Finger length clue to motor neuron disease

People with the commonest form of motor neuron disease (MND) called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are more likely to have relatively long ring fingers, reveals research from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s.

MND is a serious neurodegenerative disease that results in progressive paralysis and eventual death from respiratory failure. On average, a person survives two years after being diagnosed. The cause of the disease is still mainly unknown, although prenatal factors are thought to be important.

Genetic factors are known to contribute to MND.  In both men and women, motor neurons are dependent on testosterone for survival. Men are more likely than women to develop MND and are also exposed to higher levels of testosterone before birth.

The scientists, led by Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi from the IoP, suspected that it was the high prenatal testosterone level rather than male sex itself that was a risk factor for the development of MND in later life, perhaps because this makes the adult motor neurons less sensitive to testosterone.

The researchers looked at the ratio of the lengths of a person’s index finger to ring finger – known as the 2D:4D ratio. This is calculated by dividing the length of the index finger of the right hand by the length of the ring finger.

A low ratio means the ring finger is relatively long compared with the index finger and is thought to be an indicator of high prenatal testosterone levels in men and women (and is probably the reason why on average men have longer ring fingers than index fingers, while women often do not).

The study involved 110 participants with useable results and used a digital camera to photograph hands, finger length was measured and ratios were calculated between fingers.

The 2D:4D ratio was consistently lower for people who had the ALS form of MND compared to those without.

Professor of Al-Chalabi said:  ‘This work suggests that even before birth, motor neurons can be affected in ways that make them more vulnerable in later life. Finger lengths seem to be linked to the balance of hormones in the womb, so what we see as a trend towards longer ring fingers is just a marker for the hormone balance during pregnancy. The same trend is seen in sporty people and men, which is why this can never show someone will get motor neuron disease, it is just a clue as to what might be making motor neurons more fragile.’

‘Low index-to-ring finger length ratio in sporadic ALS supports prenatally defined motor neuronal vulnerability’ is published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/82/6/635.full?sid=83b5f70c-b897-4e71-b7c2-b64cbdcd5768

Notes to editors

King's College London

King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11' and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,500 students (of whom more than 9,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,000 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

For further information please contact the Institute of Psychiatry Press Office on 0207 848 5377 or iop-pr@kcl.ac.uk

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Leading role for CMCI in multi million pound project

The Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries (CMCI) at King’s will play a major role in a £4 million project to build new partnerships and commercial opportunities between academia and the ‘Creative Economy’.
CMCI joins a consortium of universities, artistic and cultural organisations and businesses to create one of four ‘Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy’. Each of the four hubs has received an equal share of £16m funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
CMCI will form part of ‘Creativeworks London’ which will focus on the Creative Economy in the capital, liaising with numerous industry partners including IBM, the V&A, BBC and the British Library. Over the next four years the project will examine London’s previous and current attempts to implement creative economy strategies as well as examining the special requirements of London’s digital economy. Findings will be reported to business, policy makers and government.
CMCI Director, Professor Andy Pratt, said: ‘This is a fantastic opportunity to look at the dynamic practices of the creative economy embedded in economies and communities – but with global reach.’
Professor Rick Rylance, CEO of the AHRC and Chair of the assessment panel said: ‘The successful consortia emerged from an exceptionally strong field. We congratulate them, look forward to working closely with them over the next four years and to welcoming the results of their work.’

For media enquiries please contact Anna Mitchell, Press Officer at King’s College London on 0207 848 3092 or at anna.i.mitchell@kcl.ac.uk. 

For more information on King's College London, see our 'King's in Brief' page.

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World-class imaging centre launched

Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science at Imanova

Imanova, a new state-of-the-art imaging centre, was formally launched this week at a showcase event attended by Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science, and representatives from the founding organisations.

Imanova is a pioneering public-private collaboration formed by King’s College London, University College London, Imperial College London and the Medical Research Council. From a site previously owned by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, Imanova now plans to become an internationally renowned imaging centre and partner of choice for industry looking to use its world-class imaging facilities.

At the launch David Willetts MPhighlighted the Government’s support for the collaborative approach that Imanova is pioneering. He said: ‘The Government’s life sciences strategy underlined the importance of collaboration between the research base and industry as a means of driving growth and innovation. Imanova is an excellent example of this. It brings together leading academics and businesses to accelerate drug discovery and development, and is also attracting overseas investment.’

With both PET and MRI scanning in the same centre, Imanova is unique in the UK. This allows researchers to image not only the activity of a medicine in the body, but also its effect on the body systems being studied. As a result researchers can see at an early stage if an investigational medicine is being effective, and discontinue development if it is not. These facilities will help to catalyse translational research, and offer the potential to significantly shorten drug development times.

Kevin Cox, Imanova CEO, said: ‘‘This is a novel collaboration, both between leading academic institutions and between academia and industry, which has been set up to act as a catalyst across the innovation pipeline. Our aim is to accelerate the translation of great science into clinically and commercially relevant products and services.

‘For example, we are currently introducing a new biomarker for schizophrenia to help in novel drug discovery. In oncology we’re implementing novel imaging probes to measure key disease pathways, such as angiogenesis and apoptosis, which will provide invaluable information for the development of new anticancer drugs. This could transform drug discovery in these diseases.’

Since opening last October Imanova has grown from strength to strength. The centre is gaining a firm standing in academic research and the company is now securing its first private partnerships with industry. 

For further media information please contact Emma Reynolds, Press Officer emma.reynolds@kcl.ac.uk

For further information about King’s, visit our ‘King’s in Brief’ page.

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Parade of Stars

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'Octopus' provides cancer breakthrough

Cancer cells

Researchers at King’s have achieved a breakthrough in understanding a biological process which causes many common cancers, including lung and breast cancer. The achievement opens up new possibilities for the development of improved cancer drugs. The findings are published in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Working with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Central Laser Facility (CLF) and Computational Science and Engineering Department (CSED), the team solved a puzzle that has confounded scientists for more than 30 years.

The researchers have discovered a previously unknown molecular shape which is partly responsible for transmitting the signals that instruct cells within the body when to grow and divide. It is the uncontrolled growth of cells that causes cancer to spread through the body. Until now, not enough was known about how these molecules, known as epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFRs), transmit messages in the development of cancer. This means drugs designed to stop them transmitting these cancer-inducing signals have also been limited in their effectiveness.

Professor Peter Parker, Head of the Division of Cancer Studies, is the Principal Investigator at King’s College London on the research. Dr George Santis, head of the department of Asthma Allergy and Respiratory Science at King’s, will help take this work forward.  He said: ‘Translating knowledge derived from scientific research into successful clinical therapies is exemplified by EGFR and its dysregulation in cancer. The use of new biologicals that inhibit EGFR has proved transformational in managing solid tumours, particularly lung cancer where conventional anti-cancer treatment reached a plateau. There is however still much we don't understand regarding EGFR and its role in malignancy; this breakthrough provides the foundation for novel ways to assess EGFR in cells and tissues that may lead to new insights on how to target EGFR to treat human cancers’.

Project leader Dr Marisa Martin-Fernandez, a CLF scientist based at the Research Complex at Harwell (RCaH), says: “A number of drugs aim to limit EGFRs’ role in spreading cancer but because human EGFRs haven’t been well understood, the drugs are designed simply to block every signal they transmit. But the human body is good at compensating for losses of function so it finds ways of bypassing blocked receptors to allow cancerous cells to grow again. Unfortunately the current drugs therefore all too often only provide temporary remission.

“Our breakthrough will provide a better platform of knowledge on structure variation of EGFRs in vivo. Potentially this enables the pharmaceutical industry to develop drugs that target EGFRs’ cancer-related functions more specifically but also allow the receptors to go on performing other tasks. This makes it less likely that the body will try to compensate for total loss of function.”

