̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - John Danesh

Cambridge to spearhead £20million alliance to map spread of COVID-19 coronavirus

cjb250 — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:01:10 +0000

Through a £20 million investment administered by the ̽��ֱ��, the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium – comprised of the NHS, Public Health Agencies, Wellcome Sanger Institute, and numerous academic institutions – will deliver large-scale, rapid sequencing of the cause of the disease and share intelligence with hospitals, regional NHS centres and the Government.

Samples from patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 will be sent to a network of sequencing centres which currently includes Belfast, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford and Sheffield.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��, together with the Wellcome Sanger Institute, one of the world’s most advanced centres of genomes and data, will coordinate the collaboration between expert groups across the UK to analyse the genetic code of COVID-19 samples circulating in the UK and in doing so, give public health agencies and clinicians a unique, cutting-edge tool to combat the virus.

By looking at the whole virus genome in people who have had confirmed cases of COVID-19, scientists can monitor changes in the virus at a national scale to understand how the virus is spreading and whether different strains are emerging. This will help clinical care of patients and save lives.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “At a critical moment in history, this new consortium will bring together the UK’s brightest and best scientists to build our understanding of this pandemic, tackle the disease and ultimately, save lives.

“As a Government we are working tirelessly to do all we can to fight COVID-19 to protect as many lives and save as many jobs as possible.”

Whole genome sequencing involves reading the entire genetic code of the virus. It will help scientists understand COVID-19 and its spread. It can also help guide treatments in the future and help monitor the impact of interventions.

Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance said: “ ̽��ֱ��UK is one of the world’s leading destinations for genomics research and development, and I am confident that our best minds, working as part of this consortium, will make vital breakthroughs to help us tackle this disease.”

̽��ֱ��UK Consortium, supported by the Government, including the NHS, Public Health England, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and Wellcome, will enable clinicians and public health teams to rapidly investigate clusters of cases in hospitals, care homes and the community, to understand how the virus is spread and implement appropriate infection control measures.

̽��ֱ��Consortium Director will be Professor Sharon Peacock, Chair of Public Health and Microbiology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Director of the National Infection Service, Public Health England.

“This virus is one of the biggest threats our nation has faced in recent times and crucial to helping us fight it is understanding how it is spreading,” said Professor Peacock. “Harnessing innovative genome technologies will help us tease apart the complex picture of coronavirus spread in the UK, and rapidly evaluate ways to reduce the impact of this disease on our society.”

Dr Ewan Harrison from the Department of Medicine will serve as the Scientific Project Manager. Professor John Danesh from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care will serve on the consortium’s Steering Committee

“We are delighted to be leading this important national programme,” said Professor Ken Smith, Director of the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease. “It builds on years of work on pathogen genomics by Professor Peacock and her group, and synergises with other major COVID-19 programmes being driven from Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��size and reach of this study across many centres in the UK will provide unprecedented insight into the biology of COVID-19 and its impact on the population. It will be essential for understand how this virus spreads and why it causes disease, and for monitoring how it evolves, particularly looking at whether it becomes more or less dangerous.”

Professor Sir Mike Stratton, Director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, added: “Samples from substantial numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19 will be whole genome sequenced and, employing the Sanger Institute’s expertise in genomics and surveillance of infectious diseases, our researchers will collaborate with other leading groups across the country to analyse the data generated and work out how coronavirus is spreading in the UK. This will inform national and international strategies to control the pandemic and prevent further spread.”

Sir Jeremy Farrar, Director of Wellcome, said: “Rapid genome sequencing of COVID-19 will give us unparalleled insights into the spread, distribution and scale of the epidemic in the UK. ̽��ֱ��power of 21st century science to combat this pandemic is something that those going before us could not have dreamt of, and it is incumbent on us to do everything we can to first understand, and then limit, the impact of COVID-19.”

Professor Fiona Watt, Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation said: “ ̽��ֱ��UK is a leader in cutting-edge genome sequencing science. We are now applying specialist expertise in our fight to slow the spread of Coronavirus and accelerate treatments for those affected.

“ ̽��ֱ��ambitious and coordinated response of our research community to the COVID-19 challenge is remarkable. This investment and the findings from the consortium will help prepare the UK and the world for future pandemics.”

How you can support Cambridge's COVID-19 research effort

Donate to support COVID-19 research at Cambridge

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is to take a leading role in a major national effort to help understand and control the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) announced today by the Government and the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser.

