Press Releases Archive
2003
25 November 2003
$200,000 NIH funding awarded for phenotyping disabled children
in China More >>
11 November 2003
Congratulations to Professor Jonathan Knowles on his appointment
to Editor of the Journal of Biomaterials Applications More >>
29 September 2003
Announcing 'Biofilms: Aspects of Infection Control'- a one-day symposium,
March 2nd 2004 More >>
16 September 2003
Colleagues and friends mark Professor Rod Cawson's contribution
to oral medicine and pathology More >>
15 September 2003
Eastman welcomes Chevening Technology Enterprise Scholarship award
winner Marianna Tsvetkova More >>
22nd August 2003
Congratulations to Dr. Mark Lewis (EDI) and Dr. Vivek Mudera (Institute
of Orthopaedics &
Musculo-Skeletal Science, Stanmore) who have been awarded a grant
of
£54,000 for a 3-year PhD Project More >>
21st August 2003
Dr Sanjay Modgil and Professor Peter Hammond's submission to the
Application Stream of the AI-2003 conference awarded Best Paper More >>
24th July 2003
Max Perutz Essay Prize awarded to research student on collaborative
project More >>
9th July 2003
Professor Jonathan Knowles obtains an EPSRC grant for Ion chromatography More >>
1st July 2003
Eastman introduces the new Diploma in Clinical Dental Science More >>
1st July 2003
Eastman to celebrateProfessor Roderick Cawson's contribution
to the profession More >>
11th June 2003
Eastman Graduates excel at the Royal Society of Medicine President's
Prize Presentations More >>
16th May 2003
Congratulations to Jean Suvan, Ian Needleman, David Moles and Maurizio
Tonetti whose protocol for a systematic review was awarded the inaugural
International Collaboration for Evidence-Based Dentistry (ICEBD)/IADR
prizeMore >>
1st May 2003
Birth Defects Foundation award a £45,000 grant to continue
research on 3D facial imaging in dysmorphology More >>
16th April 2003
Professor Wilson and Dr Pratten secure a £52,000 EPSRC
CASE award for developing and testing antimicrobial coatings on
dental materials More >>
16th April 2003
Congratulations to Dr David Spratt and colleagues in the Infection
and Immunity division who were awarded £65,751 CASE funding
from the BBSRC and GlaxoSmithKline to determine the effects of environmental
change on oral biofilm communities More >>
18th February 2003
Arthritis Research Campaign award a £170,000 grant for
a collaborative project researching into potential therapies to
inhibit bone resorption More >>
18th February 2003
£200,000 grant awarded by the British Heart Foundation
for research into a possible correlation between stress and coronary
heart disease More >>
13th January 2003
Dr Jonathan
Knowles and Dr Hae Won Kim of Seoul National University have been awarded a prestigious Royal
Society Visiting Fellowship. More >>
Read 2002's Press Releases
Read 2001's Press Releases
Read 2000's Press Releases
25 November 2003
$200,000 NIH funding awarded for phenotyping disabled children in China
Professor Peter Hammond and Dr Tim Hutton of the Biomedical Informatics Unit will be travelling to China in early January 2004 to carry out 3D face scanning of children with undiagnosed genetic disorders. The trip is the first of a number of visits over the next two years under a project called Cognitive/Brain Phenotyping of Atypical Chinese Children funded by the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.
The principal investigator in the UK, Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith, is a cognitive scientist based at UCL's Institute of Child Health. Dr Zhengyan Zhao of Zhejiang University, PRC is the Chinese principal investigator. Besides Professor Hammond, the inter-disciplinary team of co-investigators includes Dr Mayada Tassabehji, Medical Genetics, Manchester University; Dr Kang Lee, a behavioural scientist at UCSD USA; Dr Debra Mills, Psychology, Emory University USA; Dr Shiqiang Shang, a clinical geneticist, and Dr Genyue Fu, a psychologist, both at Zhejiang Univ.