The team has also shown that this shape shares key features with the better understood EGFR molecules in fruit flies, providing clues on how EGFRs have changed during evolution.

Details of the breakthrough are presented in the paper ‘Human EGFR aligned on the plasma membrane adopts key features of Drosophila* EGFR asymmetry’, and are featured on the front cover of the current edition of the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology published today.

The work was carried out with funding from Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

Notes to editors

The BBSRC award is a £5.2M ‘LoLa’ (longer and larger) grant secured jointly by STFC and King’s College London in 2009. The research summarised in this release represents just one aspect of the work being supported by this funding.

OCTOPUS (Optics Clustered to Output Unique Solutions) is a new concept in laser imaging, in which multiple light sources are linked to multiple imaging stations allowing a combination of techniques to be brought to bear on the samples under investigation. More information can be found here. http://www.clf.stfc.ac.uk/Facilities/Lasers+for+Science+Facility/Functional+Biosystems+Imaging+Group/OCTOPUS/14219.aspx

*Drosophila is the Latin name for the fruit fly. Fruit flies are often used in biology to understand more about the inner workings of cells.

King's College London

King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11' and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,500 students (of whom more than 9,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,000 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King’s has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King’s Health Partners. King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org 

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Unravelling the Mysteries of Medieval Gough Map

Digitised Gough Map

The secrets embedded in one of the earliest maps to show Britain in its geographically recognised form have been uncovered, as researchers launch the newly digitised Gough Map.

Through the Linguistic Geographies project, team members from the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London have created a fully interactive, digital, online version of the enigmatic Gough Map which uses fluid zooming, panning and pop-ups to deliver the Map image at an enormous size, giving a level of detail that is considerably better than could be seen with the naked eye.

The Gough Map is drawn on two pieces of sheepskin and is around 45 ins long. It shows Great Britain on its side, before the convention of maps pointing north, and details green rivers and red-roofed cathedrals.

Paul Vetch, from the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s, said: ‘The Gough Map is a fascinating document from any number of different disciplinary perspectives - history, linguistics, palaeography, cartography, to name but a few - and our aim was to try and deliver it in a way which would make it available for as many modes of interrogation as possible.’

Now the digitised Map has enabled the team to offer a re-interpretation of its origins, purpose and production, which have up to now been shrouded in mystery. It had previously been thought the Map dated back to 1360, but detailed analysis of the small differences in English handwriting over the period has shown that it was actually first produced in 1375.

It has also been revealed that the Map is the result of the work of two scribes from different centuries, not one as previously thought, and the amendments and alterations made by each give fascinating insights into the political and sociological trends of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

The text written by the original scribe is best preserved in Scotland and the area north of Hadrian's Wall, whereas the text written by the reviser is found in south-eastern and central England, demonstrating the shift in political power. London and York are both labelled in gold lettering and lavish illustrations decorate the names of the many other medieval towns.

The buildings in Scotland do not have windows or doors, whereas buildings in the revised area of the map, south of Hadrian’s Wall, have both.

The Department of Digital Humanities is an international leader in the application of technology in the arts and humanities, and in the social sciences. Paul Vetch said: ‘One of our primary aims was to make this hugely significant Map accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Using web-based maps (like Google Maps or Bing) has become second nature for most of us now, and we aimed to publish the Map online in a format that would be equally intuitive and easy for people to use.’

The fully searchable Map allows users to browse by place name - both current and medieval - but also by geographical features. Highlighting a location enables viewers to click on it and bring up a fact box revealing all sorts of information from geographical appearance to the etymology of the place name - even a cross reference to the real Google maps.

The team now hopes that the digitised Gough Map will be used by other researchers to develop further lines of enquiry on the Map and on other medieval maps and mapmaking.

The Map can be found at http://www.goughmap.org/. The AHRC-funded project was a joint collaboration between Queen’s University Belfast, King’s College London and the Bodleian Library.

Notes to editors

For further information please contact Anna Mitchell, Press Officer, on 0207 848 3092 or email anna.1.mitchell@kcl.ac.uk

For more information about King's College London  see our 'About us' page.

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EU commitment needed on preventing mass atrocities

The EU needs to strengthen its commitment, and its strategic toolkit, to prevent mass atrocities, such as those perpetrated in Syria, according to a new report by the Task Force on the EU Prevention of Mass Atrocities, co-chaired by Professor Christoph Meyer, released today.
The report reveals that mass atrocity prevention is rarely mentioned in core EU documents despite the EU’s commitment to protecting populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, as well as its pledge to promote human rights. The EU’s development, conflict prevention and crisis management policies, for example, do not sufficiently focus on mass atrocities, even though these crimes threaten the achievement of the EU’s core goals.
Christoph Meyer, co-Chair of the Task Force and Professor of European and International Politics at King’s, said the EU’s intelligence gathering and warning functions do not systematically take into account the possibility of these types of crimes taking place.
‘The EU has the expertise, the staying power and the resources to substantially reduce the risks of mass atrocities occurring. In order to do this the EU needs to stop prioritising current crises and improve its ability to act early, before violence has started. This means not only long-term prevention, but also becoming more responsive to warnings, especially when these warnings are politically inconvenient.’
The Task Force calls for the EU to make an explicit commitment to prevent mass atrocities and to incorporate this into the next update of the European Security Strategy as well as existing strategies for human rights and conflict prevention.
Dr Chiara de Franco, the Co-ordinator of the Task Force and Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s, said: ‘Our report is a realistic assessment of what the EU could do, without great cost, to improve its capacity to prevent mass atrocities.’
According to the report the prevention of mass atrocities should be incorporated into all of the EU’s relevant activities, including its trade and development policies, through the systematic assessment of risk factors.
This should include the prevention of these types of crimes being a standard agenda item in the EU’s dialogues with third countries that are at particular risk.
Furthermore the report says arms should not be exported if there is a substantial risk that these would enable mass atrocities to be committed.
The Task Force recognises that in cases when prevention has failed sometimes military force will be needed to protect civilians from mass atrocities. However, neither the EU nor member states are currently well-equipped to launch and effectively conduct mass atrocity response operations. The Task Force asserts that any such operations must be both legal and legitimate.
The report contains six recommendations for how the EU could be better able to prevent such atrocities in the future. They are:
1.  The EU should explicitly commit to preventing mass atrocities, matching its commitment to promoting human rights.
2.  The EU should cultivate expertise in mass atrocity prevention and warning to enable it to focus resources and political attention on the countries and regions where they are most needed.
3.  The EU’s warning-response system should be strengthened to improve early action against long and short-term mass atrocity risks.
4.  The EU should employ a ‘mass atrocity lens’ by systematically incorporating the risk that mass atrocities could occur into its relations with foreign countries.
5.  The EU’s capabilities to react quickly to mass atrocities should be improved by better contingency planning for situations of imminent and/or ongoing mass atrocities.
6.  The EU should co-operate more closely with others to prevent mass atrocities. This should involve support for community-based early warning and response, building the capacities of other regional organisations such as NATO, the African Union and the United Nations.
Karen E. Smith, co-Chair of the Task Force and Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), said: ‘Mass atrocities often need a different response than conflict prevention and this is why it is important that the EU does not conflate the two. In conflict the two parties are equal, but where mass atrocities are being committed one party is culpable and must be stopped.’

Notes to editors

Professor Meyer is available for media interview. Please contact Anna Mitchell, PR Manager (Arts and Sciences), on anna.i.mitchell@kcl.ac.uk or 0207 848 3092.

View the report: The EU and the Prevention of Mass Atrocities - An Assessment of Strengths and Weaknesses
The Task Force on the EU prevention of Mass Atrocities was established by the Budapest Centre for the International Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities in 2011 to review the capabilities of the European Union in responding to threats of mass atrocities.

