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.