The team are focussing on Williams, Down's and Fragile X syndromes. The 3D face modelling technology developed in the Biomedical Informatics Unit will be used to pre-screen the children to identify individuals who may have one of the three conditions before detailed genetic testing is carried out. Thereafter, detailed cognitive and neurological profiling will be carried out and the results compared with those of similarly affected children in the UK and USA.
11 November 2003
Congratulations to Professor Jonathan Knowles on his appointment to Editor of the Journal of Biomaterials Applications with effect from January 2004.
The Journal of Biomaterials Applications publishes original articles encompassing the development, manufacture and clinical applications of biomaterials. Biomaterials continues to be one of the most rapidly growing areas of research in plastics today and certainly one of the most technically challenging where biomaterial performance is dependent on polymer compatibility with the aggressive biological environment. The journal cuts across disciplines and is devoted to new and emerging biomaterials technologies, with particular focus on the many applications which are under development at industrial biomedical and polymer research facilities, as well as the ongoing activities in academic, medical and applied clinical uses of devices.
23 October 2003
Friends and colleagues at the Eastman offer their congratulations to Basil Mizrahi, Clinical Lecturer, Eastman CPD and Specialist in Restorative Dentistry and Prosthodontics, on his successful completion of the Prosthodontics Board Certification Exams in the USA.
Basil is one of only a handful of USA Prosthodontics Board Certified in the UK. He undertook the particularly extensive four part examination leading to a Fellowship of the American College of Prosthodontists (the official sponsoring organisation for the specialty of prosthodontics in the USA). Certification is only open to dentists who have completed a formal Prosthodontics programme at an American Dental Association recognised dental school.
29 September 2003
The changing face of infection control
Researchers at the Eastman, in conjunction with the Biofilm Club and Association of Clinical Oral Microbiologists, are hosting a one-day workshop bringing together scientists researching into biofilms and their impact on infection control.
Bacteria, in the form of biofilms, are often responsible for persistent infections which are difficult to treat. They account for over 65 percent of human bacterial infections. The presence of biofilms was first demonstrated in the airways of patients with cystic fibrosis helping to explain why they experienced such a high prevalence of chronic lung infections. There has since been a growing realisation that biofilms factor in almost every aspect of health care. Biofilms are also a major concern in cross-infection. Recent studies have found pathogens such as Legionella spp. present in biofilms in the water lines of dental units.
Dr David Spratt, Mr Derren Ready and Dr Jonathan Pratten are organising the meeting to champion the awareness of this interesting aspect of biofilm research. Although contamination prevention, dosing and treatment regimes all help to limit the negative impact of biofilms, aspects of infection control are essential in preventing biofilm related diseases.
The meeting will be held on March 2nd 2004 at the Eastman Dental Institute. For further information or to book your place download the Information Leaflet (PDF - 313KB) and Registration Form (PDF - 331KB).
16 September 2003
A Festschrift in recognition of Professor Rod Cawson MD FDS RCPS FDS RCS FRC Path, Emeritus Professor of Oral Medicine and Pathology's contribution to oral medicine and pathology was held at the Eastman Dental Institute for Oral Health Care Sciences, UCL on Saturday 13th September 2003.
The Festschrift, entitled Horizons in Oral Medicine and Pathology, was attended by 60 participants from the UK, USA, Italy, Korea, Greece, Jordan and Singapore.