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Stem cell treatment to prevent leukaemia returning is a step closer

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Stem cells

Cancer Research UK-funded researchers at King’s College London have identified a way of eliminating leukaemic stem cells, which could in the future lead to new treatments that may enable complete remission for leukaemia patients.    An early study in mice has shown that leukaemic stem cells can be abolished by suppressing two proteins found in the body.  Leukaemic stem cells sustain the disease and are likely to be responsible for relapse, so elimination of these cells is believed to be key for achieving complete remission.  These encouraging findings highlight the two proteins as potential therapeutic targets to prevent the most aggressive forms of leukaemia returning.  
The study, funded by Cancer Research UK and Leukaemia Lymphoma Research, is published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell.  King’s scientists looked at leukaemic stem cells found in a type of leukaemia that involves mutations of the MLL gene. This accounts for around 70 per cent of infant leukaemias and 10 per cent of adult acute leukaemias. The prognosis for MLL in children is not good – only 50 per cent survive past two years after receiving standard treatment. The protein Bmi1 was already known to play a key role in the survival and proliferation of various cancer stem cells. But this study has for the first time shown that, although the protein is needed for survival of various Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) cells, in MLL leukaemia the cancer stem cells actually survive independently of Bmi1.  This shows that for these MLL patients, targeting Bmi1 alone would not have a major impact on eradicating leukaemic stem cells, as was previously thought.  However, the team also found high levels of another protein called Hoxa9 in the MLL mice and human patients. Similar to Bmi1, a major role of this protein is to ensure leukaemia cells divide and grow by allowing their escape from the inherent surveillance system, which will otherwise cause cell death. They found that in mice with MLL leukaemic stem cells (that can proliferate without Bmi1), suppression of both Bmi1 and Hoxa9 completely abolishes the ability of MLL mutation to induce leukaemia.  These findings provide evidence for the different pathways involved in the development of different types of leukaemic stem cells, and highlight the importance of targeting Bmi1 and Hoxa9 together to abolish MLL leukaemic stem cells in particular.  Professor Eric So, Head of the Leukaemia and Stem Cell Biology group at King’s, said: ‘These findings take us a step forward in our understanding of how this devastating disease can return in patients after they have received the standard treatment. ‘Now we know that leukaemic stem cells in certain types of leukaemia, such as MLL, can survive and proliferate independently of the Bmi1 protein, we need to consider more carefully the future of stem cell therapy to treat the disease. It’s not as easy as people originally thought it might be.  ‘But these findings provide us with vital information that will help us look at alternative ways of combating different forms of the disease, which will ultimately allow patients to achieve long-term complete remission. ‘What we need to do now is to find out exactly how Bmi1 and Hoxa9 proteins sustains the growth of cancer cells in order to develop an effective treatment to stop the disease returning.’ Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said: ‘This study builds on previous Cancer Research UK-funded work trying to pinpoint the molecules responsible for driving the development of MLL-related leukaemia stem cells. ‘Cancer stem cells appear to be more resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy than the other leukaemia cells, so understanding how they originate – and how we can kill them – will be a major step in being able to help even more people survive leukaemia in future.’ For further information please contact Emma Reynolds, Press Officer at King’s College London, on 0207 848 4334 or email emma.reynolds@kcl.ac.uk  A copy of the Cell Stem Cell paper is available on request • Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research • The charity’s groundbreaking work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.  This work is funded entirely by the   public. • Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival rates double in the last forty years. • Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses. • Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to beat cancer. For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 020 7121 6699 or visit www.cancerresearchuk.org Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research is the only UK charity solely dedicated to research into blood cancers, including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. These cancers are diagnosed in around 28,500 children, teenagers and adults in the UK every year. As it receives no government funding and relies entirely on voluntary support, it needs to raise £120 million in the next five years to continue this lifesaving research. Further information, including patient information booklets, is available from http://www.beatbloodcancers.org/ or on 020 7405 0101. Atom Feed

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Unprecedented collaboration in autism research

Patient organizations, academic and industry join forces to develop and assess novel treatment approaches for autism. An international consortium of scientists, led by Roche and King’s College London, has launched one of the largest ever research academic-industry collaboration projects to find new methods for the development of drugs for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).    European Autism Interventions – A Multicentre Study for Developing New Medications (EU-AIMS) is the largest single grant for autism research in the world and the largest for the study of any mental health disorder in Europe.   EU-AIMS brings together top scientists from academic institutions with a wide range of expertise, and partners them with major global drug companies from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations (EFPIA) including Roche, Eli Lilly, Servier, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Pfizer and Vifor Pharma; as well as world leading autism charities including Autism Speaks (USA). King’s College London leads an academic partnership of 14 European centres of excellence comprising Biozentrum, University of Basel (Switzerland), Birkbeck, University of London (UK), Cambridge University (UK), Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim (Germany), Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et Aux Alternatives (France), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Germany), Institut Pasteur (France), Institute of Education (UK), Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), Max-Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine (Germany), Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (The Netherlands), University "Campus Bio-Medico” (Italy), University Medical Centre (The Netherlands) and University Ulm (Germany).  Two other pharmaceutical small and medium-sized enterprises (SME): deCode Genetics (Iceland) and NeuroSearch (Denmark) will contribute to the success of EU-AIMS, while the SME GABO:mi (Germany) will be managing the project. Professor Declan Murphy, King’s College London said: “This ground-breaking integrated research effort is unprecedented and is designed to allow us to change the scientific landscape of autism research and clinical drug development throughout Europe.” ASD affects an estimated 1% of children worldwide and more children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, juvenile diabetes and pediatric cancer combined. With a wealth of knowledge and research findings related to ASD emerging every year, it has been hard to take these findings from the bench to the clinic.   Robert Ring, Vice President of Translational Research for Autism Speaks said: “The lack of effective pharmacological treatments for ASD has a profound effect on patients’ lives.  We are excited that with this unique collaboration we may see a real shift in future treatment for this devastating disorder.”  EU-AIMS will focus on three areas: the development and validation of  translational research approaches for the advancement of novel therapies for ASD; the identification, alignment, and development of expert clinical sites across Europe to run clinical trials; and the creation of an interactive platform for ASD professionals and patients. By the end of the five-year project, EU-AIMS expects to provide novel validated cellular assays, animal models, new fMRI methods with dedicated analysis techniques, new PET radioligands, as well as new genetic and proteomic biomarkers for patient-segmentation or individual response prediction. It aims to establish a research network that can then move on to testing the investigational treatments in humans. Luca Santarelli, Global Head of Roche Neurosciences said:  “This collaborative effort is in full alignment with Roche Neurosciences strategy which is to develop personalized treatment options for serious patient needs.” Will Spooren, Project Coordinator of EU-AIMS and group leader Behavioral Pharmacology at Roche Neuroscience, added:  “Recent genomic and functional studies have shed light on the pathophysiology of autism.  We need to work together if we want to fully harness those developments and pave the way for new treatment options which would cluster ASD patients sharing common pathophysiological features.” The research of EU-AIMS receives support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n° 115300, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013), from the EFPIA companies’ in kind contribution and from the Autism Speaks resulting in a total of €29.6 million.   The project is part of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), Europe's largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients. IMI supports collaborative research projects and builds networks of industrial and academic experts in order to boost pharmaceutical innovation in Europe. For more information, please contact Louise Pratt, Institute of Psychiatry, email: louise.a.pratt@kcl.ac.uk or tel: 0207 848 5378

