Applications are now open for the HSDTC Public Engagement Competitions 2022!
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MONDAY 2ND MAY 2022
Science Communication Prize / Download application form and apply by Monday 2 May 2022
Doctoral research students at King’s doing research in a Health Sciences-related subject are invited to submit entries to the HSDTC Science Communication Prize. First Prize: £300; Second Prize: £150.
We invite you to submit a short ‘newspaper style’ article on your research topic. The article must be based on the research you are currently engaged with, or that your group is doing, whether that be the whole project or one aspect of it. The article should be aimed at a non-specialist audience and be understandable to an interested member of the public.
Science Image Prize / Download application form and apply by Monday 2 May 2022
Doctoral research students at King’s doing research in a Health Sciences-related subject are invited to submit entries for the HSDTC Science Image Prize. First Prize: £300; Second Prize: £150.
We invite you to submit an image which tells your research story. Submitted images should convey the totality or an aspect of the research that you do. Images could show, for example, the subject matter of your research, such as an image of cells or the brain, or research in action, for example the methods, equipment or facilities used in your research.
The winners of the HSDTC Public Engagement Competitions 2021 were announced at an Awards Ceremony at the close of the HSDTC Annual Research Symposium 2021 which was held online on 29 and 30 April 2021.
HSDTC Science Image Competition 2021
An annual contest to find the best images that represent the excellent doctoral research that goes on across the Health Faculties at King’s, with the chance to win £300 and culminating in the shortlisted submissions being displayed in the Symposium Brochure, and an awards ceremony. You can view all of the shortlisted images on our Centre for Doctoral Studies blog post, 'Shortlisted Submissions for the HSDTC Public Engagement Competitions 2021'.
Five submissions were shortlisted, including our winner, Lea Lortal, and runner-up, Andrew Doel:
-
Lea Lortal (winner), Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, with Doing a Lab-based PhD during a pandemic
-
Andrew Doel (runner-up), Department of Women & Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, with New mother Breastfeeding, The Gambia
-
Cathleen Hagemann from FoDOCS, Melanie Le Sayec from FoLSM, and Nicholas Merrild from FoDOCS were also shortlisted.
HSDTC Science Communication Competition 2021
How well can you communicate your research and its significance to non-experts? Last year, participants submitted newspaper style articles for the chance to win £300 and be featured on our website and blog.
To help the participants, we ran a workshop called Science Communication: Writing for a Lay Audience. This offered an opportunity to learn how to summarise doctoral research and write great articles for a general audience: an invaluable resource for communicating your science to the public and for entering the HSDTC Science Communication Competition!
Five fascinating submissions were shortlisted, including the winning submission by Elisa Brann, and the runner-up, Simon Lam:
-
Elisa Brann (winner), Forensic & Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, with A little magic in science: exploring psychosis using hypnosis
-
Simon Lam (runner-up), Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, with Fishing for an Alzheimer’s cure – how researchers use zebrafish to study the brain
-
William Edwards from FoDOCS, Melanie Le Sayec from FoLSM, and Lea Lortal from FoDOCS were also shortlisted.
You can view all of the shortlisted articles on our Centre for Doctoral Studies blog post, 'Shortlisted Submissions for the HSDTC Public Engagement Competitions 2021'.
HSDTC Science Communication Competition 2020
PhD students at King's were invited to submit a short ‘newspaper style’ article on their research topic. The article must have been based on the research they are currently engaged with, or that their group is doing, whether that be the whole project or one aspect of it.
The article should have been aimed at a non-specialist audience and be understandable to an interested member of the public. The judges were looking for articles which: are compelling to read and easily understandable; clearly explain the research being done; answer the question “why does this research matter?”; and are worthy of publication in a national newspaper.
The five shortlisted entries, including our winner, Sogol Salamipour, and our runner-up, Rachel Potterton, are published here:
Rachel Potterton (runner-up) // Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
“I’m not a teenager, I’m 22. Why can’t I snap out of it?” Seeking Help for an Eating Disorder During Emerging Adulthood
Eating disorders (EDs) are serious mental illnesses characterised by disturbances of body image and eating behaviour, experienced by approximately 8% of women and 2% of men during their lifetime.
For most illnesses, professional help is sought shortly after symptoms appear. But those with EDs tend not to seek help quickly enough; Beat, the UK’s largest ED charity, finds the average waiting time to be 2.9 years. During these years of suffering alone, ED sufferers are at particular risk of depression, suicide and a range of physical health complications.