The meeting was chaired by Professor Crispian Scully CBE (Dean and Director of Studies and Research and Professor of Special Needs Dentistry, Eastman Dental Institute UCL, UK) and Professor Stephen Challacombe (Professor of Oral Medicine, GKT, UK) and included the following invited speakers:
Dr Bill Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Oral and Maxillofacial
Pathology, Eastman Dental Institute UCL, UK
Professor Michael Gleeson, Professor of Otolaryngology and
Base of Skull Surgery, GKT and UCL, UK
Professor John Greenspan, University of California, San Francisco,
USA
Dr Trevor Grenby, formerly Guys Hospital, London, UK
Dr John Hamburger, ex-President of the British Society for
Oral Medicine, UK
Professor Harold Jones, formerly Professor of Oral Pathology,
University of Manchester, UK
Dr Dean Millard, formerly University of Michigan, USA
Professor Stephen Porter, Professor of Oral Medicine, Eastman
Dental Institute UCL, UK
Professor Graham Roberts, Professor of Paediatric Dentistry,
Eastman Dental Institute UCL, UK
Dr Meg Skelly, Senior lecturer in Conscious Sedation, GKT,
London, UK
Professor Paul Speight, Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial
Pathology, University of Sheffield, UK
The speakers provided updates on topics relevant to the research interests and clinical teaching of Professor Cawson, in particular HIV disease, oral candidal infection, antimicrobial prophylaxis, salivary gland surgical pathology and oral malignancy and reflected on their experiences of working with Professor Cawson throughout his career.
Professor Cawson was presented with a collection of his published papers by Professor Scully and a certificate marking his Honorary Fellowship of the British Society for Oral Medicine (BSOM) by the society's ex-president Dr John Hamburger.
The Festschrift closed with a reception at which Mr Michael Parkinson (Elsevier Publishers) reviewed the significant impact of Professor Cawson's extensive portfolio of textbooks on undergraduate and postgraduate dental education throughout the world and Professor Bill Binnie (Baylor University, Dallas Texas, USA) provided a personal view of Professor Cawson's many talents.
5 September 2003
Chevening Technology Enterprise Scholarship Awarded to Marianna Tsvetkova
Congratulations to Marianna Tsvelkova who had been awarded a Chevening Technology Enterprise Scholarship to work with Professor Jonathan Knowles in the Division if Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. The scholarship was gained through the London Technology Network and is administered by the Centre for Scientific Enterprise London. The scheme is designed to develop the candidate's business skills as well as carrying out industrially linked research as part of a twelve month fellowship. Marianna will be commencing at the Eastman at the beginning of October 2003.
22nd August 2003
Dr. Mark Lewis and Dr. Vivek Mudera (Institute of Orthopaedics & Musculo-Skeletal Science, Stanmore) have been awarded a grant of £54,000 for a 3-year PhD Project entitled "Tissue engineering of human neo-muscle organoid using mechanical stimulation".
The project will be based at both the Eastman Dental Institute and the Institute of Orthopaedics & Musculo-Skeletal Science, Stanmore. Applications to the Studentship are invited and further details are available on our Vacancies pages.
21st August 2003
Dr Sanjay Modgil and Professor Peter Hammond from the Biomedical Informatics Unit have been awarded the prize for best paper submitted to the Application Stream of the 23rd SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence.
The paper reports on a collaborative project involving the Eastman and the medical software company InferMed to commercialise decision support tools for clinical trial design. This project follows on from a previous EPSRC research project run jointly at the Eastman and the Knowledge Management Centre (UCL) to develop prototype versions of these tools (for more details see the information on Clinical Trial Design and Safety on the webpages of the Biomedical Informatics Unit.
24 July 2003
Max Perutz Essay Prize awarded to research student on collaborative project
Dr Angharad Davies, took first place in the MRC's 2003 Max Perutz Essay Prize for her essay entitled "From Luciferase to Lazarus - a wake up call for tuberculosis". Dr Davies is a research student based at both the Eastman Dental Institute and Royal Free Hospital, funded by an MRC clinical research training studentship jointly held by Professor Brian Henderson, Division of Infection and Immunity EDI and Professor Stephen Gillespie, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the Royal Free Hospital. Angharad's essay explains the future potential for science to eradicate tuberculosis by rendering the disease causing bacteria, carried by a third of the world's population, more susceptible to anti-tuberculosis drugs.