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Study India 2012

Rt Hon David Willetts MP and Tayyeb Shah during the panel discussion

King's celebrates end of 2012 UKIERI Study India Programme

The Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science, hosted a celebration event in London last week to formally close this year’s UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) Study India Programme. The programme, managed by King’s College London since it began in 2009, has played a vital role in strengthening mutual understanding between India and the UK by giving British students the opportunity to study and work in India. So far over 700 students from King’s and other UK universities have travelled on the unique scholarship programme to Delhi and Mumbai, with over 70 percent of this year’s group keen to go back to India to pursue career opportunities.
David Willetts welcomed a panel of delegates from UKIERI, King’s and other key stakeholders – Tata Consultancy Services, the Indian High Commission, the universities of Mumbai and Delhi – to the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to celebrate the success of the programme. The panel was joined by students from this year’s programme who had the opportunity to engage in a discussion about future opportunities in the field of Indo-British education.
The Minister congratulated students and organizers on the highly successful project and underlined the importance of such innovative ways of improving student mobility to India. This year 102 internship opportunities were provided by Tata Consultancy Services and other Tata companies as part of the initiative, an engagement for which BIS paid particular acknowledgment.
In a series of inspiring talks, alumni students spoke about of their experiences of India and their life-changing impact.
Charlotte Buchanan introduced the audience to the India-Britain Youth Organisation, an initiative she co-founded as a consequence of Study India to strengthen mutual understanding between young people in India and Britain. King’s students Chloe Mclauchlan and Alexander Mayhew spoke on behalf of Project Chirag – a charity working to bring solar power to Indian villages. Elliot Bromley and Mofozzul Choudhury summarized in moving words the positive impact their visits to schools in India and the UK had upon the pupils and themselves. The programme now includes a school outreach project which has already reached over 2,500 school pupils, through workshops delivered by Study India students.
The event this week comes after a lively celebration at the British Council in Delhi earlier this term which marked the end of the students’ time in India.
Professor Rick Trainor, Principal of King’s College London, who attended the event as part of the King’s delegation visit to India said: ‘The Study India Programme is imbued with the notion of global citizenship – students get to understand India and more broadly the world in which India is becoming ever more important. I hope many of you will build on your experiences in India and relationships you have made here as part of your future careers.’

King’s staff and students from the Study India Programme celebrate in Delhi

Rob Lynes, Director of the British Council in India, addressed the students in Delhi saying: ‘All of you here, from both India and the UK, are the future workforce. Your experience, shared expertise, networks and resources will build stronger ties between India and the UK and help make both our countries more prosperous and secure.’
He added: ‘Around a quarter of a million students from India have studied in the UK over the last 10 years, yet there are probably less than 10,000 from the UK who have studied here in the same period. If we are really serious in the UK about understanding India in the 21st century, then the challenge is to get thousands of students, like you, from the UK to India, encourage more private sector support, and engage more universities both in India and the UK in this programme and others. If we can do that, then we will really make a difference.’
Tayyeb Shah, Director of Executive Education at King’s, said: ‘King’s is proud to be managing the Study India Programme for UKIERI and playing our part in introducing UK students to living and working in another culture. Education in the 21st century must not be limited by national boundaries – as the world is now globalised, our students benefit much more from learning with their peers in India. India is such a vibrant country and this outstanding programme is a life-changing experience for anyone who takes part.’
For further information, please contact Katherine Barnes, International PR Manager, King's College London on +44 (0) 207 848 3076 or email katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk

Find out more about the UKIERI Study India Programme. 

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Professor Griffith Edwards, CBE

The Institute of Psychiatry regrets to announce the recent death of Professor Griffith Edwards, CBE, Emeritus Professor of Addiction Behaviour, Institute of Psychiatry (IoP), King's College London. 

Professor Edwards was one of the most significant figures in addiction research of the last half-century. 

After starting at the IoP in 1962, as a trainee psychiatrist and research worker, he formally retired in 1994 but continued to be highly active from his office in the National Addiction Centre (NAC).

 In 1967 he founded the NAC, then known as the Addiction Research Unit (ARU). As its director and the first Professor of Addiction Behaviour in the UK, Professor Edwards’ contributions to the field of addiction study was substantial, reshaping our understanding and treatment of alcohol and drug dependence. 

A prolific author and dedicated research pioneer, Griffith Edwards produced 40 books, 192 scientific papers and was the editor of the Society for the Study of  Addiction’s journal – ‘Addiction’, the leading international journal in the field  from 1978 until his passing. 

Professor Edwards was an extraordinarily intuitive clinician, an inspirational teacher, mentor and a world renowned addictions specialist who leaves behind a truly lasting legacy and will missed by all who knew him and the many more who were touched by his work.

The Early Years

James Griffith Edwards was born in India on October 3 1928, the younger of two sons returning to England in 1929. Initially Griffith did not follow the family tradition of veterinary medicine (his father was a distinguished veterinary bacteriologist), opting for mathematics, after winning a scholarship to Oxford in 1947. He subsequently switched to medicine, graduating from Balliol College in 1951 with a degree in animal physiology. 

Griffith went on to add a Master’s and Medical Degree and on completion of his clinical studies at St Bartholomew's in 1955 moved permanently to the Institute of Psychiatry as a trainee psychiatrist and research worker in 1962, where he fell under the influence of the Dean  D. L. Davies who encouraged his early interest in alcoholism. 

Professional Appointments

1962-1966 | Research Worker, Institute of Psychiatry

1966-1967 | Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry

1967-1973 | Senior Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry

1967-1994 | Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals (Emeritus from 1994)

1973-1979 | Reader in Drug Dependence, Institute of Psychiatry

1979-1994 | Professor of Addiction Behaviour, Institute of Psychiatry (Emeritus from 1994)

1967-1994 | Director, Addiction Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry

1991-1994 | Chairman, National Addiction Centre

Professional Influence | Committees and Consultancies

From early on in his career Professor Edwards advised governments, international bodies and held membership to several expert committees. 

Notably he:

Contributed centrally to the World Health Organisation's alcohol programme on alcoholism and drug dependence in 1968, with revisions in 1976;  Contributed to the drafting of the addictions sections of ICD-10 and DSM-IV;  Member, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges group making submissions on cannabis to the House of Lords in 1998;  Consultant, President’s Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention, Washington;  Consultant, Ministry of Health – Bolivia and Mexico;  Member, Cabinet Office group concerned with design of national UK alcohol policy, 2003 

For a full list of Professor Edward’s Membership of Committees, Professional Consultancies and Work for WHO, please see here.

Honours and Academic Awards

1971 | Edwin Stevens Lecturer and Gold Medallist, Royal Society of Medicine

1981 | Jellinek Memorial Prize (international alcohol research award)

1986 | Evian Health Prize

1987 | Commander of the British Empire (C.B.E.), awarded for services to social science and medicine

1990 | Annual Award of AMERSA (American Educational and Research Society on Alcohol)

1992 | Honorary Professorship in Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile (life tenure)

1996 | Nathan B Eddy Gold Medal (international drug misuse research award)

1998 | Auguste Forrell Prize (European alcohol research award)

1998 | Hon F.R.C.Psych. 

2004 | Distinguished Fellow: Society for the Study of Addiction

2011 | Honorary Emeritus Fellow, International Drug Abuse Research Society

2011 | European Federation of Therapeutic Communities Award

2012  I Max Glatt Medal of the Medical Council on Alcohol

Publications | Books and Scientific Papers

Although Professor Griffith Edwards produced nearly 200 scientific papers and over 40 books, he was particularly proud of two texts written for a general audience:

Alcohol the Ambiguous Molecule.  London, Penguin Books, 2000. Published 2002 in US by Thomas Dunne Books as Alcohol, the World’s Favourite Drug.   Matters of Substance: drugs and why we use them.  London, Penguin Books, 2004. 

To see a full list of his publications please see here.