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Coronavirus COVID-19

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Cambridge-led collaborations aim to tackle global food security and public health challenges

cjb250 — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:00:46 +0000

̽��ֱ��two collaborations are focused on food security in India and public health in Bangladesh and will see researchers from the UK and developing countries working together as equal partners.

̽��ֱ��awards are part of the Global Challenges Research Fund, which aims to build upon research knowledge in the UK, and strengthen capacity overseas, to help address challenges, informed by expressed need in the developing countries.

Jo Johnson, Minister for Universities and Science, said: “From healthcare to green energy, the successful projects receiving funding today highlight the strength of the UK’s research base and our leadership in helping developing countries tackle some of the greatest global issues of our time.

“At a time when the pace of scientific discovery and innovation is quickening, we are placing science and research at the heart of our Industrial Strategy to build on our strengths and maintain our status as science powerhouse.”

Andrew Thompson, GCRF Champion at Research Councils UK, said: “ ̽��ֱ��37 projects announced today build research capacity both here in the UK and in developing countries to address systemic development challenges, from African agriculture to sustainable cities, clean oceans, and green energy, to improved healthcare, food security, and gender equality.”

TIGR²ESS (Transforming India’s Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies)

Lead: Professor Howard Griffiths (Department of Plant Sciences)

Talk of a second Green Revolution has been around for a while. ̽��ֱ��first – in India and other developing countries, in the 1960s – brought a massive increase in crop production that sustained the country’s mushrooming population. But now there are new pressures – not just the need to produce even more food, but to reduce the damage done by excessive use of pesticides, fertiliser and water in the face of climate change.

TIGR²ESS, a collaboration between UK and Indian scientists, seeks to frame the big question – how to bring about a second Green revolution – in all its breadth and depth. India is developing fast– agriculture needs to take account of urbanisation, for example, which has drawn so many away from the land. Smallholder farmers- particularly women- need smart technologies to sustain crop yields, and improve health and nutrition.

̽��ֱ��TIGR²ESS programme will assess these options, as well as supporting basic research programmes, and providing advice to local communities. There will be many opportunities for academic exchanges, mentoring and career development for scientists from both countries. Links with the relevant government ministries in India, plus industrial connections built into the programme, will hopefully turn the best recommendations into reality.

“We are extremely pleased that the TIGR²ESS programme will help to deliver our vision for partnerships with institutions in India to improve crop science and food security,” says Professor Howard Griffiths, Co-Chair of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Strategic Initiative in Global Food Security.

“Agriculture is feminizing. We need to ensure that state resources and services, and knowledge resources, are equally accessible to women farmers,” adds Dr V Selvam, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, India, one of the collaborators.

CAPABLE (Cambridge Programme to Assist Bangladesh in Lifestyle and Environmental risk reduction)

Lead: Professor John Danesh (Department of Public Health and Primary Care)

Gathering a big group of people and studying their health in the long term can uncover game-changing facts. ̽��ֱ��British Doctors’ Study, for example, which began in 1951, revealed that smoking causes lung cancer. Imagine if the same could be done in a country facing a perfect storm of chronic health problems.

Bangladesh is admired worldwide for its success in cutting child mortality and fertility rate, yet it faces an onslaught of chronic diseases that arise from an interplay of factors ranging from arsenic-contaminated drinking water to iron-deficient foods and from air pollution to the rise of the western lifestyle.

CAPABLE has the ambitious goal of recruiting 100,000 people from landscapes ranging from the green paddy fields of rural Bangladesh to the slums of the densest city in the world – Dhaka. From their data, engineers, sociologists, health researchers and a host of other disciplines will try to understand how the risk factors interact – and build a model that can be used to test interventions before they are implemented.

“We aim to help develop simple, scalable and effective solutions to control major environmental and lifestyle risk factors in Bangladesh,” says Scientific Director of the CAPABLE programme Dr Rajiv Chowdhury from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Two major research collaborations led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have been awarded almost £15 million in funding, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, Jo Johnson MP, announced today during a visit to Cambridge’s Sainsbury Laboratory.

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NP India burning 60

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‘Good’ cholesterol doesn’t always lower heart attack risk

cjb250 — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 09:48:43 +0000

̽��ֱ��discovery, published today in Science, could move researchers away from potentially ineffective HDL-raising drugs to treat coronary heart disease, and lead to the development of new treatments, helping to reduce their risk of heart attack.

