Graduate Research Newsletter March 2008

A new gene for itchy skin
Researchers in the Division of Genetics & Molecular Medicine have discovered that Piperine - the compound that gives black pepper its spicy, pungent flavour can provide a new treatment for the skin disease vitiligo. The research was led by Antony Young, Professor of Experimental Photobiology at St John’s Institute of Dermatology and Dr Amala Soumyanath, formerly Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacy.

New islet transplantation centres
The pioneering work led by King’s and its partner trust King’s College Hospital, on islet transplantation to treat Type 1 diabetes, has been strengthened by the recent decision from the Department of Health to fund six new islet transplant centres around the country. Professor Stephanie Amiel, RD Lawrence Professor of Diabetic Medicine and Consultant at King's College Hospital is quoted in The Metro, in relation to the recent funding.

C charge study of health benefits
The London Congestion Charge Scheme may have had a modest benefit on levels of air pollution and life expectancy in the capital, according to research from the Environmental Research Group (ERG) in the School of Biomedical & Health Sciences, to be published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

New protein discovered to block HIV
The discovery of a novel human protein called tetherin which appears to block the replication of HIV-1 thereby halting the spread of the virus, has been made by Dr Stuart Neil, Lecturer in the Department of Infectious Diseases. Dr Neil isolated tetherin whilst working in the group of Paul Bieniasz at Rockefeller University’s Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York. This breakthrough study published in Nature is particularly exciting because tetherin might be an important antiviral inhibitor of many diverse viruses.

World’s first Palliative Care Institute at King’s
The Prime Minister Gordon Brown MP returned to King’s this month, to officially launch the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care. The Institute is the first international academic institute in the world to focus specifically on palliative care research, dissemination and teaching, linked to clinical care.

London: in sickness & in health
The Gordon Museum, together with the Department of Anatomy & Human Sciences, will be holding an annual photographic Competition, themed ‘London: in sickness & in health’. The last annual photographic competition was held in the museum back in 1975, when London would have looked a very different place.
 
All staff and students of BHS, Medical and Dental Schools, plus Nursing and Physiotherapy programmes, are invited to join in by entering photographs in either conventional print from film camera, digital print, or digital manipulated print.
 
The exhibition will run from Tuesday 22nd April to Friday 2nd May.
Please click on either staff or students, for further information and details on how to enter.
 
Connected Campus countdown
The new email and ecommunications service is scheduled to be phased in for Graduates in the Schools of Medicine and BHS, by the start of the next academic year. The new system will deliver substantial benefits including:
 
1) Third party hosting (secure off site) which will maximise resilience and reliability of the service, and protect against the system failures and power outages that have affected the service all too often over the last few months.
 
2) Microsoft exchange server ntegrates with MS Outlook and a non-Microsoft product, Thunderbird. This will integrate eMail, calendars, and contact lists.
 
3) The current very slow Webmail service will go, to be replaced by a Web version of Outlook (accessible from any PC anywhere worldwide) that looks and feels almost identical to the Outlook on your own machine. As above, this includes eMail, calendars and contacts.
 
Watch this space for further information!
 
Share your experience of King's
We’re currently looking for graduate students to profile in various media, such as the graduate prospectus, and online graduate pages.
 
If you would be happy to have your photo used for these purposes, along with feedback from experience of your course, please contact Sophia Bell.
 
Relax in a graduate lounge
Plans are currently underway to establish a graduate lounge on each major College site. These are already open both at the Strand Campus, and more recently, the Waterloo Campus. Detailed plans are being finalised for rooms at the IOP and Guys (expected to open in April), and discussions are in progress to identify rooms for graduate lounges on the Denmark Hill and St Thomas's sites.
 
The Waterloo graduate lounge, which opened in December, is situated next to the canteen on the first floor of the Franklin Wilkins building. It has 3 PCs, (all networked, one with Skype), a TV, lockers, casual seating and tables and chairs for working at. Entry is by swipe card (all hours). You must sign onto an electronic list linked from the Graduate School site, and get your College card authorised for access.
 
The graduate lounge at Guy’s will be in the photographer's suite of rooms just behind reception in the Hodgkin Building. It is hoped that these will house the same facilities as the Waterloo site, with the addition of a small kitchen and a pool table. Organisers are currently looking for PhD and Masters students to help with the planning of this lounge - for those interested in becoming involved, please contact Alison Mainwood.