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Child maltreatment increases risk of adult obesity

Children who have suffered maltreatment are 36% more likely to be obese in adulthood compared to non-maltreated children, according to a new study by King’s College London. The authors estimate that the prevention or effective treatment of 7 cases of child maltreatment could avoid 1 case of adult obesity.

The findings come from the combined analysis of data from 190,285 individuals from 41 studies worldwide, published this week in Molecular Psychiatry.

Severe childhood maltreatment (physical, sexual or emotional abuse or neglect) affects approximately 1 in 5 children (under 18) in the UK. In addition to the long-term mental health consequences of maltreatment, there is increasing evidence that child maltreatment may affect physical health.

Dr Andrea Danese, child and adolescent psychiatrist from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry and lead author of the study says: “We found that being maltreated as a child significantly increased the risk of obesity in adult life. Prevention of child maltreatment remains paramount and our findings highlight the serious long-term health effects of these experiences.”

Although experimental studies in animal models have previously suggested that early life stress is associated with an increased risk of obesity, evidence from population studies has been inconsistent. This new study comprehensively assessed the evidence from all existing population studies to explore the potential sources of inconsistency.

In their meta-analysis, the authors were able to rule out specific factors which might explain the link – they found that childhood maltreatment was associated with adult obesity independently of the measures or definitions used for maltreatment or obesity, childhood or adult socio-economic status, current smoking, alcohol intake, or physical activity. Additionally, childhood maltreatment was not linked to obesity in children and adolescents, making it unlikely that the link was explained by reverse causality (i.e. children are maltreated because they were obese).

However, the analysis showed that when current depression was taken into account, the link between childhood maltreatment and adult obesity was no longer significant, suggesting that depression might help explain why some maltreated individuals become obese.

Previous studies offer possible biological explanations for this link. Maltreated individuals may eat more because of the effects of early life stress on areas of the developing brain linked to inhibition of feeding, or on hormones regulating appetite. Alternatively, maltreated individuals may burn fewer calories because of the effects of early life stress on the immune system leading to fatigue and reduced activity. The authors add that these hypotheses will need to be directly tested in future studies.

Dr Danese adds: “If the association is causal as suggested by animal studies, childhood maltreatment could be seen as a potentially modifiable risk factor for obesity - a health concern affecting one third of the population and often resistant to interventions.

He concludes:  “Additional research is needed to clarify if and how the effects of child maltreatment on obesity could be alleviated through interventions after maltreatment has occurred. Our next step will be to explore the mechanisms behind this link.”

Paper reference: Danese A & Tan M. ‘Childhood maltreatment and obesity: systematic review and meta-analysis’ Molecular Psychiatry 

For further information, please contact Seil Collins, Press Officer, King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry. Tel: (+44) 207 848 5377 or email: seil.collins@kcl.ac.uk

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Louise Howard awarded prestigious NIHR Research Professorship

Professor Louise Howard

In a first for the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and King’s Health Partners, King’s researcher Professor Louise Howard has been awarded a prestigious National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Professorship.

NIHR Research Professorships are awarded to health researchers with an outstanding record of clinical and applied health research, and its effective translation for improved health.  The awards fund leaders in the early part of their careers, supporting them to lead research, promote effective translation of research from 'campus to clinic' and strengthen research leadership at the highest academic levels.   The awards are very competitive and given to those on course to becoming the UK's most outstanding research leaders. 

Professor Shitij Kapur, Dean and Head of School, King’s IoP said:  ‘Congratulations to Louise on this remarkable achievement.   Louise is an exceptional scholar and we are delighted NIHR has recognised her potential as a future global leader in her field.’  

Professor Howard’s NIHR Research Professorship will enable her to spend 5 years dedicated to translational research in perinatal health.  Mental health problems in pregnancy and the postpartum period have potential adverse consequences for women, their infants and their families.  Professor Howard’s research aims to contribute to the evidence base on effective and safe ways of treating women’s mental health problems. Her research will include studies on the risks and benefits of medication in pregnancy; violence and health; and an NIHR programme grant on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of perinatal mental health services.  

Professor Howard said:  ‘This award is really recognition of the work of the team at the Section of Women's Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, and colleagues at the King’s Health Partners Women’s Health Academic Centre. I am delighted and honoured to be taking our work further through this award.’

Louise Howard is Professor of Women’s Mental Health and Head of the Section of Women’s Mental Health in the IoP’s Department of Health Service and Population Research.  Professor Howard leads on clinical research programmes in perinatal mental health, the impact of violence on mental health, and the physical health of people with mental disorders. She is an Honorary Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.   

Professor Howard is Chair of the NICE/NCCMH Guideline Development Group on Antenatal and Postnatal Mental Health, a professional member of the WHO and NICE/SCIE guideline development groups on Preventing and Reducing Domestic Violence, and a member of the International Editorial Board of the British Journal of Psychiatry and Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences.

Professor Howard will commence her Professorship in October 2013.

For further information, please contact Seil Collins, Press Officer, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, email: seil.collins@kcl.ac.uk or tel: 00 44 207 848 5377

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UN report launched

Creative Economy report

The second Creative Economy report of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was officially launched on 11 March at King’s College London by Edna Dos Santos-Duisenberg, Chief of the Creative Economy and Industries Programme at UNCTAD.

Professor Andy C Pratt, Head of the Centre of Culture, Media & Creative Industries at King’s advised UNCTAD on the report. The report has re-shaped the landscape of government agencies discussing this sector, and provides an important touchstone for future debate.

The Creative Economy report was first produced by UNCTAD in 2008. It contained two parts: first a conceptual framework for the proper consideration of the creative economy and international trade, an international framework for measurement and assessment, and for benchmarking and evaluation; second, a statistical compendium of data derived from the UN COMTRADE and processed uniquely in this report.

Since its publication it has become a template for debates about creative economy and international trade, and the question of development. The second edition of the report updates the data base, and refines the contextual information.

Professor Pratt comments: ‘This report is significant in providing a focus on the creative economy in a fixed international persecutive and insight into the distribution of benefits of creative economy trade, in particular highlighting the emergent role of the Global South, and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations in particular.

‘It provides a new lens on trade and development, bringing into focus a previously neglected category of activity: the creative economy. Moreover, it stresses the real and significant contribution of this sector to national economies and world trade. The creative economy is no longer the Cinderella sector.’

Key findings and recommendations include:

- Early indication that demand for some "creative industry" products - particularly those which are domestically consumed, such as videos, music, video games, and new formats for TV programmes - remained stable during the global recession. This economic sector, especially if supported by enlightened government policies, may help national economies, including those of developing countries, to recover from the downturn;

- Global exports of creative goods and services - products such as arts and crafts, audiovisuals, books, design work, films, music, new media, printed media, visual and performing arts, and creative services - more than doubled between 2002 and 2008. The total value of these exports reached US $592 billion in 2008, and the growth rate of the industry over that six-year period averaged 14 per cent;

- The creative industries hold great potential for developing countries seeking to diversify their economies and participate in one of the most dynamic sectors of world commerce. The global market already had been boosted by increases in South-South trade in creative products before the recession set it in. The South’s exports of creative goods to the world reached $176 billion in 2008, or 43 per cent of total creative-industries trade.

- Developing countries should include creative goods in their lists of products, and should conclude their negotiations under the Global System of Trade Preferences so that they give more impetus to the expansion of South-South trade in this sector. The rate of growth in such trade of creative goods – from $7.8 billion in 2002 to $21 billion in 2008 – is an opportunity that should be fully realised;

- The study presents several country profiles that show the trade performances of creative industries. These are intended to serve as examples of how every country can benefit from the multiple possibilities of an analysis tool offered by the UNCTAD Global Database on the Creative Economy. The database can be accessed at http://unctadstat.unctad.org/  

- 75 per cent of the world’s four billion mobile phones are in use in developing countries and it urges greater efforts to expand broadband Internet to such nations, as marketing and distribution of creative goods is increasingly based on this technology.

