NEWSLETTER JAN-DECEMBER 2022

Volume 4/ Issue 4

SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH GRANTS

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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’.
4. BBSRC minigrant of £30,000 for a research project entitled ‘Modulating ageing in the vasculature’ to generate data to support future proposals.
5. 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

1. Long term high glucose exposure induces premature senescence in retinal endothelial cells. Bertelli PM, Pedrini E, Hughes D, McDonnell S, Pathak V, Peixoto E, Guduric-Fuchs J, Stitt AW, Medina RJ.Front Physiol. 2022 Aug 26;13:929118. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.929118. eCollection 2022.PMID: 36091370
2. Advances in cell therapies using stem cells/progenitors as a novel approach for neurovascular repair of the diabetic retina. Lechner J, Medina RJ, Lois N, Stitt AW.Stem Cell Res Ther. 2022 Jul 30;13(1):388. doi: 10.1186/s13287-022-03073-x.PMID: 35907890
3. The Long Pentraxin PTX3 as a New Biomarker and Pharmacological Target in Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Diabetic Retinopathy. Stravalaci M, Ferrara M, Pathak V, Davi F, Bottazzi B, Mantovani A, Medina RJ, Romano MR, Inforzato A.Front Pharmacol. 2022 Jan 7;12:811344. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.811344. eCollection 2021.PMID: 35069222

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

1. Shannon presented a poster at the yICSA Senescence Symposium in London, UK (29 Apr 2022)
2. 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).
3. Jessica presented at the 13^th International Bone Morphogenetic Protein Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia (8-12 Oct 2022).
4. 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.
5. Jasenka presented a poster at the 7^th International Cell Senescence Association (ICSA) conference, in Groningen, Netherlands (29 Sep- 1 Oct 2022)
6. 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).
7. Varun presented a poster at the Cell Symposium ‘Advances in Therapeutic Applications of Stem Cells’ in Los Angeles, CA, US (8-10 Dec 2022).
8. 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.