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NEWSLETTER JAN-DECEMBER 2022
Volume 4/ Issue 4
SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH GRANTS
- Macular Society Research Project Grant of £242,783 for a 3-year project entitled ‘Targeting cellular senescence in the choriocapillaris as a new strategy to treat dry AMD’. This project is starting on January 2023.
- RCUK Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst Project Grant of £223,523 for an 18-month project entitled ‘Development of a new vasoreparative cell therapy for chronic non healing wounds’. This project started in May 2022. The whole grant also involves funds for VascVersa Ltd., Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service for a total award of £956,974.
- RCUK BBSRC UK-Japan International Partnering award of £45,525 to establish academic collaboration with Kyoto University and Newcastle University, in a project titled ‘Exploring multidisciplinary approaches from Stem Cell Biology and Microengineering to biomanufacturer perfused organoids’.
- BBSRC minigrant of £30,000 for a research project entitled ‘Modulating ageing in the vasculature’ to generate data to support future proposals.
- Reinhold is a collaborator in a FAPESP program grant awarded to CAMPINAS University to establish a Brazilian Centre for Thrombosis, which is led by Professor Annichino-Bizzacchi.
AWARDS
Kiran won £5,000 from the QUB-North America Research Mobility Fund. This will support travelling for a 4-week visit to Pittsburgh University.
Shannon won a £400 Travel Award from AxionBio to attend the yICSA symposium in London.
Kiran was awarded an IVBM Travel Award £500 by NAVBO.
Very well done and congratulations!
PUBLICATIONS
- Long term high glucose exposure induces premature senescence in retinal endothelial cells. Front Physiol. 2022 Aug 26;13:929118. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.929118. eCollection 2022.PMID: 36091370
- Advances in cell therapies using stem cells/progenitors as a novel approach for neurovascular repair of the diabetic retina. Stem Cell Res Ther. 2022 Jul 30;13(1):388. doi: 10.1186/s13287-022-03073-x.PMID: 35907890
- The Long Pentraxin PTX3 as a New Biomarker and Pharmacological Target in Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Diabetic Retinopathy. Front Pharmacol. 2022 Jan 7;12:811344. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.811344. eCollection 2021.PMID: 35069222
PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES
- Shannon presented a poster at the yICSA Senescence Symposium in London, UK (29 Apr 2022)
- Reinhold was an invited speaker at the Gordon Research Conference ‘Endothelial Cell Phenotypes in Health and Disease’ in Castelldefels, Spain (26 Jun- 1 Jul 2022).
- Jessica presented at the 13th International Bone Morphogenetic Protein Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia (8-12 Oct 2022).
- Elisa, Kiran, and Pietro attended the International Vascular Biology Meeting in San Francisco, US (13-17 Oct 2022). Kiran had an oral presentation. Elisa and Pietro presented posters.
- Jasenka presented a poster at the 7th International Cell Senescence Association (ICSA) conference, in Groningen, Netherlands (29 Sep- 1 Oct 2022)
- Reinhold was an invited speaker at the Virtual Academic Program ‘Lectures in Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine’ organised by the Department of Translational and Regenerative Medicine, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India (1 Nov 2022).
- Varun presented a poster at the Cell Symposium ‘Advances in Therapeutic Applications of Stem Cells’ in Los Angeles, CA, US (8-10 Dec 2022).
- Reinhold contributed with a Visiting virtual lecture ‘Cell Therapies for Blood Vessel Regeneration: Potential Applications in Eye Disease’ to the Undergraduate Program organised by the Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Hasanuddin, Indonesia. This lecture had 157 attendees on 21 Nov 2022.
STUDENTS
Congratulations to Katherine Dixon who successfully finished her Masters Degree in Experimental Medicine.
Our group supported the WWIEM IENGAGE international program 2022 by supervising 4 students from Ukraine, Tanzania, Palestine, and Greece. Thank you to Varun and Jessica for their help. Students really enjoyed the learning experience and were awarded a prize for their excellent final presentation.
We hosted two medical students from Okayama University Japan for a 3-month research internship. Well done to Mayuko Kitayama and Shiori Sato for their hard work, and thanks to Jasenka, Varun, Jessica, Kiran, Pietro, and Shannon for the support of these two projects.
Welcome to Shannon and Vani who started her PhD studies in October.
OTHERS
- Edoardo, Pietro, and Reinhold submitted new dataset to GEO (GSE199548).
- Jasenka and Reinhold submitted an UK patent application 2115281.4 for review.
- The EPC team are 2022 Pumpkin carving winners.
- Reinhold in collaboration with Dr Krasnodembskaya, have designed a new teaching module ‘Advanced Research Skills in Experimental Medicine’ for the Postgraduate programme.
- Reinhold was an External Examiner for a PhD VIVA in Nottingham University (9 May 2022)
- Reinhold chaired a PhD VIVA at QUB (27 May 2022).
- Judith, Kiran, Elisa, and Amy contributed to the NI Science Festival.
- Reinhold contributed to the QUB Staff Development Program in the workshop ‘Project Management’ (25 Oct 2022).
