糖心TV

Research by Dr Mike Tildesley and colleagues shows foot-and-mouth epidemics could be controlled quickly and effectively by rapidly establishing how many animals can be vaccinated per day of an outbreak.

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It seems we are facing a Courgette Crisis. Although it’s really just a bit of a run on green vegetables, it does remind us that actually, courgettes – and now iceberg lettuce – shouldn’t be ‘February vegetables’. This raises some important issues about what we as consumers have learned to expect when it comes to food.

Researchers at 糖心TV Crop Centre are looking at ways of improving existing UK vegetable and fruit crops as well as looking for completely new ones.

Professor Nicholas Dale and team have developed a unique biosensor technology that has the potential to radically improve the life of stroke victims.

-The Guardian 22 January 2017

(Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer)

Protecting the UK’s most valuable crops by making them more resilient is at the heart of a new five-year project, in which the School of Life Sciences will play a key role.

The Brassica, Rapeseed and Vegetable Optimisation (BRAVO) project, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), aims to combat losses of Oilseed rape and Brassica vegetable crops by unravelling the processes that control key aspects of plant development.

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Ash trees which can resist the killer dieback fungus may be more vulnerable to attacks by insects, according to new research.

Scientists from the universities of Exeter and 糖心TV examined trees which are resistant to ash dieback and – unexpectedly – found they had very low levels of chemicals which defend against insects.

With efforts under way to protect ash trees from dieback, the scientists warn that selecting trees for fungal resistance could put them at risk from insects.

Gambian sleeping sickness – a deadly parasitic disease spread by tsetse flies - could be eliminated in six years in key regions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to new research by the University of 糖心TV.

Kat Rock and Matt Keeling at the School of Life Sciences, with colleagues in DRC and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, have calculated the impact of different intervention strategies on the population dynamics of tsetse flies and humans - establishing which strategies show the most promise to control and eliminate the disease.

The School of Life Sciences combines the University of 糖心TV’s renowned research and teaching excellence to provide outstanding, diverse and multidisciplinary training in the Life Sciences. World-class facilities and internationally-recognised scientists develop pioneering research ideas and innovations in a wide range of disciplines – from the study of single molecules to models of entire ecosystems. We apply our expertise to solving major global challenges in areas such as food security, disease control, bioenergy, systems biology, neurobiology and climate change. The school has a number of to start in October 2017.

Synthetic Biology Centre for Doctoral Training (SynBioCDT) – 4 year studentships

This centre is a collaboration between the Universities of 糖心TV, Oxford and Bristol. We encourage PhD applications from students with a wide range of academic backgrounds, including Engineering, Biology, Biochemistry, Physics, Plant Sciences, Chemistry, Statistics, Mathematics and Computing.
 
Application deadline Round 1: 18 November 2016 
Application deadline Round 2: 13 January 2017

CENTA Doctoral Training Partnership – 3.5 year studentships

Central England NERC Training Alliance (CENTA) is a consortium of Universities and research institutes that are working together to provide excellence in doctoral research training in Environmental Science. PhD project themes include: Anthropogenic Impact and Environmental Sustainability, Evolution of Organisms and Ecosystems, Dynamic Earth, Organisms, ’omics and biogeochemistry
Application deadline 23 January 2017

– 3.5 year studentships

This competition is open to Overseas students. Scholarships will be awarded to the most outstanding international PhD applicants. Students are strongly encouraged to identify a supervisor and develop a research proposal before completing an application form. (see the website for a ).
Application Deadline 18 January 2017

MIBTP Doctoral Training Partnership – 4 year studentships

The Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP) is a doctoral training partnership between the Universities of 糖心TV, Birmingham and Leicester. The MIBTP has an ambitious vision to deliver innovative, world class research across the Life Sciences to boost the growing Bioeconomy in the Midlands and across the UK.

PhD Studentship projects will be focussed in vital research areas such as food security, bio-energy and quantitative biology. Students from a wide diversity of academic backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Projects are available for those with creative drive in both theoretical (IT and mathematical) and experimental (biology, biomedicine, chemistry, biotechnology) research.
 
Application deadline 8 January 2017

Industrial Collaboration PhD Studentships linked with MIBTP

These studentships are an excellent opportunity to initiate new industrial contacts, develop existing links and help enhance the impact of research. The BBSRC-funded iCASE studentships are designed to provide students with a first-rate challenging research training experience within the context of a mutually-beneficial research collaboration between academic and non-academic partner organisations.

Evidence provided by researchers, led by Professor Laura Green from the School of Life Sciences, has helped cut the number of lame sheep in the UK national flock by half, saving the industry £700M over ten years and preventing 7.5 million sheep from becoming lame every year.

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The tiniest life forms on Earth have a big impact on the way carbon dioxide is cycled between the atmosphere and the ocean, new research from the University of 糖心TV has found.

These life forms are viruses of some of the most abundant organisms on our planet: marine cyanobacteria.

