mission is to lead in education, research and policy development that benefits patients and healthcare practice, medicines discovery and development, and society; focusing on four key areas - Drug Discovery, Formulation Sciences, Neuroscience, and Medicines Use and Health; and help develop new areas of significance, such as Behavioural Medicine, Paediatric Pharmacy, Gene Therapy and Nanomedicine. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 65 per cent of research activity at The School of Pharmacy has been deemed 4* and 3*, meaning that this is regarded as world-leading or internationally excellent. For further information, please visit: http://www.pharmacy.ac.uk

- The EPSRC Grand Challenge is a societal or economic problem to which science must be applied in order to accelerate progress towards solutions and make a significant impact. This will give the UK research community common goals to work towards, goals that aim to make the UK truly world leading in these areas.

Source
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

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