- Pietro, Shannon, and Jessica have tested the new research instrument Maestro from Axion Biosystems.
- Varun, Pietro, Jessica, Jasenka, and Shannon have tested the new holographic microscope Holomonitor M4 from PHI.
- We had our Annual Research Away Day the 8 Mar 2022.
PROJECT COMPLETED
The project funded by Advanced Research Therapies led by Newcastle University was successfully completed and final report submitted. Thank you to Jessica and Kiran for their hard work. Hope this leads to a new project in the near future.
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NEWSLETTER JAN-DECEMBER 2021
Volume 3/ Issue 3
NEW PROJECTS
In 2021, three exciting projects have started. Welcome to the new scientists joining our lab! Dr Aritra Deb, and Dr Kiran Mcloughlin, and Dr Jessica Eyre.
- Research project funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust to investigate the role of long noncoding RNAs in the ageing of blood vessels.
- Research project funded by the US/Ireland Centre to Centre International Collaboration to develop an ambient-temperature transport of therapeutic cells.
- Research project funded by Diabetes UK to understand how BMP9 protects from diabetes-induced blood retinal barrier breakdown.
PUBLICATIONS
Two scientific papers published in Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids, and Stem Cells Translational Medicine. Well done to Jasenka, Edoardo, Sarah, and Varun for leading these stories.
Guduric-Fuchs J, Pedrini E, Lechner J, Chambers SEJ, O'Neill CL, Mendes Lopes de Melo J, Pathak V, Church RH, McKeown S, Bojdo J, Mcloughlin KJ, Stitt AW, Medina RJ. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2021 Jan 20;23:968-981. doi: 10.1016/j.omtn.2021.01.015. eCollection 2021 Mar 5. PMID: 33614244
Current concepts on endothelial stem cells definition, location, and markers.
Chambers SEJ, Pathak V, Pedrini E, Soret L, Gendron N, Guerin CL, Stitt AW, Smadja DM, Medina RJ. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2021 Nov;10 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):S54-S61. doi: 10.1002/sctm.21-0022.PMID: 34724714
PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES
Kiran and Yuxin attended the ELRIG Cell and Gene Therapy conference 2021 (18-19 May 2021).
Pietro, Sarah, Jasenka, and Varun attended and presented at the International Meeting Vascular Control of Organ Function (28-30 June 2021).
Reinhold was an invited speaker at the international webinar “Advanced Medicine and Technology in Medical Society 5.0” organised by the Medical Faculty at Bosowa University (Oct 5, 2021).
Shannon and Varun attended the Nature Glial Biology in Medicine conference (25-26 October 2021).
Reinhold was a guest speaker at the Stem Cell Series for the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh hosted by Dr Aruna Rakha (Nov 1, 2021).
STUDENTS
Our group was involved in WWIEM IENGAGE international program (28th June – 6th August) and we supervised 6 students from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and United Arab Emirates. Thank you to Jasenka, Yuxin, Pietro, Kiran, Shannon, Jessica for their help. Students really enjoyed the learning experience.
Welcome to Katherine Dixon who will join our group as a MSc Student in Experimental Medicine with a project starting on January 2022.
Congratulations to Stuart and Pietro for their PhD graduation!
NEW COLLABORATORS
Our network of scientific collaborators has significantly increased this year and now include Professor Majlinda Lako (Newcastle University), Professor Ryuji Yokokawa (Kyoto University), Professor Johnna Temenoff (Georgia Tech/Emory University), Professor Garry Duffy (Galway University), Dr Antonio Inforzato (Humanitas University), Dr George Burke (Ulster University), and Professor Terry Lapin (Queen’s University Belfast). Looking forward to strengthening our interactions and boosting our science through this collaborative work.
PROJECT COMPLETED
The 4-year research project funded by Novo Nordisk was successfully completed and final report submitted. Thank you to Varun, Elisa, Edoardo, Kevin, Ben, Lynsey-Dawn, Louise, Kiran, and Pietro for their hard work. Hope this leads to a new publication from the group in the near future.
AWARDS AND GRANTS
Reinhold was awarded a Confidence in Collaboration grant of £49,000 to work with Newcastle University.
Reinhold is involved in a successful BHF research project of £284,711 led by Dr Karla O’Neill and Professor David Grieve to target DNA methylation as a novel approach to restore ECFC angiogenic dysfunction in ischaemic disease.
We have received a mini grant of £24,700 from the BBSRC for advancing our scRNA-seq approaches in retina.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Our methodology to generate ECFCs has been licensed to VascVersa Ltd. who led by Dr. Christina O’Neill will develop this further to manufacture a cell therapy product.
We have an UK patent application currently under review for technologies to delay ageing in blood vessels.
We have been successful in a competition for Industry-Academy collaboration with Cyclica Inc. to harness their AI drug discovery platform in 2022.
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NEWSLETTER JAN-APR 2020
Volume 3 / Issue 1
NEW LAB MEMBERS AND STUDENTS
Welcome to Kevin, Shannon, and Benjamin, who recently joined our research group.