̽��ֱ��researchers studied people with a rare genetic mutation in the SCARB1 gene, called the P376L variant, which causes the body to have high levels of ‘good’ HDL-C. High levels of ‘good’ cholesterol are commonly associated with reduced risk for coronary heart disease. Challenging this view, the researchers unexpectedly found that people with the rare mutation, who had increased levels of HDL-C, had an 80 per cent increased relative risk of the disease – a figure almost equivalent to the increased risk caused by smoking.

Coronary heart disease is responsible for nearly 70,000 deaths every year, almost entirely through heart attacks, making it the UK’s single biggest killer. ̽��ֱ��disease involves the build-up of fatty material, or plaque, in the coronary artery walls. If large quantities accumulate in the vessel walls, blood flow to the heart can become restricted or blocked, increasing risk of a heart attack.

̽��ֱ��international team of scientists included BHF-funded researchers Professor Sir Nilesh Samani at the ̽��ֱ�� of Leicester and Professor John Danesh at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. They initially looked at the DNA of 328 individuals with very high levels of HDL-C in the blood and compared them to 398 people with relatively low HDL-C. As the P376L variant they found was so rare, they then looked at its effects on HDL-C and heart disease in more than half a million additional people.

Dr Adam Butterworth, from the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and co-investigator of this study, said: “We found that people carrying a rare genetic mutation causing higher levels of the so-called ‘good’ HDL-cholesterol are, unexpectedly, at greater risk of heart disease. This discovery could lead to new drugs that improve the processing of HDL-C to prevent devastating heart attacks.

“Large-scale collaborative research like this paves the way for further studies of rare mutations that might be significantly increasing people’s risk of a deadly heart attack. These discoveries also give researchers the knowledge we need to develop better treatments.”

Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the BHF, added said: “This is an important study that sheds light on one of the major puzzles relating to cholesterol and heart disease, which is that despite strong evidence showing HDL-C reduces heart disease risk, clinical trials on the effects of HDL-C-raising drugs have been disappointing.

“These new findings suggest that the way in which HDL-C is handled by the body is more important in determining risk of a heart attack than the levels of HDL-C in the blood. Only by understanding the underlying biology that links HDL-C with heart attacks can we develop new treatments to prevent them. These unexpected findings pave the way for further research into the SCARB1 pathway to identify new treatments to reduce heart attacks in the future.”

Additional funding for the study in the USA came from the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institute of Health.

Reference
Zanoni, P et al. Rare Variant in Scavenger Receptor BI raises HDL Cholesterol and Increases Risk of Coronary Heart Disease. Science; 10 Mar 2016; DOI: 10.1126/science.aad3517

Adapted from a press release from the British Heart Foundation

Some people with high levels of ‘good’ high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) are at increased risk of coronary heart disease, contrary to earlier evidence that people with more HDL-C are usually at lower heart disease risk. This finding comes from an international study involving researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

Large-scale collaborative research like this paves the way for further studies of rare mutations that might be significantly increasing people’s risk of a deadly heart attack

Adam Butterworth

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Combination of diabetes and heart disease substantially reduces life expectancy

cjb250 — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 15:00:36 +0000

Researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge analysed more than 135,000 deaths which occurred during prolonged follow-up of almost 1.2 million participants in population cohorts. They used this to provide estimates of reductions in life expectancy associated with a history of different combinations of diabetes, stroke, and/or myocardial infarction heart attack – so-called cardiometabolic diseases. Their results are published today in JAMA ( ̽��ֱ��Journal of the American Medical Association).

̽��ֱ��team analysed data from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration (ERFC) from almost 700,000 participants recruited between 1960 and 2007, taken from a total of 91 prospective cohorts that have recorded mortality during prolonged follow-up. They compared the results with those from the UK Biobank, a prospective cohort of just under 500,000 participants recruited between 2006 and 2010.

Previous studies have estimated that around 10 million adults in the United States and the European Union are living with more than one cardiometabolic illness. In this new study, the researchers found that around one person in a hundred from the cohorts they analysed had two or more conditions.

“We showed that having a combination of diabetes and heart disease is associated with a substantially lower life expectancy,” says Dr Emanuele Di Angelantonio from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “An individual in their sixties who has both conditions has an average reduction in life expectancy of about 15 years.”

̽��ֱ��researchers estimated that at the age of 60 years, men with any two of the cardiometabolic conditions studied would on average have 12 years of reduced life expectancy, and men with all three conditions would have 14 years of reduced life expectancy. For women at the age of 60 years, the corresponding estimates were 13 years and 16 years of reduced life expectancy.