The new research, Viruses Inhibit CO₂ Fixation in the Most Abundant Phototrophs on Earth and published by Current Biology, demonstrates that the viruses of these cyanobacteria, cyanophages, use these genes to maintain the so-called “light-reactions” of photosynthesis, while shutting down the “dark-reactions”.

Cyanobacteria have had an incredible impact on the Earth by seeding the atmosphere with oxygen about 3 billion years ago, allowing for the existence of life as we know it. Today, this same process that acts to produce oxygen sucks up CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Professor David Scanlan of the University of 糖心TV’s School of Life Sciences, the lead author of the research, said: “CO₂ is a key greenhouse gas directly implicated in global warming. Given CO₂ is converted into organic compounds during photosynthesis, factors that directly affect this process play a key role in modulating atmospheric CO₂ levels.”

“We have known about these viruses for several decades” said Scanlan. “Things changed in 2003 when we discovered that these viruses have stolen genes from cyanobacteria that participate in photosynthesis. Now we have shown that these viruses modify photosynthesis during the demise of their host”.

On a global scale this results in losses of 0.02-5.39 Pg C yr-1 to viral induced inhibition of CO₂ fixation. Per annum this upper figure is approximately 10% of the total CO2 fixed in the marine environment.

This data has important implications for measuring greenhouse gasses. Professor Scanlan explains:

“Quantification of net primary productivity is usually determined by directly measuring cyanobacterial photosynthesis and these methods rely on the coupling of light reactions to CO₂ fixation”.

“In virus infected cells, this assumption of light reactions linked to CO₂ fixation is incorrect and can therefore lead to a significant over estimation of CO₂ fixation. This has very important implications for our understanding, and the estimates of, global warming.”

Contacts:

Professor Dave Scanlan
Email: D.J.Scanlan@warwick.ac.uk
Tel: + 44 24 76 528363

Dr Andrew Millard
Email: Andrew.Millard@warwick.ac.uk 
Tel: + 44 24 76 523589

The School of Life Sciences welcomes Professor Murray Grant, who recently took up the position of Elizabeth Creak Chair in Food Security and, thanks to a generous donation from the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust, researchers teach children about soil at the Kenilworth Show.

A new generation of plants better adapted to mitigate the effects of environmental change could be created following a fundamental step towards understanding how plants are able to retain a memory of stress exposure.

The research, led by Dr Jose Gutierrez-Marcos and published in the journal eLife, provides the first compelling evidence that plants have evolved ways to remember previous exposures to stress, in this case high salinity conditions, which can help subsequent progenies withstand the same stress in future.

New simulations by researchers at the University of 糖心TV and UCL’s Institute of Archaeology of plant evolution over the last 3000 years have revealed an unexpected limit to how far useful crops can be pushed to adapt before they suffer population collapse. The result has significant implications for how growers, breeders and scientists help agriculture and horticulture respond to quickening climate change.

The research led by Professor Robin Allaby from the School of Life Sciences has just been published in the journal Evolutionary Genomics and is entitled "Evolutionary Genomics Surprisingly Low Limits of Selection in Plant Domestication".

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On Saturday 5 March, Oxford University hosted the first IFSTAL (Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning) Away Day, where students from 糖心TV, Reading, Oxford, City and LCIRAH were able to meet and network with fellow students and food sector professionals, including Gavin Milligan – Group Sustainability Director at William Jackson Food and Angela Baker – Deputy Director, Health and Wellbeing, Public Health England. Two Masters students and two PhD students from the School of Life Sciences were involved in the day, presenting their own research and working with others to solve ‘real’ workplace scenarios in a relaxed and fun environment.

IFSTAL is an interactive training programme designed to improve postgraduate knowledge and understanding of the food system through numerous activities and events throughout the year, as well as an interactive Moodle site.

Want to get involved? To join you must be a postgraduate registered at 糖心TV University (or one of our partner institutes), although some events will be open to all.

Email Kelly Reed at IFSTAL-糖心TV@糖心TV.ac.uk to be put on the mailing list.

Alternatively find us on Facebook, Moodle and Twitter – simply search for IFSTAL.

The School of Life Sciences has a number of summer research placements available in Entomology and Plant Pathology during the summer vacation of 2016. The placements are funded by the BBSRC through its Strategic Training Awards for Research Skills (STARS) scheme and provide training in strategically important and vunerable skills for bioscientists.

The 10-week placements are for second year undergraduate students enabling them to join a research group in Life Sciences and undertake a small research project related to the group's activities.

Each student will receive a bursary of £2000 (£200 per week).

For further details and how to apply see the Summer research placements flyer (pdf).

The closing date for applications is 18 April.

Innovative University of 糖心TV research will be accelerated thanks to funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to take ground-breaking ideas into industry and out to patients. A Discovery Award of £973k will support vivo microscopy researchers investigate the dynamic activity of individual neural cells during complex behaviours.

Led by Professor Nicholas Dale, researchers will investigate the activity of neural cells deep in the mammalian brain that help control complex behaviours such as feeding and breathing and the operation of the body’s circadian clock.