- An increasing number of cities, it notes, are using the concept of "creative cities" to design urban development strategies for reinvigorating growth with focus on culture and creative activities. These principles can be adapted for rural areas and disadvantaged communities as a tool for generating jobs, particularly for youth, empowering creative women and promoting social inclusion in line with the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

The report offers 10 key messages to assist governments in policy-making that can enhance their creative economies. The electronic version of the Creative Economy Report - 2010 can be downloaded at www.unctad.org/creative-economy  

Notes to editors

Professor Andy Pratt
Andy Pratt joined as the Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s in October 2009 as Professor of Culture, Media and Economy and Head of Department. He was previously Reader in Urban Cultural Economy at the London School of Economics, and Director of the LSE Urban Research Centre, and has a background as a social scientist in Geography and Urban Planning.

His current research interests concern all aspects of the cultural economy in both international and urban contexts. Andy has written extensively on cultural and creative industries and policy (some 90 academic articles and chapters), and has advised UNESCO and UNCTAD on policy, as well as many national and urban governments. He is interested in how the cultural and creative industries are organised, what it is like to work in them, and how they are governed; and, what the impacts are on the rest of economy and society of their growth. 

King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11' and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,000 students (of whom more than 8,600 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 5,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org

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IoP hosts international conference on DSM-5

To mark the publication of the fifth and latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s hosted an international conference to debate the clinical, research, and public health implications of the DSM-5.

The conference was the first such meeting since the launch of the DSM-5 on 18th May 2013 in the United States, and was attended by Professor David Kupfer, Chair of the DSM-5 Task Force and Professor of Psychiatry at the Western Pacific Institute in Pittsburgh. 

Professor Norman Sartorius, Professor Shitij Kapur and Professor David Kupfer

Over two days, the strengths and weaknesses of the DSM-5 were debated and the conference took an in depth look at two areas in particular: childhood disorders (principally ADHD and autism) and the proposed prodromal psychosis syndrome.

Professor Shitij Kapur, Dean and Head of School of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s, says: “The IoP’s DSM-5 conference illustrates our long-standing culture of rigorous debate and discussion. Interest in the DSM-5 has stretched well beyond the world of academic psychiatry and has become a matter of intense public debate and media coverage. We heard from those either side of the debate and I was delighted to welcome globally renowned academics and researchers and importantly, service user representatives and front-line clinicians to offer their views on this controversial topic.”

For a summary of the DSM-5 conference by Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Vice Dean (Academic Psychiatry) at the IoP at King's, please see here.

Speakers included:

Professor David Kupfer, Chair of DSM-5 Task Force and Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Professor William Carpenter, DSM-5 Task Force Member and Professor at the University of Maryland Professor David Clark, Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford Dr Clare Gerada, General Practitioner and Chair of the Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners Professor Catherine Lord, Director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain and Professor at the University of Michigan Professor Vikram Patel, Professor of International Mental Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Professor Nikolas Rose, Head of theDepartment of Social Science, Health and Medicine, King’s College London Sir Michael Rutter, First Professor of Child Psychiatry in the UK and Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at King’s College London Professor Norman Sartorius, former Director of the World Health Organization's Division of Mental Health, and a former President of the World Psychiatric Association

To end the conference, the IoP opened its doors to the public for the 45th Maudsley Debate which saw Dr Felicity Callard and Critical Psychiatrist, Pat Bracken take on Professor Tony David and Professor Norman Sartorius, debating the motion “This House believes that psychiatric diagnosis has advanced the care of people with mental health problems.”

The podcast from the Maudsely Debate is now available online

For further information, please contact Seil Collins, Press Officer, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, email: seil.collins@kcl.ac.uk or tel: (+44) 0207 848 5377

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Wound Care Project wins Guardian Award

Researchers at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, at King’s College London, have developed a groundbreaking new garment for patients who suffer the rare skin condition Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). Skinnies WEB™, which have been designed in partnership with EB patients, carers and clinicians, a clothing designer and a manufacturer, will help to reduce the burden of EB wounds on a day-to-day basis and therefore greatly improve quality of life for patients. The project was awarded the 2013 Guardian University Award for Outstanding Research Impact last week.

Epidermolysis Bullosa is a rare inherited skin condition that affects an estimated 1 in 17,000 people in the UK, according to DEBRA, the only national charity dedicated to the condition. EB sufferers have extremely sensitive skin, which means the slightest trauma or friction can cause blisters and open wounds. In its least severe form, EB affects the hands and feet only; however this can make even walking painful. In more serious cases, patients have wounds all over their bodies, which can lead to infections, scarring and disability.

Dr Patricia Grocott, Reader in Palliative Wound Care, said:

“Patients suffering with more extreme forms of Epidermolysis Bullosa face a daily routine of applying creams, a patchwork of different dressings and then pre-sized tubular bandages to hold their dressings in place. It can take hours and the lack of breathability in the bandages means they can actually do more harm than good, as soggy dressings are an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. And on top of that, patients use thousands of  pounds worth of bandages.

“With this Woundcare for Epidermolyis Bullosa (WEB) project, we wanted to work with patients and their carers to design a new garment that can be worn over their dressings, but which would allow them more flexibility. The Skinnies WEB™ products, which include leggings, shorts and tops, are durable and can be machine washed, and importantly they are easy to put on and take off. They are also seamless, which is essential for some patients as seams and creases can create new wounds.”

The project involved workshops with patients, their carers and clinicians, in which they described the core problems they face in dressing EB wounds. Working in collaboration with EB nurse specialists who work within the NHS and are also supported by DEBRA, Dr Grocott observed dressing changes to gain further understanding of the challenges patients face.

One patient who worked on the WEB project said:

“The top I am now using is absolutely amazing. It has reduced the amount of time needed to apply and change dressings substantially and I’m sleeping a lot better because there is less pain caused by dressings moving and clothing getting stuck. The skinnies products are so comfortable that I hardly notice I’m wearing them and they don’t interfere with my body temperature.

“Having been rather sceptical about how the garment might help we are all happily amazed at the positive difference it has made to all our lives!”

Elizabeth Pillay, EB Nurse Consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, in association with DEBRA, said:

“I have been an EB nurse for 17 years, and although there have been many improvements in care during this time, the day-to-day relentless routine for people with EB and their carers continues to be an enormous burden. It has therefore been an enormous pleasure and privilege for the adult EB Nursing team to work on the WEB project which has turned wound care design on its head, by starting with the patient, and having the design fit their needs, rather than the patient struggling to fit the product.”

The project was funded by the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity and King’s College London.

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£1.3m grant for epilepsy self-management trial

Researchers at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry in collaboration with King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Epilepsy Action, have been awarded £1.3m by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) Programme, to assess the effectiveness of self-management education for adults with epilepsy.

In the UK 600,000 people live with epilepsy. Despite improvements in epilepsy treatments, 30% of people with epilepsy continue to experience seizures, which may significantly affect their quality of life.

The trial, led by Professor Leone Ridsdale, a neurologist at King’s Institute of Psychiatry, will look at how effective a programme called ‘Self-Management education for adults with poorly controlled epILEpsy’ (SMILE) is in helping those with poorly controlled seizures to learn about dealing with their epilepsy.

Professor Ridsdale says: “People with other long-term conditions, like diabetes, are offered self-learning packages, which have been tested by means of randomized controlled trials. Despite having a long-term condition which can impact severely on their thoughts, feelings and social life, people with epilepsy have not routinely been offered opportunities to learn how to manage their condition in the context of their daily lives.”