̽��ֱ��figures were even more dramatic for patients at a younger age. At the age of 40 years, men with all three cardiometabolic conditions would on average have 23 years of reduced life expectancy; for women at the same age, the corresponding estimate was 20 years.

“Our results highlight the importance of preventing heart disease and stroke amongst patients with diabetes, and likewise averting diabetes amongst heart disease patients,” says Professor John Danesh, Head of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and British Heart Foundation Professor.

“Although patients with more than one condition constitute only a small proportion of the population at large, in real terms the numbers are not insignificant. Measures aimed at reducing diabetes and heart disease amongst this group could have a dramatic impact on their lives. However, at the same time, we must not lose sight of tackling these serious conditions within the wider population.”

̽��ֱ��work was funded by the Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, the National Institute of Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Resource Centre and the European Research Council.

Reference
̽��ֱ��Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration. Association of Cardiometabolic Multimorbidity with Mortality. JAMA; 7 July 2015.

Life expectancy for people with a history of both cardiovascular disease and diabetes is substantially lower than for people with just one condition or no disease, a new study harnessing the power of ‘big data’ has concluded.

Our results highlight the importance of preventing heart disease and stroke amongst patients with diabetes, and likewise averting diabetes amongst heart disease patients

John Danesh

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̽��ֱ��Academy of Medical Sciences announces new Fellows for 2015

jeh98 — Mon, 11 May 2015 09:38:09 +0000

Forty-eight researchers from across the UK, including five Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� academics, have been recognised for their contribution to the advancement of medical science by election to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Academy Fellows are elected for excellence in medical research, for innovative application of scientific knowledge or for their conspicuous service to healthcare. ̽��ֱ��expertise of the new Fellows includes addictions, anaesthesia, age-related diseases and animal biology.

̽��ֱ��Fellows elected from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge are:

Professor Roger Barker – Professor of Clinical Neuroscience and Honorary Consultant Neurologist, Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Department of Clinical Neurosciences

Professor Sarah Bray – Professor of Developmental Biology, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience

Professor John Danesh – BHF Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine and Head of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care

Professor Fiona Gribble – Professor of Endocrine Physiology, Department of Clinical Biochemistry

Professor David Klenerman – Professor of Biophysical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry

Professor Sir John Tooke PMedSci, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences said: “ ̽��ֱ��Academy of Medical Sciences champions the excellence and diversity of medical science in the UK, and this is clearly demonstrated in this year’s cohort of new Fellows. Their broad range of expertise and fantastic achievements to date shows just how strong the Fellowship is – from the NHS knowledge of Sir Andrew Dillon to the policy experience of Professor Christl Donnelly. Their election is a much deserved honour, and I know they will contribute greatly to the Academy. I am delighted to welcome them all to the Fellowship, and look forward to working with them in the future.”

̽��ֱ��independent Academy of Medical Sciences promotes advances in medical science and campaigns to ensure these are translated into benefits for patients. ̽��ֱ��Academy’s Fellows are the United Kingdom’s leading medical scientists from hospitals, academia, industry and the public service.

View the full list of new Fellows.

̽��ֱ��Academy of Medical Sciences has announced the election of its new Fellows, including five Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� academics.

̽��ֱ��Academy of Medical Sciences

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Million man study examines long-term effects of blocking inflammation

cjb250 — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 00:00:11 +0000

̽��ֱ��finding is one of the outcomes of research using a powerful new genetic tool that mimics the behaviour of certain anti-inflammatory drugs. ̽��ֱ��technique allows researchers to study the effects of inhibiting interleukin-1, a master regulator of inflammation, on a range of different outcomes not yet investigated in clinical trials.

Interleukin-1 plays a central role in regulating the body’s inflammatory response, setting off a cascade of signals within the body against infection and other damage. Certain drugs, such as anakinra, reduce inflammation by blocking interleukin-1. This action also occurs naturally in individuals who carry particular genetic variants.

Although inflammation is meant to be protective, a disproportionate response can be damaging to the body – for example, causing potentially life-threatening symptoms seen in severe cases of influenza infection. It also plays a crucial role in a number of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Although scientists suspected that it would also be likely to increase risk of cardiovascular disease, until now little evidence existed to confirm or disprove this suggestion.