At the Section of Eating Disorders, KCL, our study began with the observation that ‘emerging adults’ (18 to 25-year-olds) are particularly likely to delay help-seeking. We interviewed 14 emerging adults with EDs, finding a consistent set of themes and experiences among them.
Many participants falsely believed that EDs are only possible for those with extreme low-weight and only affect “white teenage girls”. These beliefs contributed to reluctance to seek help amongst those who don’t fit that description. As one participant reported, “I thought if I told any of my friends, they’d just laugh in my face”.
Furthermore, we found that emerging adults often thought they were “too old” to have an ED: “I’m not 16, I’m 22. It's a stupid issue, and I'm ashamed of it.” Instead of seeking professional help, emerging adults tried to “fix” their difficulties themselves, frequently seeking resources online.
This research furthers our understanding of delayed help-seeking amongst emerging adults, highlighting that overly simplistic beliefs about EDs contribute to reluctance to seek help in this population.
Whilst qualitative research such as this gives us a detailed picture of the experiences of a group of people, quantitative research is needed to explore if these findings can be generalised beyond the study’s sample.
Should these results be replicated, policy aimed at connecting patients with professionals faster might usefully focus on diffusing false assumptions around the ethnicity, gender and age of those at risk of an ED.
David Rosen (shortlisted) // Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
New Research Reveals Weaknesses In Cardiovascular Health Check Screening
The Department of Health’s cardiovascular screening program has had a chequered history. Despite substantial long-term investment, it has consistently failed to reach its outcome improvement targets and is seen by many in the Department of Health as not fully justifying its ongoing financial commitment. Meanwhile evidence regarding its failings have continued to mount. A recent paper from King’s College London has revealed new evidence explaining why some patients appear to remain unconvinced when given their test results, with many at high-risk failing to adopt potentially life-saving recommendations.
David Rosen the research paper’s author believes that when risk information is communicated to patients, health professionals assume that individuals will act rationally and in their own best interest. The results from this latest research reveals that patients in fact rarely act rationally when given bad news about their health. In his best-selling book Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow, Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman describes how individuals often fall prey to a raft of cognitive biases when under stress. These can subvert decision making and lead individuals to make flawed and potentially dangerous choices.
Rosen’s research shows that many of these biases appear to be in play during the Health Check process, particularly when the test results are considered ambiguous, confusing or lacking personal relevance. However, when patients were asked to consider the consequences of their inaction and encouraged to consider how much they might regret placing themselves and their family at risk, they were over 40 times more likely to show positive intentions to adopt a more healthy lifestyle. The inclusion of emotive drivers such as anticipated regret can elicit powerful emotive imagery and may be a useful future tool within risk communication.
This latest research reveals powerful new evidence describing how patients respond to risk information regarding their heart health. It comes at a crucial time, when ministers are under pressure to improve the UK’s performance in managing chronic disease and reinforcing the UK’s role as a centre of excellence. This report is likely to be read with interest in the coming days.
Sogol Salamipour (winner) // Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
Can we predict women who will deliver prematurely?
Premature birth is the biggest cause of death in children under the age of five, and each year, it is estimated that 15 million babies are born too soon. Despite extensive research and new treatment options, in almost all countries that have data available, this number is still rising. Whilst many of these babies survive, they are at an increased risk of devastating long-term health conditions.
The good news is that there is treatment available. Three quarters of premature birth deaths could be prevented with our current interventions. So, what exactly is the problem?
The problem is in fact identifying the women who are at risk of delivering early and pinpointing who it will happen to so that they can receive the right treatment.
Researchers at King’s College London have been trying to find ways to predict premature birth. A new technique that recreates a 3D model of the vaginal environment in the laboratory has been developed and could help scientists understand what exactly happens at the cellular level that may be contributing to early birth.
Recent research has shown that the bacteria in the vaginal environment are different in women who deliver prematurely. This finding could be important as different bacteria will generate and leave behind a different metabolic pattern. The group at King’s College London has already started to use their novel laboratory model to test this and have found that certain bacterial metabolites affect the vaginal cells.
So, could the imprint that our microbe friends leave behind, just like fingerprints, help scientists identify who will deliver prematurely? One thing is for sure, although it is still in early stages, the development of such models within the laboratory gives scientists more tools to address this global problem and get a step closer towards finding better clinical tests to predict women who will deliver prematurely and prevent neonatal loss and the devastation that comes with it.
Chantelle Spiteri (shortlisted) // Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences
Organoids: Organs in a dish. It’s Alive!
Frankenstein. To many people, uttering the name of the scientist who built a monster by mix and matching organs together sends a shiver down their spine. To others, it makes them think. What if we had an unlimited supply of organs to experiment with!?