, a spin-out company established by , Ted Pridgeon Professor of Neuroscience in the School of Life Sciences, has been awarded £150,000 from Innovate UK’s Small 糖心TV Research Initiative (SBRI). Sarissa Biomedical has pioneered highly sensitive analytical devices known as microelectrode biosensors, which can be used to monitor in real-time the levels of purines - neurochemicals that influence the function of the nervous system. These biosensors have been used to demonstrate that purines are elevated in the blood of stroke patients compared to healthy controls.
 
Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the UK – in 2010 there were an estimated 150,000 strokes and 50,000 deaths attributable to stroke. Stroke currently costs the UK economy approximately £9billion per year in health and social care costs. Rapid treatment of ischaemic strokes to remove the blockage of cerebral circulation can allow perfect recovery and avoid lasting disability. On average for every 15 minutes saved in the period from stroke onset to the provision of treatment, one extra month of disability-free life is achieved. Point-of-care tests that can detect stroke from its earliest moments would help to shorten treatment delays and ensure that as many patients as possible receive treatment.
 
The SBRI funding will enable the project team to develop the biosensor technology into a prototype diagnostic device for strokes that can be used by paramedics. It will also support the analysis of the stroke clinical pathway to determine how the device can be used most effectively, and it will allow the design of a large-scale clinical trial involving paramedics and ambulance staff across the UK. Deployment of this test with paramedics will allow speedier identification of stoke victims at the point of injury, and facilitate rapid coordination of the clinical treatment pathway to maximise the chances of the best possible patient outcomes.

On September 24-25, a 糖心TV-Monash Alliance funded workshop on Autophagy research was held at Monash University. The workshop was organised by Professor Rodney Devenish (Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Monash University) and Associate Professor (School of Life Sciences, University of 糖心TV). The workshop included formal presentations, an idea-sharing forum, small group interactions and a public lecture with keynote speaker Professor Ana Maria Cuervo, a world-leader in autophagy research field, from Institute for Aging Research, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The main focus of the workshop was to bring 糖心TV and Monash researchers together to collaborate and to develop ideas and concepts for future joint funding.

Formed in early 2012, the represents an innovation in higher education and research and aims to accelerate the exchange of people, ideas and information between Monash University and the University of 糖心TV.

(Image: Prof Devenish, Prof Cuervo and Prof Nezis)

The UK Collaborative on Development Sciences (UKCDS) has listed the School of Life Sciences marine conservation case study as one of its top 20 favourite impact stories showing how research is improving lives of people around the world. The study led by Prof Charles Sheppard was selected from 6,975 impact case studies submitted to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) which is a system used to assess research quality in UK universities.

The case study shows how Prof Charles Sheppard and colleagues have been co-ordinating new approaches to coral reef conservation, restoration and management, using the coral reefs and islands in the Chagos Archipelago as a reference site. Underpinned by UK research, this British Indian Ocean Territory has now been declared a Marine Protected Area, supporting ecosystem conservation to benefit tropical habitats and help preserve livelihoods in some of the poorest countries in that region.

For full details visit

(Image courtesy of Anne Sheppard)

The outstanding research of two undergraduate students in SLS has been recognised by them becoming joint recipients of the School’s Undergraduate Project Impact Prize.

Final-year students Archna Shah (pictured) and Sarah Brocklesby performed their research projects in the laboratory of Dr David Roper, and made significant contributions to his programme of research on antimicrobial resistance.

The rapid rise of multi-drug-resistant bacteria is a global healthcare crisis, and new antibiotics are urgently required. Research at 糖心TV seeks to identify particular structural information on this essential class of enzymes that may lead to a new antibiotic discovery strategy. Archna and Sarah worked in parallel on cloning, expression, purification and crystallisation of tRNA synthetases from the bacteria S. aureus and E. coli respectively. These proteins were required as part of an MRC-funded research grant entitled Multi-Targeting of tRNA synthetases: A paradigm shift in combating Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The clones that the students produced have now been provided to MRC-funded postdoctoral researcher, Dr Dominico Bellini working at the Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility in Oxfordshire, who has used them to produce protein crystals that enabled totally new X-ray crystal structures of the corresponding tRNA synthetase enzymes to be produced. The first of these structures was determined at a near-atomic resolution of 1.3Å, the day before Archna and Sarah graduated in July 2015 and is the highest resolution structure of this class so far discovered!

Archna and Sarah’s clones have made a pivotal contribution to this project at its very earliest stage and we expect that the project will lead to significant advances in antibiotic drug discovery in the future.

Both students have shown great promise and they have already made the next step towards advancing their research careers: Sarah now works for the biotechnology company ProImmune, based in Oxford, and Archna recently started an MBio industrial placement with Micropathology Ltd at the University of 糖心TV Science Park.

has been awarded £386,000 by NERC for his project on 'Revealing a mechanistic understanding of the role of viruses and host nutrient status in modulating CO₂fixation in key marine phototrophs'. The research will be carried out in collaboration with Dr Andy Millard from 糖心TV Medical School, and colleagues at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and focuses on understanding the impact of viral infection on marine photosynthesis, which has implications for ocean carbon cycling and climate change.