To examine the long-term implications of blocking this pathway, researchers from the Interleukin-1 Genetics Consortium developed a ‘genetic score’ to combine the effects of two of these natural genetic variants. They looked at the effect of this score on key biological indicators of inflammation, comparing it to the effect of anakinra. They investigated this score in relation to several medical conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and coronary heart disease by analysing data from over a million individuals.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that individuals who carried the genetic variants – in other words, had naturally-occurring interleukin-1 inhibition – showed a decreased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. This was as anticipated: anakinra is one of the drugs used to treat the condition. ̽��ֱ��variants had no impact on the risks of developing type 2 diabetes or ischaemic stroke.

Surprisingly, however, blocking interleukin-1 increased an individual’s risk of developing coronary heart disease: the risk of a heart attack was 15% higher in people who inherited a greater tendency to block interleukin-1. ̽��ֱ��researchers also observed raised levels of LDL-cholesterol – so-called ‘bad cholesterol’ – in these individuals, which may explain some of this increased risk.

Blocking interleukin-1 also increased an individual’s risk of developing abdominal aortic aneurysm, a swelling of the main blood vessel that leads away from the heart, down through the abdomen to the rest of the body; one in 50 deaths amongst men over 65 years of age is due to such an aneurysm rupturing.

Although anakinra has been tested in clinical trials and shown to be effective in treating symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, there has been little research into its effect on coronary heart disease. This is, in part, because of the complexity of studying heart disease and the number of individuals and length of study required in order for an effect to become apparent. By studying naturally-occurring interleukin-1 inhibition, the researchers have been able to infer that the drug could potentially elevate the risk of coronary heart disease and abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Professor John Danesh from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, who leads the consortium, says: “Drugs such as anakinra are licensed for the treatment of inflammatory conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, but we know little about the long-term health consequences of blocking interleukin-1.

“Our approach was to use ‘nature’s randomised trial’ to get answers currently beyond the resolution of drug trials. Our genetic analysis suggests, surprisingly, that blocking interleukin-1 over the long-term could increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases.”

Dr Daniel Freitag, lead author of the study, also at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, adds: “ ̽��ֱ��common view is that inflammation promotes the development of heart disease – we’ve shown that the truth is clearly more complicated. We need to be careful that drugs like anakinra that aim to tackle rheumatoid arthritis by inhibiting interleukin-1 do not have unintended consequences on an individual’s risk of heart disease.”

Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, which helped fund the study, said: “It is important to remember that this is not a study of an anti-arthritis drug but a gene that can mimic its effects. ̽��ֱ��effects of a gene are lifelong, whereas a drug only affects a person while it is being taken.

“Nevertheless the study suggests that patients who are prescribed anakinra should have their cardiovascular risk factors carefully managed by their doctor.”

̽��ֱ��research was funded by the Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, the European Research Council and the European Commission Framework Programme.

Reference
̽��ֱ��Interleukin-1 Genetics Consortium. Cardiometabolic consequences of genetic up-regulation of the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist: Mendelian randomisation analysis. Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology. 26 February, 2015.

Inflammation – the body’s response to damaging stimuli – may have a protective effect against cardiovascular disease, according to a study published today in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

̽��ֱ��common view is that inflammation promotes the development of heart disease – we’ve shown that the truth is clearly more complicated

Daniel Freitag

Gabriela Pinto

Heart pulse

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̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge to establish two new Blood and Transplant Research Units

sjr81 — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:07:08 +0000

Cambridge has received funding for two units under the £12.1 million scheme. ̽��ֱ��Units will be centres of excellence in human experimental medicine related to blood and transplantation and will have a strong focus on translation. They will support the delivery of objectives and functions of NHS Blood and Transplant, by creating an environment where world-class research, focused on the organisation’s needs, can thrive, and will provide high quality research evidence to inform decision making at NHS Blood and Transplant.

Speaking about the partnership funding awards, Dr Lorna Williamson, Medical and Research Director at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "I am delighted that the Department of Health, through the NIHR, continues to recognise the importance of blood and transplantation research. This funding supports ambitious experimental research projects that will inform future clinical practice for services that NHS Blood and Transplant provides to the NHS and beyond."

Professor Andrew Bradley, Head of the Department of Surgery at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, in partnership with Professor Andrew Fisher from Newcastle ̽��ֱ��, will establish a unit focused on organ donation and transplantation. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge/Newcastle unit will focus on understanding how to improve the quality of organs prior to donation and will develop and evaluate novel approaches and technologies that increase the availability of suitable donor organs for transplantation, while improving graft survival.