Internal
 
MRC Centre for Transplantation meeting
28 March, 08:30-13:00, Lecture Theatre 1, New Hunt's House, Guy's Campus
 
This meeting is organised to give an international overview of biomarkers that are emerging that are important in the transplantation field, not only in relation to prediction and monitoring of acute and chronic rejection or response to therapy, but also and importantly of tolerance. This meeting will highlight recent findings in the fields of immunology, genetics, pharmacology and bioinformatics that will be quickly translated into patient care to ensure the long term survival of allografts.
 
This events is aimed at researchers, research nurses, academics and clinicians with an interest in transplantation and translational medicine.
 
Biomedical Forum: Oral Health
The next Biomedical Forum will take place at 1pm, Thursday 6th March, entitled ‘To Engineer is to Create: the link between biomaterials, biophotonics and regeneration’. Hosting this forum will be Professor Tim Watson, Director of Research, Chairman, Biomaterials, Biomimetics & Biophotonics Research Group (B3) at the Dental Institute, King’s College London.
 
These bi-monthly meetings, held in Lecture Theatre 1, New Hunt's House, Guy's Hospital, are organised by the Biomedical Research Centre and offer a unique showcase of translation in biomedical and clinical research, fostering collaboration between clinicians and basic scientists.
 
External
 
UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN) Inaugural Scientific Conference
 
Registration is now open for the UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN) Inaugural Scientific Conference, taking place in Edinburgh, from the 9th to the 11th of April.
 
An exciting speaker programme has been prepared which comprises the latest and best in UK stem cell science and its related disciplines from up-and-coming UK researchers. The proceedings also include the inaugural Dame Anne McLaren Memorial Lecture which will be delivered by Professor Christine Mummery from the Hubrecht Laboratory in the Netherlands.
 
Click here for more information.
 
Careers in Focus: Academia
Are you considering your career options? Are you thinking about where you’d like to be… next year… in five years time? Do you want to continue working in an academic environment?
 
Around half all postgraduate researchers take up jobs within the education sector immediately on graduation. But not all of those are in research positions.
 
Following the success of previous Careers in Academia events, UK GRAD are running a further two one-day events in 2008, to explore what a career in the academic environment is really like. These will take place on Monday 28th April in Bristol, and Monday 6th October, in Manchester.
 
Like most careers, there are many elements that make up a career in academia, and you need specific skills to succeed in what can be a very competitive environment. Here’s your chance to find out what really is involved, what skills and strengths it will take to succeed, and to decide if this is the career for you.
 
These one-day events give participants an insight into some of the areas that make up a career in academia.
 
The booking form will be available soon, but in the meantime if you would like to be emailed when the booking form is available, please email jonathan.roberts@grad.ac.uk to register your interest.

Graduate skills and development
See below for a full list of courses running throughout March.
 
4th Mar: Foundation for Presentation Skills
4th Mar: Sequence Analysis & Bioinformatics - An Introduction
5th Mar: Personal Development Planning. An Introduction for Research Students
6th Mar: Reading Critically and Analytically in the Health Sciences
12th Mar : Writing about Research with Style and Confidence
13th Mar : Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions
14th Mar: Presentation Skills Workshop
17th Mar: Assessment Centres
18th Mar: Demonstrating in the Laboratory
19th Mar: Writing Development for Research Staff
20th Mar: Working with Others
27th Mar : CVs and Applications
31st Mar: Psychometrics: Practice test session

Just for PostGrads
These pages aim to help you manage your PhD effectively with advice on common research management challenges, overcoming hurdles and links to the best resources. Please click here to browse.

Communicating BBSRC-funded research through the media
If you are BBSRC-funded researcher, communicating through the media is a great way to let people know about the work you are doing. The BBSRC Media Office works to maximise positive coverage of BBSRC and the science it funds. If you are a BBSRC-supported researcher with a story to tell about your work - whether it is BBSRC-supported papers in print, striking images, examples of knowledge transfer or updates about progress in your work, they want to hear from you.
 
The BBSRC Media Office checks all details with researchers before publication and work closely with institutional media teams. To let them know about a story, or for advice and more information please email Matt Goode or call him on 01793 413299. For more general information click here.