Palantir Technologies raises $196.5 million

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 27 | Fri Sep 27, 2013 7:25pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Data-analytics company Palantir Technologies has raised $196.5 million, the company disclosed Friday in a regulatory filing.

The Palo Alto-based company, founded by former PayPal executives, builds analytics software for the armed forces, intelligence agencies, and financial-services companies.

The cash will be used for growth capital, a spokeswoman said.

Since its founding in 2004, it has raised almost $500 million. Peter Thiel, a co-founder of both PayPal and Palantir, is an investor, as are fellow PayPal alumni Keith Rabois, Jeremy Stoppelman, and Ben Ling. The declined to comment on the investors in this latest round.

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£0.5 million for research into human trafficking

Researchers at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry (IoP), in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust have been awarded £ 449,990 by the Department of Health for research into human trafficking. 

The overarching aim of the PROTECT (Provider Responses, Treatment, and Care for Trafficked People) research programme is to provide evidence to inform the NHS response to human trafficking, specifically in the identification and referral of trafficked people, and safe and appropriate care to meet their health needs.

Professor Louise Howard, the King’s College London IoP study lead, says: 'Trafficked men, women and children frequently experience extreme physical, psychological and sexual violence and social marginalisation, and many suffer from acute and long-term health problems. Currently, we know very little about their healthcare needs, how they access NHS services and how to help healthcare professionals respond optimally to trafficked people under their care.'

Dr Cathy Zimmerman, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine lead, adds: 'Our findings will address this evidence gap and ultimately, help trafficked people receive safe and appropriate healthcare.'

Reports estimate there are 2,600 sex-trafficked women in England and Wales, but measuring the true scale of human trafficking is difficult. People are trafficked for forced sex work, domestic servitude, and into various labour sectors, including agricultural, manufacturing and service industries.  Previous research from King’s and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine revealed that women who had been trafficked for sexual exploitation experienced violence and poor physical and mental health. However, the research also found that there was very little evidence available on the health consequences of trafficked children, men or people trafficked for other forms of exploitation. 

NHS staff have an essential role in identifying and referring trafficked people to other services and receiving and treating people referred for healthcare. Yet, there is extremely limited evidence to inform NHS responses.  Anecdotal reports from post-trafficking services, law enforcement and a small number of provider studies suggest that trafficked people have difficulty accessing healthcare and providers do not feel equipped to identify and provide appropriate care for trafficked people.

The aims of the research are: 

• To gather evidence on the number of trafficked adults and children identify their healthcare needs and experiences and use of healthcare services. 

• To investigate how NHS staff respond to human trafficking, document NHS experience, knowledge and gaps about trafficked people’s health care needs.

• To inform NHS strategy and develop bespoke NHS information and training materials to support NHS staff to identify, refer and care for trafficked people.

Professor Louise Howard, Head of the Section for Women’s Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s, and Dr Cathy Zimmerman, Senior Lecturer in Gender Violence and Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are jointly leading the project as Principal Investigators. 

Co-investigators include: Professor Debra Bick, Professor of Evidence Based Midwifery Practice (King’s College London); Dr. Melanie Abas, Senior Lecturer in Global Mental Health (King’s College London); and Dr. Siân Oram, Postdoctoral Researcher (King’s College London); Dr. Rebecca French, Senior Lecturer in Sexual and Reproductive Health (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine); Professor Nicky Stanley, Professor of Social Work (University of Central Lancashire).

The programme will continue until March 2015 and is funded by a Department of Health Policy Research Programme grant. 

For any further information, please contact Seil Collins, Press Officer, Institute of Psychiatry, email: seil.collins@kcl.ac.uk or tel: 0207 848 5377

About King’s College London

Department of Health:  The Department of Health works to improve the health and well-being of people in England. The Department sets overall policy on all health issues and is responsible for the provision of health services through the National Health Service. The PRP commissions research to support policymaking in the Department.

About the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine:  The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is a world-leading centre for research and postgraduate education in public and global health, with 4000 students and more than 1300 staff working in over 100 countries. The School is one of the highest-rated research institutions in the UK, and was recently cited as one of the world’s top universities for collaborative research.  The School's mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice. 

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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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£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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