̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Charlotte Summers

Professor Duncan Richards appointed as Head of Department of Medicine

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 16:59:07 +0000

Professor Richards joins Cambridge from the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford, where he has been since 2019. His particular research interest is the demonstration of clinical proof of concept of novel therapeutics through the application of experimental medicine techniques, especially human challenge studies.

As Climax Professor of Clinical Therapeutics, director of the Oxford Clinical Trial Research Unit (OCTRU), and the NIHR Oxford Clinical Research Facility, he led a broad portfolio focused on new medicines for multiple conditions. His focus has been the acceleration of promising new drug treatments through better decision-making in early phase clinical trials.

Professor Richards also brings with him a wealth of experience in a number of Pharmaceutical R&D clinical development roles. In 2003 he joined GSK and held a number of roles of increasing responsibility, latterly as Head of Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Medicine, including directorship of GSK’s phase 1 and experimental medicine unit in Cambridge (CUC).

Commenting on his appointment, Professor Richards said: “As a clinical pharmacologist, I have been fortunate to work across a broad range of therapeutic areas over the years. I am excited by the breadth and depth of expertise within the Department of Medicine and look forward to working with the first-class scientific team. My goal is to work with the Department team, the Clinical School, and hospitals to maximise the impact of the important work taking place in Cambridge.”

Members of the department’s leadership team are looking forward to the continued development of the department under Professor Richards, building on its legacy of collaboration and groundbreaking translational research to drive our future success.

Professor Mark Wills, Interim Head of Department of Medicine, said: “Duncan brings to his new role a fantastic breadth of experience, which encompasses his clinical speciality in pharmacology, extensive experience of working within the pharmaceutical industry R&D at senior levels and most recently establishing academic clinical trials units and human challenge research facilities.

“I am very excited to welcome Duncan to the Department and looking forward to working with him, as he takes on the role of delivering of the Department of Medicine’s vision to increase the efficacy of translation of its world class fundamental research, and its impact upon clinical practice and patient wellbeing.”

Menna Clatworthy, Professor of Translational Immunology and Director of the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease (CITIID), said: "Duncan has a wealth of leadership experience in biomedicine, in both academia and pharma. That skillset will be invaluable in ensuring the Department of Medicine continues to deliver world-leading research to transform patient outcomes."

Charlotte Summers, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine and Director of the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute, said: “Duncan’s exemplary track record of translating fundamental scientific discoveries into therapies that benefit patients will help us further increase the impact of our research as we continue our mission to improve human health.”

̽��ֱ��appointment underpins the recently announced five-year collaboration between GSK and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, the Cambridge-GSK Translational Immunology Collaboration (CG-TIC). ̽��ֱ��£50 million investment will accelerate research and development in kidney and respiratory diseases to improve patient outcomes.

Professor Richards will assume the role in February 2025, replacing Interim Head of Department Dr Mark Wills who was appointed after the departure of Professor Ken Smith in January 2024. Dr Wills will continue as Director of Research and Deputy Head of the Department of Medicine as well as leading his research group.

Professor Richards trained in medicine at Oxford ̽��ֱ�� and after junior doctor roles in London, he returned to Oxford as Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology. His DM thesis research was on a translational model using platelet ion flux to interrogate angiotensin biology and he is author of the Oxford Handbook of Practical Drug Therapy and the 3rd edition of Drug Discovery and Development.

Professor Richards has been a core member of the UK COVID-19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel. He is a member of the Oxford Bioescalator Management Board, UK Prix Galien Prize Committee, and the therapeutic advisory committee of several national platform clinical trials.

Professor Duncan Richards has today been announced as the new Head of the Department of Medicine at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

I am excited by the breadth and depth of expertise within the Department of Medicine and look forward to working with the first-class scientific team

Duncan Richards

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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£16million gift to support Europe’s largest heart and lung research centre

cjb250 — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 14:00:31 +0000

̽��ֱ��Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute (HLRI) is home to the largest concentration of scientists and clinicians in heart and lung medicine in Europe. It opened in July 2022 with the ambitious goal of identifying ten new potential treatments or diagnostic tests for heart and lung diseases within five years.

̽��ֱ��HLRI is located on Cambridge’s rapidly expanding Biomedical Campus, immediately adjacent to Royal Papworth Hospital. ̽��ֱ��institute brings together population health, laboratory and clinical scientists, with NHS clinicians and patients, with the aim of improving outcomes for people with cardiovascular and lung diseases such as heart attacks, pulmonary hypertension, lung cancers, cystic fibrosis and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Dr Dahdaleh said: “Cambridge is one of the greatest Universities in the history of civilisation and, 800 years on, it is at the cutting edge of scientific progress. Over the years in which I have been supporting education and medical research around the world, I have realised the UK is a global leader in the prevention, identification and treatment of heart and lung diseases.