Scientists have come up with such a solution in the form of organoids, which are small clusters of cells functioning a bit like organs. The amazing thing about organoids is that they provide a simple way to model how human organs function, making them a powerful tool to understand diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. Despite the progress, researchers are struggling to control how cells arrange themselves within the organoid other than in radial symmetry. That is the cells on the outside are the same as each other but different from those on the inside. Radial symmetry can be better explained by thinking of an orange cut in half. It consists of the peel surrounding a white fluffy layer which is protecting the fruit. The circular arrangement of these layers represents radial symmetry. The problem is, that without controlling the cells’ arrangement we remain unable to develop fully functional organoids.
So what can be done to develop more representative organoids? Our group at King’s College London has proposed an innovative way to break symmetry. We are growing cluster of cells surrounded by nanoparticles and a few chemicals that need to be delivered inside the cells. Next, we shine a laser at individual cells within the cluster to activate a handful of the surrounding nanoparticles. Fuelled with the laser energy, the activated nanoparticles can rip holes in the nearby cells, allowing for those outside chemicals to make their way through. Once inside, a sequence of events is initialized causing functional changes of that cell and those around it, starting from a single selected point.
In a nutshell, the goal is to organize cells within organoids and build the organ-like structures for the labs of tomorrow. Who knows, maybe patching up a Frankenstein’s monster will not be a myth after all.
Sergio Villicaña Muñoz (shortlisted) // Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
DNA Methylation: the conductor of the symphony of life
Have you ever listened to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? A marvellous interweaving of instruments and voices, the striking melodies and vibrant rhythms were all encoded by Beethoven in a very complex score. However, none of us would know how it sounds without the guidance of a conductor. Conductors are primarily responsible for unifying the performance, setting the tempo, listening critically and ensuring synergy across musicians.
We, as individuals, are somewhat similar to the Ninth Symphony: our genome is the score while a biological process, namely DNA methylation, directs the music. DNA methylation is a chemical modification of our DNA that plays a role as a ‘regulator’ of genes, increasing or decreasing their action and expression into proteins—just as the conductor ‘interprets’ a score and brings music to life.
Recently, scientists at King’s College London studied how DNA methylation patterns are established, and showed that changes in our genome can influence DNA methylation. These changes, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), are variants of ‘notes’ in our DNA code. SNPs make us unique among billions of humans, but can also cause diseases, although it is not always clear how—while some SNPs can disrupt genes directly, many others have less clear consequences. The discovery that SNPs can alter DNA methylation is important as this identifies biological effects on gene regulation, which can also contribute to disease.
In twins, DNA methylation studies are particularly intriguing, because genetically identical twins share their genome, but the methylation patterns of their DNA differ. In fact, to find the genetic drivers of methylation, researchers at King’s work with data from TwinsUK, the largest twin registry in the UK. With them, they test for links between hundreds of thousands of methylation signals against millions of SNPs.
Like a musician performs better at a concert if he knows the score, identifying the interplay between SNPs and DNA methylation can help towards understanding the biological pathways driving human disease susceptibility, and thus, improve their prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.
And so the music of life can go on!
HSDTC Science Image Competition 2020
PhD students at King's were invited to submit an image which tells their research story. Submitted images needed to convey either the totality, or an aspect, of the research that they do. Images could have shown, for example, the subject matter of their research, such as an image of cells or the brain, or research in action, for example the methods, equipment or facilities used in their research.
We were looking for images which might explore the social impact that their research has on a global, population, or individual scale. They may be a true representation of the subject, or manipulated post-production, such as with false colouring; or they could show their research in a more abstract way. We were open to entries created by many techniques, including but not limited to: photography; microscopy; medical imaging; new and emerging imaging techniques; data visualisation; artistic media.
The judges were looking for images which are informative, captivating, and which clearly communicate the research being done.
The six shortlisted entries, including our winner, Kathryn Dalrymple, and our runner-up, Nicholas Groth Merrild, are published here:
Ieva Berzanskyte (shortlisted) // Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
Ability to hack cell connectivity is the key to repairing broken neural networks in human disease and trauma.
Human motor neurons derived in the lab from human embryonic stem cells were plated on a plastic dish coated with protein-rich substrate and neuron growth supportive cells - astrocytes (blue nuclei around the two cells).
Neurons were tagged with an immunofluorescent label for a protein expressed specifically in these motor neurons – choline acetyltransferase. Image was acquired using a confocal fluorescence microscope using ~400 times magnification, and processed with an imaging software Fiji to represent a heat map of protein label intensity in different areas of the cell.