Well done to our undergraduate students Chloe and Alan who successfully finished their lab work for their BSc research project.
SUPPORT TO NHS FOR COVID TESTING
Our lab has provided specialised equipment to the NHS to facilitate COVID-19 testing. Our Maxwell system enables automated rapid and efficient isolation of nucleic acids from multiple patient samples simultaneously. This will speed up COVID-19 diagnosis in Northern Ireland.
VIRTUAL MEETINGS
Our research group keeps working from home.
CONFERENCES
Reinhold was a guest speaker for the ERS 2020 Meeting in Lisbon.
Jasenka presented remotely at the Second Cardiovascular Disease Northern Ireland Meeting.
OTHER EVENTS
Reinhold attended the Center for Manufacturing Technologies-National Science Foundation meeting in Atlanta to present a US/Ireland research proposal to establish novel cell therapy approaches in collaboration with CMAT (US) and CURAM (Ireland).
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NEWSLETTER MAY-DECEMBER 2020
Volume 3/ Issue 2
STUDENTS
Well done to Pietro and Stuart who successfully passed their PhD VIVAs.
Congratulations to Jonathan Diamond who successfully finished his Master’s degree in Computational Biology.
Reinhold was external examiner for a PhD thesis from Insubria University (Italy).
AWARDS AND GRANTS
Reinhold was awarded a Dunhill Medical Trust research project grant to study the role of long non-coding RNAs in endothelial senescence.
Alan, Sarah, and Reinhold were awarded a Department for the Economy Rapid Response COVID-19 research grant, in collaboration with Prof Ultan Power and Dr Roger Preston.
Reinhold was awarded a FAPESP SPRINT grant to establish an academic collaboration with University of Campinas (Brazil).
Reinhold and Alan were awarded a Centre to Centre US/Ireland grant to establish a Global Cell Manufacturing Partnership with US National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centre for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (Atlanta) and the Centre for Research in Medical Devices CURAM (Galway).
Reinhold and Alan obtained a Diabetes UK research grant to investigate BMP9 signalling in diabetic retinopathy.
PRESENTATIONS AND PAPERS
Reinhold presented at the International Vascular Biology Meeting 2020 (IVBM2020)
Jasenka presented at the Second Cardiovascular Disease Northern Ireland Meeting.
Reinhold was an invited speaker at the International Forum for Stem Cells 2020 (IFSC2020)
Reinhold and Lydia contributed to a PNAS paper from the Lee lab in the University of Pennsylvania. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32414920/
OTHER NEWS
Pietro won the QUB-MHLS Faculty 6th Annual Poster competition.
Shannon received a QUB-STAR Award for her continued hard work and support during COVID lockdown.
Reinhold was an invited guest at Finding Genius Podcast and interviewed by Richard Jacobs. https://www.findinggeniuspodcast.com/podcasts/promising-stem-cell-therapy-for-diabetes-with-reinhold-medina/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/zYZhJJzrfOo
Reinhold was an invited Judge for the BioRender Posters Contest.
Reinhold was promoted to Professor of Diabetes and Vascular Medicine.
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NEWSLETTER JUL-OCT 2019
Volume 2 / Issue 7
STUDENTS
Congratulations to our PhD student Kiran who successfully passed his PhD VIVA, and is already working as a postdoctoral scientist in the US. Good luck!
Well done to our Masters student Jose who successfully finished his research project.
AWARDS
Reinhold received a 2019 Global Peer Review Award from Publons for being in the Top 1% reviewers in Molecular Biology and Genetics.
GRANTS
Varun was awarded a Wellcome Trust ISSF postdoctoral fellowship.
Reinhold was awarded a Belfast Association from the Blind grant.
Alan and Reinhold were awarded a research project grant from BHF.
Reinhold and Alan won a Dunhill Medical Trust research project grant.
CONFERENCES
Reinhold presented at the 2019 International Cellular Senescence Association Meeting in Athens.
Reinhold presented at the First Cardiovascular Disease Northern Ireland Meeting at the University of Ulster in Jordanstown.
The group attended and presented at the QUB- REMERGE meeting 2019.
TWO PAPERS PUBLISHED
Vascular Regeneration for Ischemic Retinopathies: Hope from Cell Therapies.
Bertelli PM, Pedrini E, Guduric-Fuchs J, Peixoto E, Pathak V, Stitt AW, Medina RJ.
Curr Eye Res. 2019 Oct 31:1-13. doi: 10.1080/02713683.2019.1681004. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID:31609636
No evidence of Gremlin1-mediated activation of VEGFR2 signalling in endothelial cells.
Dutton LR, O' Neill CL, Medina RJ, Brazil DP.
J Biol Chem. 2019 Oct 11. pii: jbc.AC119.010148. doi: 10.1074/jbc.AC119.010148. [Epub ahead of print] PMID:31604823
OTHER EVENTS
- Reinhold hosted Prof Matthias Clauss from Indiana University as the Guest Speaker for the WWIEM Seminar Series.
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