“I’m supporting this new Institute because, through collaboration with Royal Papworth Hospital and other leading institutions, it will enable a concentration of expertise that will make medical advances in these fields that are of international importance.”

Dr Dahdaleh has previously supported research at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge looking into COVID-19 and national research on mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer linked to asbestos exposure. Cardiovascular and lung diseases kill more than 26 million people a year and have a major impact on the quality of life of many more. Alongside the immense human cost, the economic burden of these diseases – an estimated annual global cost of £840 billion – is already overwhelming and unsustainable. Yet declining air quality and increasing rates of obesity are set to compound the scale of the challenge faced worldwide.

Dr Anthony Freeling, Acting Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “We are truly grateful to Victor for his generous donation. There has never been a more pressing need to develop new approaches and treatments to help us tackle the heart and lung diseases that affect many millions of people worldwide. ̽��ֱ��Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute is in a strong position to make a major difference to people’s lives.”

Professor John Wallwork, Chair of Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “When we moved our hospital to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in 2019, one of our ambitions was to collaborate with partners to create a research and education institute on this scale. Victor’s kind donation will support all the teams working in HLRI to develop new treatments in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, improving the lives of people in the UK and around the globe.”

̽��ֱ��HLRI includes state-of-the-art research facilities, space for collaboration between academia, healthcare providers and industry, conference and education facilities. It also includes a special 10-bed clinical research facility where the first-in-patient studies of new treatments are being conducted.

Professor Charlotte Summers, Interim Director of the HLRI, said: “We have set ourselves ambitious goals because of the urgent need to improve cardiovascular and lung health across the world. Victor’s generous gift will help us realise our ambitions. Collaboration is at the heart of our approach, with our researchers and clinicians working with patient, academic, charity and industry partners within the Cambridge Cluster, nationally and internationally.”

Dr Dahdaleh is also a significant supporter of the Duke of Edinburgh awards, York and McGill universities in his homeland of Canada, and the British Lung Foundation. Dr Dahdaleh and his wife Mona, via the Victor Dahdaleh Foundation, have a commitment to supporting scholarships for disadvantaged students pursuing higher education in addition to their extensive philanthropic support for research into cancer, lung and heart disease.

̽��ֱ��HLRI has already raised £30 million from the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund and £10 million from the British Heart Foundation, with additional funding from the Wolfson Foundation, Royal Papworth Hospital Charity and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. Additional support has been provided by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust for a Cystic Fibrosis Trust Innovation Hub within the institute.

Blood thinning drug to treat recovery from severe COVID-19 is not effective

cjb250 — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 06:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��HEAL-COVID trial (Helping to Alleviate the Longer-term consequences of COVID-19) is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.

To date, more than a thousand NHS patients hospitalised with COVID have taken part in HEAL-COVID, a platform trial that is aiming to find treatments to reduce the number who die or are readmitted following their time in hospital.

In these first results from HEAL-COVID, it’s been shown that prescribing the oral anticoagulant Apixaban does not stop COVID patients from later dying or being readmitted to hospital over the following year (Apixaban 29.1%, versus standard care 30.8%).

As well as not being beneficial, anticoagulant therapy has known serious side effects, and these were experienced by participants in the trial with a small number of the 402 participants receiving Apixaban having major bleeding that required them to discontinue the treatment.

There was also no benefit from Apixaban in terms of the number of days alive and out of hospital at day 60 after randomisation (Apixaban 59 days, versus standard care 59 days).

Following these results, the trial will continue to test another drug called Atorvastatin, a widely used lipid lowering drug (‘a statin’) that acts on other mechanisms of disease that are thought to be important in COVID.

Chief Investigator for the trial Professor Charlotte Summers is an intensive care specialist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. She said: "Having survived the ordeal of being hospitalised with COVID-19, far too many patients find themselves back in hospital, often developing longer-term complications as a result of the virus. There is an urgent need for us to find treatments that prevent this significant burden of illness and improve the lives of so many still being affected by COVID.

“These first findings from HEAL-COVID show us that a blood thinning drug, commonly thought to be a useful intervention in the post-hospital phase is actually ineffective at stopping people dying or being readmitted to hospital. This finding is important because it will prevent unnecessary harm occurring to people for no benefit. It also means we must continue our search for therapies that improve longer term recovery for this devastating disease.”

Dr Mark Toshner, joint Chief Investigator for HEAL-COVID said: “Up until now it’s been assumed that Apixaban helps patients recover after severe COVID-19 and that thinning their blood to prevent clots is beneficial. This trial is the first robust evidence that longer anticoagulation after acute COVID-19 puts patients at risk for no clear benefit.