Kathryn Dalrymple (winner) // Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
The shared family environment: determinants of food habits in early life.
This photo was taken in Nepal last summer, of a brother and sister sharing a snack whilst they waited for their mother who was in a local shop. Our dietary habits are influenced by a number of factors, including but not limited to genetics, social and environmental determinants.
The importance for public health and our dietary behaviours is that once these behaviours are developed in early life they track across the life crossed into adulthood. Therefore, if we develop unhealthy habits as a child these tend to stay with us for the rest of our lives.
Recent work published by the Department of Women and Children’s Health at Kings College London highlights that already by age 3, ‘unhealthy habits are associations with higher rates of obesity in children, this includes being more responsive to food, lower feelings of fullness and a high intake of processed and snacking foods.
This photo highlights the role of a shared family environment and food intake and how from a young age we are influenced by a variety of exposures which in turn affect our food intake. This photo was taken on an iPhone, with no post-production editing.
Andrew Doel (shortlisted) // Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
Lactation Counselling, The Gambia
The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding of infants for the first 6 months of life and continued breastfeeding up to two years or beyond, owing to its well established benefits for both mother and infant.
This picture shows a National Nutrition Agency (NaNA) lactation Counsellor, delivering UNICEF accredited infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counselling to a group of new mothers in The Gambia, West Africa.
Levels of breastfeeding in The Gambia are generally good, to a large extent due to it being a cost free form of nutrition for the infant, in a low income context. In recent years, however, urban regions of the country (such as where this picture was taken) have exhibited the beginnings of a ‘Nutrition Transition’, characterised by a move away from traditional diets in preference of westernised foods and altered dietary behaviours. One aspect of this transition is an increase in the use of formula milk and a shift away from WHO recommended IYCG practice. This shift highlights the importance of understanding as clearly as possible, the benefits of breastfeeding in order to support organisations such as NaNA in their efforts to support its promotion.
To this end, a study being conducted by King’s college staff based at the Medical Research Council Unit, The Gambia (MRCG) aims to establish Reference Values (RVs) for micronutrients in human milk. The RVs created will be used as an international reference against which to compare concentrations in different population groups, and it is anticipated that they will become an international standard to be used, for example, to evaluate the effects of nutritional interventions, such as maternal supplementation or national fortification programmes, such as those being conducted by NaNA.
The image was taken on a canon DSLR camera with no post-production manipulation.
Nick Gatford (shortlised) // Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
Actin Filaments in the Growth Cone of a Young Human Neuron
The growth cone is an intricate and complex structure that helps neurons grow and connect during brain development. The internal skeleton of this structure consists of thread-like filaments made of a protein called actin. The latest advancements in human stem cell biology and super-resolution microscopy have allowed us to see these filament structures in developing human neurons in unprecedented detail.
This image shows actin filaments in the growth cone of a young human neuron imaged using structured illumination microscopy at the Wohl Cellular Imaging Centre. The image was deconvolved in Nikon Elements to improve image clarity. Brightness/contrast were then adjusted in ImageJ and a filter was applied to highlight signal intensity. Images such as this offer new understanding of both healthy growth cones and dysfunctional growth cones in brain disorders such as autism spectrum disorder.
Geraldine Jowett (shortlised) // Faculty of Oral, Dentistry & Craniofacial Sciences
Two Faced
Inflammatory type-1 innate lymphoid are a very rare, tissue resident cell type that accumulate in inflamed patient tissues, but we don’t know why they are enriched or what they do. It was assumed they drive primarily inflammation, as they secrete cytotoxic Interferon-, but in my PhD I have discovered that they also secrete anti-inflammatory TGFβ, and that their main impact on the intestine outside the context of acute infection is driving growth and matrix deposition by supporting cells, not cell death.
This is a confocal image of a 20X magnified cryo-section of colon from a patient with Crohn’s Disease. It shows the rings of epithelial crypts, but focuses on the smooth muscle and matrix depositing fibroblasts around them. The image was split in two and overlayed after two different false colourings in FIJI of the immunocytochemically revealed SMA (Magenta left, Cyan right), Vimentin (Orange left, Magenta right), and Nuclei (Cyan dapi left, Orange right), as an artistic representation of the soothing and inflammation.