9 July 2003
Professor Jonathan Knowles obtains an EPSRC grant for Ion chromatography
A grant of £55,000 has been awarded to Professor Jonathan Knowles for the purchase of a high resolution, high throughput ion chromatography facility. The facility will be capable of detecting extremely low levels (parts per billion) of anions and cations and will be purchased to support the extensive portfolio of research being carried out on inorganic degradable materials and in particular investigation into phosphate glasses in monolith and fibre form.
11 June 2003
Eastman Graduates excel at the Royal Society of Medicine President's Prize Presentations
Eastman students made up six of the seven young colleagues competing for the President's Prize (Odontological Section) of the Royal Society of Medicine on Monday 2 June, 2003. All of the students gave first class presentations and were a credit to the Eastman. The Eastman's Paediatric Dentistry Unit were delighted that the two winners were from the unit.
Patimaporn Pangchangchaikal took the Research Prize for her excellent work on 'Expression profiles of genes involved in Epithelia-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) during mouse palate fusion in vivo and in vitro' in collaboration with Dr Agnes Bloch-Zupan. Tricia Percival was awarded the Clinical Research Prize for her presentation on Dental Findings in Children with Severe Epilepsy at The National Centre for Epilepsy with Dr Victoria Lucas Her work was commended for its immediate relevance to the needs of children with epilepsy.
The postgraduates presenting would like to extend thanks to Dr Victoria Lucas and Professor Graham Roberts for the advice and support offered to the students in the meticulous preparation for the presentations.
These awards are further testament to the high standards set by Eastman students and staff.
16 May 2003
The inaugural International Collaboration for Evidence-Based Dentistry (ICEBD) / IADR prize has been awarded to Jean Suvan, Ian Needleman, David Moles and Maurizio Tonetti
The award is for the best submitted protocol for a systematic review and also receives a prize award of £7,000. The prestige of the award is highlighted by calibre of the judges including some of the world's leading experts in systematic reviews in medicine and dentistry such as the heads of the Cochrane Collaboration and NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination as well as representatives from the Cochrane Oral Health Group, NIDCR and the IADR president. It is also a spectacular success for the International Centre for Evidence-Based Periodontal Health that was launched earlier this year in the Department of Periodontology by Ian Needleman and David Moles (www.eastman.ucl.ac.uk/iceph).
1 May 2003
Birth Defects Foundation award a £45,000 grant to continue research on 3D facial imaging in dysmorphology
The award extends existing funding from the Birth Defects Foundation to continue research by Professor Peter Hammond of the Eastman Dental Institute (UCL), Professor Michael Patton of the Dept of Clinical Genetics (St George's Hospital Medical School) and Professor Robin Winter of the Institute of Child Health (UCL).
With earlier funding, a 3dMD face scanner was purchased and a study of face shape in Noonan and Velo-Cardio-Facial syndromes was initiated. In 2002, Peter Hammond hired a mobile scanner and extended the study to Rett, Angelman, Rubinstein-Taybi, Smith-Magenis and Williams syndromes with several visits to the Netherlands and the USA. The Noonan and Velo-Cardio-Facial data analysis was recently completed using a combination of Tim Hutton's ShapeFind system and state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms. Besides providing beautiful visualisations of differences in face shape and growth, the techniques can discriminate between controls and individuals with Noonan and Velo-Cardio-Facial syndrome with accuracies of well over 90%.
The new funding will enable a mobile scanner to be bought outright. Further scanning trips are already planned to cover Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder in the UK and Canada in the coming months.
16 April 2003
Professor Wilson and Dr Pratten secure a £52,000 EPSRC CASE award, in collaboration with Proctor and Gamble, for research into the developing and testing of antimicrobial coatings on dental materials
Biofilms are ubiquitous in the environment and form whenever a material is in contact with an aqueous phase. They are medically important, accounting for over 80% of microbial infections in the body. One of the main reasons for studying biofilms is their remarkable resistance to antimicrobials. Surface-associated bacteria have increased resistance to antimicrobial compounds, even though the same bacteria are sensitive to these agents if grown under planktonic conditions. The aim of this 3-year PhD project would be to develop and evaluate new dental material coatings and antimicrobial formulations which may be effective against biofilm formation. The evaluation of these formulations will take place in the Institute's Infection and Immunity (microbiological aspects) and Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (material aspects) Divisions. The student will spend three months of the project developing the coatings at Proctor and Gamble.