The workshops help people achieve a better understanding of the causes of and treatments for epilepsy and identify factors that can help or hinder them improve their own self-management. People become more able to recognise patterns in the occurrence of their seizures and better able to deal with some of the stressful aspects of having epilepsy. People attending the groups hear about and learn from the experiences of other people with epilepsy, and are given a course book containing the information from the workshop as well as other sources of information about living with epilepsy.

SMILE is based on a German programme called MOSES which has been delivered to small groups of patients and carers in some European countries for 13 years. Whilst the programme has been translated into English, the research team recognise that the delivery of the programme needs to be modified, so as to make it relevant and acceptable in the UK context, and evaluated.

The specific aims of the research programme are:

To test the hypothesis that SMILE will lead to improved quality of life, and other outcomes, like participants’ own sense of control of their epilepsy, at 12 months follow-up. To describe users’ views of SMILE, including barriers to participation and the perceived benefits of the intervention. To measure the cost-effectiveness and implications of SMILE for NHS service use.

Margaret Rawnsley, Research Officer at Epilepsy Action, says: “We are delighted to collaborate with King’s College London on this project.  The views of people with epilepsy are an important part of this study. Among other things, we will work with the team to ensure people with epilepsy are involved in the research in a meaningful way. We firmly believe that this study has the potential to benefit people living with epilepsy.”

Professor Laura Goldstein, clinical neuropsychologist at King’s Institute of Psychiatry and co-principal investigator says: "Our study offers the first opportunity in the UK to evaluate this programme systematically. We hope that this exciting research will have a lasting impact and are delighted that Epilepsy Action is working with King’s to develop this."

The research group at King’s includes Professor Paul McCrone, health economist, Professor Sabine Landau, statistician,  Professor Myfanwy Morgan, sociologist of health and Professor Mark Richardson, epileptologist and Head of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. Up to 20 neurologists in the UK with an interest in epilepsy have agreed to act as local principal investigators inviting their patients to participate. Workshop leaders will include Epilepsy Nurse Specialists and EEG Technicians working at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and other centres in SE England.

The research is funded through the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme with additional support from the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London.

For further information, please contact Seil Collins, Press Officer, King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry. Email: seil.collins@kcl.ac.uk or tel: 0044 207 848 5377

National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) Programme

1. The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme funds research about the effectiveness, costs, and broader impact of health technologies for those who use, manage and provide care in the NHS. It is the largest NIHR programme and publishes the results of its research in the Health Technology Assessment journal, with over 600 issues published to date. The journal’s 2011 Impact Factor (4.255) ranked it in the top 10% of medical and health-related journals. All issues are available for download, free of charge, from the website. The HTA Programme is funded by the NIHR, with contributions from the CSO in Scotland, NISCHR in Wales, and the HSC R&D Division, Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland.www.hta.ac.uk.

2. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is funded by the Department of Health to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. Since its establishment in April 2006, the NIHR has transformed research in the NHS. It has increased the volume of applied health research for the benefit of patients and the public, driven faster translation of basic science discoveries into tangible benefits for patients and the economy, and developed and supported the people who conduct and contribute to applied health research. The NIHR plays a key role in the Government’s strategy for economic growth, attracting investment by the life-sciences industries through its world-class infrastructure for health research. Together, the NIHR people, programmes, centres of excellence and systems represent the most integrated health research system in the world. For further information, visit the NIHR website (www.nihr.ac.uk).

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£2.1 million for kidney transplant study

MRI scan of kidney

The MRC Centre for Transplantation has been awarded a £2.1 million grant from the Medical Research Council (MRC), to fund a three year clinical study into the efficacy of the drug Mirococept in renal transplantation. 

Last year, the team at King’s announced that it had developed a technique to extend the life of a donor kidney; this involves perfusing the organ in a solution of Mirococept during the transfer from the donor to the recipient. Mirococept is engineered to stick within the organ during this process. The drug limits the action of a part of the immune system, known as the ‘complement’ system, which would normally attack and attempt to destroy cells from any intruder organism, including the cells of a donor organ. This is the first major clinical investigation into the usefulness of therapeutic regulation of the complement system in human renal transplantation using this approach, which could ultimately lead to extending the life of kidney transplants.  Professor Steven Sacks, director of the Centre, said: ‘The MRC has made it possible for us to try a completely new approach to protect donor kidneys at the time of transplantation, offering better prospect for a successful kidney treatment.’ King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11' and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,000 students (of whom more than 8,600 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 5,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.  King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.  King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.  King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: http://www.kingshealthpartners.org/.  For further information please contact Emma Reynolds, Press Officer at King’s College London, on 0207 848 4334 or email emma.reynolds@kcl.ac.uk

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King's Brazil Institute award success

King’s Brazil Institute staff celebrating their award

King’s Brazil Institute staff and students are celebrating this week after winning a prestigious Brazilian International Press Award for their work to promote Brazilian culture in the UK. The event was a culmination of a highly successful summer season for the Brazil Institute – after over 3,000 people visited the centre’s inaugural photography exhibition, and King’s College London also took part in hosting Casa Brasil during the Olympic Games.

The Brazilian International Press Awards celebrate success in promoting Brazilian culture worldwide in categories of music, art, culture, sports, and social action. Originally launched in the USA in 1997, the event has now expanded to London and Tokyo, with finalists in London nominated by popular vote among the Brazilian community in the UK.
This year the King’s Brazil Institute has won in the category for ‘Institution that Promotes Brazilian Culture in the UK’, after being nominated with Queen Mary, University of London; and GEB, the Brazilian Migration to the UK Research Group. The Institute faculty, led by Professor Anthony Pereira, collected the award on Saturday night at a lively reception in central London featuring Brazilian musicians, artists and journalists.

Professor Anthony Pereira and Dr Maite Conde collecting their award at the ceremony (Credit: Brazilian International Press Awards)
On receiving the award on behalf of the King’s Brazil Institute, Professor Anthony Pereira said: ‘We are honoured to have won this award and be in the company of such high profile nominees and prestigious institutions. Our whole mission is to promote understanding of Brazil in the UK and internationally, so it’s fantastic that our hard work this year has been recognized and we hope to build on this success.
‘We’re now looking forward to welcoming a new cohort of Master’s and PhD students this term, and in January we will be celebrating the arrival of our first Rio Branco Chair in International Relations.’
Dr Maite Conde, who took part in organizing the Salgado photography exhibition at the King’s Brazil Institute said: ‘We are all delighted with this award and it has been thanks to a real team effort – our mission is to open doors and build relationships with partner organizations in Brazil and internationally, so to be recognized in this way means a lot to us.
‘We’ve had fantastic success this summer with the Salgado exhibition and we’re now busy planning our next season of cultural events – including a film series in collaboration with the Latin American Film Festival.’
Notes to editors

For further media information please contact Katherine Barnes, International PR Manager, on katherine.barnes@kcl.ac.uk or +44 207 848 3076.
About King’s Brazil Institute, King’s College London

Promoting an understanding of Brazil and developing the profile of Brazilian Studies at the university level in the UK, the King’s Brazil Institute coordinates and develops Brazil-related research capabilities and Brazil-focused programmes of study at King's, while also building links with Brazilian organisations in education, the cultural and creative sectors, business and government. Through these activities, and as part of the College's broader international strategy, the Institute aims to contribute to a growing interdisciplinary interest in Brazil among both students and academics at King's. The King’s Brazil Institute forms part of a wider network of Global Institutes at King’s College London to promote understanding of fast changing parts of the world and encourage engagement with 21st century powers.

Read more about the King’s Brazil Institute.

For more information about the Global Institutes at King’s College London visit our website.

Follow on Twitter: @KingsBrazil
About the Brazilian International Press Awards

The Brazilian International Press Awards in the UK awards are organized by TV Globo International and sponsored by Bank of Brazil and TAM Airlines, with cultural support by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate General of Brazil in London. For more information visit their website.