“Our hope is that these results will stop this drug being needlessly prescribed to patients with COVID-19 and we can change medical practise. Finding out that a treatment doesn’t work is really important. It’s not the solution many hoped it would be, with our results highlighting once again why testing treatments in randomised trials is important.

“At present, the world’s research efforts have focussed on acute COVID-19. We now urgently need evidence about how to best treat patients beyond their initial infection.”

Professor Nick Lemoine, NIHR Clinical Research Network Medical Director, said: "Research into COVID-19 recovery remains vital as we move out of the pandemic. Results such as these from the HEAL-COVID study, help to strengthen our knowledge of how patients can be treated following their stay in hospital and how recovery rates can be improved upon.

“Findings from clinical trials, whether they identify new treatments or rule out methods of care, are vital and rigorous evidence when it comes to changing best medical practice.”

̽��ֱ��trial is being led by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) and ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, in collaboration with Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre ( ̽��ֱ�� of Liverpool) and Aparito Limited.

HEAL-COVID enrols patients when they are discharged from hospital, following their first admission for COVID-19. They are randomised to a treatment and their progress tracked.

Adapted from a press release from Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

A drug used to reduce the risk of blood clots does not help patients recovering from moderate and severe COVID-19, despite this approach being offered to patients, a UK-wide trial, led by Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has found.

This finding is important because it will prevent unnecessary harm occurring to people for no benefit

Charlotte Summers

CUH | Blood thinning drug to treat recovery from severe Covid is not effective

Westend61 (Getty Images)

Hands of senior man with cannulae and band-aid being in intensive care

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New Heart and Lung Research Institute opens

cjb250 — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:31:58 +0000

A major new institute opens today, bringing together the largest concentration of scientists and clinicians in heart and lung medicine in Europe.

Cambridge leads national drug trial to prevent deaths after COVID-19 patients leave hospital

cjb250 — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 00:17:28 +0000

̽��ֱ��clinical trial - named HEAL-COVID - also aims to cut the number of patients being readmitted to hospital with complications as a result of having COVID.

Data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that 29% of patients who are hospitalised due to COVID-19 are readmitted within six months, and more than 12% die within the same period.

HEAL-COVID stands for Helping to Alleviate the Longer-term consequences of COVID-19 and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. It will test a number of safe, existing drugs on patients across the UK in order to find effective treatments.

Study lead Dr Charlotte Summers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Addenbrooke's Hospital, said: "Having survived the trauma of being hospitalised with COVID-19, far too many patients find themselves back in hospital with new or long-term complications.

"Unfortunately, many go on to die in the months after being discharged. This trial is the first of its kind to look at what drugs we could use to reduce the devastating impact on patients."

̽��ֱ��trial is being led by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, in collaboration with Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre at the ̽��ֱ�� of Liverpool, and Aparito Limited.

HEAL-COVID will enrol patients when they are discharged from hospital, following their first admission for COVID-19. They will be randomised and given one of two drugs – apixaban and atorvastatin - and their progress tracked. It's hoped a third drug will be introduced to the trial on the recommendation of the UK COVID Therapeutic Advisory Panel in the coming weeks.

Prof Carrol Gamble, Director of the Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to help people in the post-acute phase of COVID-19. ̽��ֱ��trial is designed to allow us to remove or add-in treatment options in response to patient outcomes. Every effort has been made to design the trial to minimise burden on NHS staff and patients and represents a true team approach to science.”

NHS medical director, Professor Stephen Powis, said: “ ̽��ֱ��NHS led the world in research identifying dexamethasone as the first treatment in the world for COVID-19 and this latest trial could help discover new treatments for the after-effects of COVID, helping to rapidly get world-leading therapies to our patients.

“Long COVID can have a significant impact on someone’s quality of life, which is exactly why in addition to funding research into the condition, the NHS has invested millions into opening dozens of dedicated clinics to help people get back to good health."

Lord Bethell, Minister for Innovation, said: “ ̽��ֱ��UK is a world-leader in developing life-saving treatments in response to the pandemic and this clinical trial is further evidence of this. It is vital we continue our search for the best treatments for COVID-19, particularly to prevent people developing long-term complications after becoming ill.

“Clinical trials platforms like HEAL are showing how innovative designs can mean we can reach just the right candidates, quickly and emphatically. I am massively grateful to the incredible scientists and clinicians at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� who are driving forward this life-saving work, which will play a critical role in putting this pandemic behind us.”

Adapted from a press release by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

A UK-wide study is being launched to reduce the number of people who die in the months following a stay in hospital with COVID-19.