16 April 2003
Congratulations to Dr David Spratt and colleagues in the Infection and Immunity division who were awarded £65,751 CASE funding from the BBSRC and GlaxoSmithKline for research project entitled The application of bacterial community profiling to determine the effects of environmental change on oral biofilm communities
Traditionally the study of mixed microbial communities has been based on the growth and identification of individual isolated organisms. The identification techniques are often difficult, time-consuming and only account for the cultivable portion of the community. Indeed, it has been estimated that less than 2 % of bacteria can be cultured using traditional microbiological techniques. In order to avoid some of these difficulties, a number of methods have been developed that measure genetic, structural or functional properties of the whole community. Modern molecular technologies have now been developed to rapidly generate a characteristic profile or signature of the bacterial diversity within a given sample. Furthermore, the individual bacterial taxa constituting this signature can be identified. The proposal for this 3-year PhD studentship is to characterize and compare bacterial communities to determine the effect of environmental changes (such as inflammation) on the composition of the oral biofilm community. Once appropriate differences have been ascertained we will aim to identify the key organisms involved in this population shift. The work is to be carried out in the Infection and Immunity Division.
18 February 2003
Arthritis Research Campaign award a £170,000 grant for a collaborative project researching into potential therapies to inhibit bone resorption.
The project entitled 'A study of the anti-osteolytic activity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis chaperonin 60.1' is a collaboration between Professor Brian Henderson and Dr Sajeda Meghji of the Eastman Dental Institute, Prof Tony Coates, St Georges Hospital Medical School and Prof David Blake, University of Bath.
We have found that a cell stress protein from the bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is able to inhibit bone resorption in vivo without inhibiting the associated inflammation. This protein also inhibits bone resorption in vitro and the available evidence suggests that this is a direct effect on the cellular signals that induce the maturation of the osteoclast, the key cell causing bone matrix destruction. The aim of this grant is to determine how this stress protein acts at the molecular level and to determine structure/function relationships. It is possible that peptides derived from this mycobacterial protein could have therapeutic potential in diseases involving accelerated bone resorption including periodontitis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis.
18 February 2003
£200,000 grant awarded by the British Heart Foundation for research into a possible correlation between stress and coronary heart disease.
The project entitled 'Is there a relationship between psychological and cellular stress?' is a collaboration between the Cellular Microbiology Research Group at the Eastman Dental Institute (led by Brian Henderson) with the Department of Epidemiology at UCL. The group has revealed that participants in the Whitehall Study (i.e. healthy civil servants involved in a longitudinal study of heart disease risk factors) show a significant correlation between their psychological stress and the concentrations of circulating hsp60, a cell stress protein. The Whitehall Study was responsible for identifying psychosocial stress as a risk factor in heart disease and this relationship with circulating hsp60 may be the link between psychosocial stress and cell stress/tissue damage. The aim of this study is to determine: (i) the nature of the circulating hsp60, which can exist in a number of forms; (ii) the possible genetic basis of this association by searching for polymorphisms of the hsp60 gene and (iii) in more detail, the association between psychosocial factors/physiological markers of stress and hsp60 levels.
13 January 2003
Dr Jonathan Knowles and Dr Hae Won Kim of Seoul National University have been awarded a prestigious Royal Society Visiting Fellowship.
This extends collaborative work already established via the British Council. Dr Kim will be visiting and working at the Eastman Dental Institute for one year on the development of novel biomaterials for hard and soft tissue regeneration in the Biomaterials Research Group.
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