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Traditional Chinese medicine research

New Association for good practice in Chinese medicine research

King’s scientists, together with international colleagues, mainly from Europe and China, have officially launched the Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Association today at a conference in Leiden, the Netherlands. This will help researchers to explore age-old remedies in the search for tomorrow’s new drugs and to further understand links between western and Chinese medicines.

The new Association will carry on the legacy and missions of the King’s-led ‘Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine’ (GP-TCM) consortium, the EU’s first dedicated effort to coordinate traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) research, which is funded by the European Commission under its 7th Framework Programme (FP7).

King’s scientists Dr Qihe Xu and Professor Peter Hylands were among twelve eminent scientists from seven countries and regions, elected as Directors of the new Association, having played leading roles in the FP7 consortium. 

Professor Bruce Hendry, Professor of Renal Medicine at King’s and a leading member of the consortium, said: ‘The success of the King’s-led EU FP7 programme on good practice in TCM research has provided a unique platform for the formation of this global Association and it is perfectly positioned to lead efforts to integrate the two great philosophies of medicine. I congratulate Qihe and Peter on their achievements in harnessing such a diverse and talented team.’

Dr Qihe Xu, Senior Lecturer at the Division of Transplantation Immunology & Mucosal Biology in the School of Medicine at King’s and Coordinator of the FP7 GP-TCM consortium, added: ‘So far, the FP7 consortium has engaged more than 200 scientists and clinicians from 112 institutions in 24 countries in discussions about good practice in various aspects of Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture research, culminating in recent best-practice guidelines published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

‘Founding the GP-TCM Research Association dedicated to promoting high-quality evidence-based TCM research through further developing, disseminating and implementing best practice is yet another important milestone and will prove to be a critical step towards sustainable development of TCM research worldwide.’

Professor Peter Hylands, Joint Head of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science in the School of Biomedical Sciences at King’s and Treasurer of the new Association, said: ‘Thanks to successful fundraising efforts we are pleased that we are in a position to offer free membership for the year 2012 to all existing members of the consortium, as well as qualified scientists, clinicians and students.’

Founding President of the new Association, Professor Rudolf Bauer, University of Graz, said: ‘We believe that the challenges of TCM research can only be solved in an interdisciplinary network, using the most advanced methodologies of the post-genomic era. The expertise of the FP7 GP-TCM consortium and the ideas of new members will enable us to develop and implement good practice in TCM research and to develop TCM in an integrated manner.’

Dr Tai-Ping Fan, University of Cambridge and Secretary-General of the Association, explained that they are in the process of registering as a not-for-profit organisation to fulfil the following 10 major objectives:

1. Continue the interactive network established by the FP7 GP-TCM consortium;

2. Promote discussion and implementation of good practice in TCM research and development, including the use of sustainably sourced materials;

3. Advocate high-quality evidence-based TCM research and development as well as its integration with conventional medicine;

4. Organise and co-organise scientific meetings;

5. Nurture young TCM researchers at different levels in an interdisciplinary approach, including BSc, MSc, PhD and post-doctoral programmes;

6. Facilitate collaborations and sharing of resources, expertise and good practice among members, industry and regulatory agencies;

7. Encourage collaborations with existing relevant societies, consortia and organisations;

8. Strengthen interdisciplinary, interregional and intersectoral collaborations in TCM research and development;

9. Perpetuate good practice in publishing TCM research outcomes; 

10. Disseminate scientific research outcomes and latest developments in regulatory sciences to stakeholders, industry, professional groups and the public.

Professor De-an Guo, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, and President-Elect of the Association, added: ‘Membership of the Association is open to all those who are interested in the objectives of the Association and we are looking forward to fruitful international collaborations in an epic effort to deliver its objectives’.

For more information, please visit the Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine website.  

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Senator Mitchell honorary degree

Senator George Mitchell giving his lecture

Senator George Mitchell, former US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, received an honorary doctorate from King's at a reception yesterday in the Great Hall. Senator Mitchell, who played a crucial role in the Northern Ireland peace process, gave a public lecture on his experiences in the Middle East and negotiating conflict resolution in divided societies.

Principal Professor Sir Rick Trainor said: 'King's College London is delighted to have awarded an honorary degree to Senator George Mitchell, who has been a conciliatory and progressive force in arenas as different as the United States Senate, Northern Ireland and the Middle East. The degree is also highly appropriate because Senator Mitchell's concern with conflict resolution resonates with much academic activity at King's.'

Professor Rory Miller, Director, Middle East & Mediterranean Studies said: 'As conflict-resolution in the Middle East is a subject at the heart of what we teach and research in the  Middle East & Mediterranean Studies Programme (MEMS), the staff and students are thrilled to see Senator Mitchell being recognised by King's for his long-standing commitment to peace making in the region.'

During his lecture, Senator Mitchell commented on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and the need to persevere with the peace process. 'In the Middle East, pessimism is now widespread, and there are many reasons to be sceptical about the prospects of success. The level of mistrust and hostility is so high that many regard it as unsolvable.

'But the pursuit of peace is so important that it demands a maximum effort. It is vital that each side understands that satisfying the other side's fundamental objective is the key to a successful agreement. Any pain now is much less than the pain they will endure if they don't reach an agreement.

'It's a daunting challenge to rebuild trust between leaders but also between peoples, but peace requires that they find a way. On both sides, leaders and peoples must persevere. It happened in Northern Ireland and I believe with all my heart and soul that it can and will happen in the Middle East.'

Senator Mitchell also remarked on how much it meant to him to be back in the UK. 'It's a special pleasure for me, as the UK and the US are linked in many ways - through history, language, culture, trade, and most of all, by democracy.'

Senator George Mitchell is recognised both for his contribution to US politics, culminating in his role as Majority Leader of the US Senate, and for his outstanding contributions in the service of peace in both Northern Ireland and the Middle East. His extensive experience in conflict resolution is viewed by experts as best practice example of third party intervention in divided societies.

As President Clinton's Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, Senator Mitchell chaired the negotiations in that led to the 1998 Belfast Agreement, which has seen power-sharing between the two communities firmly established. His patience and sincerity enabled him to win the trust and respect of all the parties engaged in the negotiations that led to this historic accord.

Senator Mitchell brought the same characteristics and qualities to his diplomatic missions in the Middle East, most recently as President Obama's Special Envoy for Middle East Peace from 2009 to 2011.

Dr Michael Kerr, Director of the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies said: 'The Middle East and Mediterranean Studies Programme and the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies are delighted that Senator George Mitchell is receiving an Honorary Doctorate from King's. This is a most fitting tribute to a diplomat who is globally recognised for his work in advancing the cause of peace in conflict zones and deeply divided societies, from Northern Ireland to the Middle East.

'Senator Mitchell played an instrumental role in bringing the Northern Ireland Troubles to an end. His endless patience and energetic diplomacy were key elements in the political process that led to the successful negotiation of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. So it is simply fantastic for our students that he is visiting us to receive this degree award.'

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation for studies relating to the Middle East. The Middle East & Mediterranean Studies Programme, one of King's Global Institutes and Centres, is a leading provider of research and teaching on a wide range of subjects relating to the politics, history, economics and international relations of the region.

A key research objective is to analyse conflict resolution and peace processes in divided societies from a comparative perspective, in the Middle East, in Europe and in the developing world. MEMS teaches and develops future leaders, diplomats, scholars, journalists and researchers on the principles of peace making and positive third party intervention in the Middle East and beyond.

Notes to editors:

More information about Middle East and Mediterranean Studies

More information about the Centre for the Study of Divided Societies

More information about King's Global Institutes and Centres

For more information about King's, see our 'King's in Brief' page.

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