Professor John Danesh from the Cambridge Institute of Public Health will lead a unit focused on donor health and genomics, a new area of research for NHS Blood and Transplant. ̽��ֱ��Unit will address major questions about the health of blood donors and produce evidence-based strategies to enhance donor safety while ensuring sustainability of blood supply.

̽��ֱ��Units will be based at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals Partnership, and located within the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the centrepiece of the largest biotech cluster outside the United States.

Professor Bradley said: “Blood and transplantation research is vital to improving the quality, safety and availability of donation and transplantation. These two new NIHR units will play an important role in this area and inform NHS policy and practice in the future. They will further add to and capitalise on continuing growth of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.”

Professor Dame Sally C Davies FRS FMedSci, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health, said: “ ̽��ֱ��NHS and its patients rely on an efficient supply of blood and organ donations and, increasingly, stem cells and genomics. We want researchers to explore how to improve the quality and effectiveness of these donations, therapies and technologies. ̽��ֱ��NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Units will involve NHSBT in partnerships with leading university teams so that we can accelerate and translate advances in research into benefits for donors and patients.”

A third unit is due to open at UCL ( ̽��ֱ�� College London), led by Dr Karl Peggs and focused on Stem Cells and Immunotherapies.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has received £7.9 million from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to fund Blood and Transplant Research Units. Each Unit is a partnership between ̽��ֱ�� researchers and NHS Blood and Transplant, and will begin in October 2015.

Blood and transplantation research is vital to improving the quality, safety and availability of donation and transplantation.

Andrew Bradley

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Middle aged diabetics can die six years earlier

ns480 — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:00:31 +0000

Diabetes is already known to approximately double the risk of heart attacks and strokes, but these new findings show that people with type 2 diabetes are also at greater risk of dying from several other diseases, including cancer and infection. ̽��ֱ��research, funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), highlights the importance of preventing diabetes, which affects more than 2.5 million people in the UK and nearly 285 million people worldwide.

Scientists from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration - a consortium led by Professor John Danesh, Head of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care - analysed data on 820,900 people, each of whom was monitored for about a decade. Even after accounting for other major risk factors such as age, sex, obesity and smoking, the researchers found that people with diabetes are at increased risk of death from several common cancers, infections, mental disorders, and liver, digestive, kidney and lung diseases.

About 60 per cent of the reduced life expectancy in people with diabetes is attributable to blood vessel diseases (such as heart attacks and strokes), with the remainder attributable to these other conditions. Only a small part of these associations are explained by obesity, blood pressure, or high levels of fat in the blood - conditions which often co-exist with diabetes.

Professor John Danesh, Principal Investigator of the study, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: "These findings broaden and intensify the need for efforts to prevent and understand diabetes. In particular, the findings highlight the need for more detailed study of whether treatments against diabetes may also be relevant to lowering the risk of a range of diseases, including common cancers."

̽��ֱ��collaborative study, which involved over 250 scientists from 25 countries, also suggests that people with diabetes may be at increased risk of death from intentional self-harm - a finding which the scientists say requires further study, including investigation of the possible link between diabetes and depression.

̽��ֱ��study, which was funded by the MRC, British Heart Foundation and Pfizer, is published in the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday (02 March).

Having diabetes in mid-life may reduce a person’s life expectancy by an average of six years, according to a large, multinational study coordinated by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

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̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - John Danesh

Cambridge to spearhead £20million alliance to map spread of COVID-19 coronavirus

How you can support Cambridge's COVID-19 research effort

Cambridge-led collaborations aim to tackle global food security and public health challenges

TIGR2ESS (Transforming India’s Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies)

Lead: Professor Howard Griffiths (Department of Plant Sciences)

CAPABLE (Cambridge Programme to Assist Bangladesh in Lifestyle and Environmental risk reduction)

Lead: Professor John Danesh (Department of Public Health and Primary Care)

‘Good’ cholesterol doesn’t always lower heart attack risk

Combination of diabetes and heart disease substantially reduces life expectancy

̽��ֱ��Academy of Medical Sciences announces new Fellows for 2015

Million man study examines long-term effects of blocking inflammation

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge to establish two new Blood and Transplant Research Units

Middle aged diabetics can die six years earlier

TIGR²ESS (Transforming India’s Green Revolution by Research and Empowerment for Sustainable food Supplies)