Having survived the trauma of being hospitalised with COVID-19, far too many patients find themselves back in hospital with new or long term complications

Charlotte Summers

Fusion Medical Animation

Visualisation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus

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Tackling COVID-19: Dr Charlotte Summers

jg533 — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 07:00:34 +0000

This article is part of a series in which we speak to some of the many Cambridge researchers tackling COVID-19. For other articles about our latest COVID-19-related research, click here.

Intensive care specialists are like the canaries in a coalmine. They’re often the first to spot something that’s new and worrying; and it was around Christmas time last year that I remember first hearing about doctors in Wuhan, China seeing some unusual symptoms that concerned them in their patients who needed mechanical ventilation. By January I was sure that there was something very nasty heading our way.

This is the very challenge I’ve been trained for. My specialism within intensive care is in respiratory illnesses; and I had previously been part of the preparations for one of the previous waves of a coronavirus - MERS. It’s no exaggeration to say that my career has been exactly about preparing for a pandemic. I couldn’t be sure how bad it would be - but I suspected it was likely to be the biggest challenge in our lifetimes so far.

I was chosen to lead the bronze ICU crisis team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, which meant I was involved in the managerial and organisational challenges alongside the medical ones. We completely reconfigured the entire hospital: our starting position was 32 intensive care beds, and in mid-March there were projections that we would run out of space by the end of the month. In fact, we rapidly increased the number of beds to 84, and thankfully they have never all been full. But at times I was waking up in the night wondering “will it be enough?” It’s not just about equipment; it’s also about the vital human resources, such as having enough suitably trained nurses. We needed to rapidly train nurses about the needs of the Intensive Care Unit.

It is incredibly complex to look after COVID-19 patients in ICU. That’s obviously because of the seriousness of their conditions - but also because we are working in full PPE. It is hot and exhausting, spending hours donned up in full gear; and throughout we have been hearing reports from around the country of medical staff themselves ending up in intensive care. But we have been fortunate in Cambridge that we always had adequate PPE, and that is partly because of wonderful collaboration with the ̽��ֱ��, which helped source supplies.

There is no avoiding the sad fact that many of our patients die. A typical mortality rate in intensive care is around 20%, but with COVID-19 it has been more than 40% in the UK. We are dealing with something on a massive scale. Several of our patients who recovered from the virus were keen to talk to the television crews who visited the hospital, to praise the care they’d been given and some of the innovative treatments we’d been using.

I have never at any stage regretted the career path that brought me here: not for a single minute. In some of those sleepless nights during the crisis, I have worried about whether the emergency plan would deliver in the way we hoped. But I have never doubted that I’m doing what I always intended to do, and I hope that my teams and I have made a real difference to some very poorly people.

̽��ֱ��reaction of the public has been tremendous, too. I’d been so busy that I’d missed the start of the idea of clapping for the NHS on a Thursday night, and it was only the second time it happened that I really noticed it. I’d arrived home about five minutes before eight o’clock, and I went outside with my family. I was completely overwhelmed by the applause and the banging of pots and pans that could be heard throughout my Cambridgeshire village. This is not like me at all, but I ended up in floods of tears. It really did make a difference to know that people were behind us, and that - in these terrible times - the community was coming together.

Charlotte Summers is a ̽��ֱ�� Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine in the Department of Medicine, and a Fellow of Selwyn College. She was awarded a Pilkington Prize in April 2020 for her commitment and excellence in teaching.

A Clap for Carers will take place this Sunday, 5 July at 5pm to mark the NHS’s 72nd birthday.

A version of this article also appears in the Selwyn College Cambridge magazine.

How you can support Cambridge’s COVID-19 research

An intensive care specialist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Charlotte Summers has spent the last few months dealing with the biggest challenge of her career. And after long, exhausting days, the weekly Clap for Carers caught her by surprise.

Charlotte Summers

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̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Charlotte Summers

Professor Duncan Richards appointed as Head of Department of Medicine

£16million gift to support Europe’s largest heart and lung research centre

Read more: "There isn’t anything like it in the UK" - ̽��ֱ��new institute tackling some of the world's biggest killers

Blood thinning drug to treat recovery from severe COVID-19 is not effective

CUH | Blood thinning drug to treat recovery from severe Covid is not effective

New Heart and Lung Research Institute opens

Cambridge leads national drug trial to prevent deaths after COVID-19 patients leave hospital

Tackling COVID-19: Dr Charlotte Summers

This article is part of a series in which we speak to some of the many Cambridge researchers tackling COVID-19. For other articles about our latest COVID-19-related research, click here.

How you can support Cambridge’s COVID-19 research