Nicholas Groth Merrild (runner-up) // Faculty of Oral, Dentistry & Craniofacial Sciences
Hanging by a Thread
Comprised of a web of highly dense, organised and beautiful rope like structural proteins, collagen carries and distributes the tension of the loadbearing connective tissue of joints - articular cartilage (AC). If adult AC is fractured, or otherwise lacerated, reintegration of the two parts is highly unlikely. With no integration, load distribution is suboptimal and contributes to the tissue’s further decline, a condition known as osteoarthritis. This lack of ability to integrate remains a problem for implanting donor cartilage into a host cartilage lesion, as the two will not integrate. It may therefore be that collagen, the glue that holds the tissue together, may be the key to successful integration and tissue longevity. It is quite fitting that the Greek root for collagen is Κόλλα (kolla), literally - glue.
Using a juvenile pig AC wound model in vitro, we can successfully observe integration of the two halves. Having ruled out the generation of new large structural proteins (e.g. no new collagen), no new enzymatic cross-linkers associated with collagen linking, or any macro molecules generally associated with aiding cross-linking, the project appeared to be hanging, literally, by a thread. We have, however, recently identified a promising protein we believe to be contributing to successful integration and remodelling of the existing collagen network. Upon confirming its importance, we aim to leverage this protein for tissue engineering strategies.
Using scanning electron microscopy, this image (width just under 50μm; ~1/20th of a millimetre) shows individual collagen fibres averaging ~100nm (~1/10,000th of a millimetre!) spanning from one cartilage surface to another. The image was cropped to produce the aspect ratio. The original black/white image was false coloured in the yellow and red colour channels in Fiji, and brightness and contrast were adjusted to produce the final image submitted.
HSDTC Science Communication Competition 2019
PhD students at King's were invited to submit a short ‘newspaper style’ article on their research topic. The article must have been based on the research they are currently engaged with, or that their group is doing, whether that be the whole project or one aspect of it. The article should have been aimed at a non-specialist audience and be understandable to an interested member of the public. The judges were looking for articles which: are compelling to read and easily understandable; clearly explain the research being done; answer the question “why does this research matter?”; and are worthy of publication in a national newspaper.
Lucy Ann Chester First Prize
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
Cannabis: Can it be ‘Safe’?
Cannabis sativa, also known as ‘weed’, ‘skunk’ or ‘marijuana’, is the mostly commonly used illicit substance in the world. According to the UK Drug Report 2018, more people are seeking medical help for problems relating to cannabis use than ever before; and whilst some users claim to suffer no ill-effects, evidence has emerged that it can cause addiction and possibly increase the risk of schizophrenia.
Blame is laid on tetrahydrocannabinol, known as ‘THC’. This is the chemical that produces the ‘high’ when taking cannabis, as well as paranoia and addiction in some cases. Cannabidiol, or ‘CBD’, is the second most abundant chemical in cannabis after THC. Whilst the effect of CBD might not feel obvious to users, it has been shown to relieve anxiety and protect against the negative effects of THC.
Crucially, it’s the balance between these two chemicals that determines how cannabis will affect people. But how much CBD do you need to stop cannabis making you unwell? Our study aims to find out.
Since November 2017, our group at KCL have been giving cannabis to healthy, drug-free volunteers in the name of science. At each visit, a participant inhales 10mg THC and either 0, 10, 20 or 30mg CBD, with only a computer knowing exactly which dose they’re getting. When testing is complete, we will be able to determine which ratio of chemicals caused the least problems.
And it’s not just the negative effects of cannabis being monitored; participants are also asked to rate their enjoyment of chocolate, music and the ‘stoned’ feeling itself. This links to the ultimate aim of the study: to find an alternative, safer cannabis. If our ‘safest’ drug is less enjoyable than what’s on the streets, it may not be acceptable to problem users.
Around the world more countries and states are changing the law around cannabis, both as a medicine and a recreational high. Whether the UK will follow suit is up for debate. One thing that is certain, though, is that this discovery will put us when step closer to knowing exactly what is ‘safe’.
Anastasia Paraskevi Aliferi Joint Second Prize
Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
Researchers at King’s College London now have a way to tell your age by examining a single drop of your blood
The Forensic Genetics group at King’s College London have recently published an article in Forensic Science International Genetics describing how they can use blood to estimate someone’s age. Starting with a single blood drop, this method can be used to calculate a person’s exact age give or take 4 years. Acquiring this kind of information from a blood stain can prove crucial for challenging police investigations that could otherwise turn into cold cases.
It has been shown that a person’s DNA sequence can reveal information such as their eye and hair colour, or even indicate their country of origin. Estimating someone’s age, however, is a next level challenge for scientists, as a person’s DNA sequence does not change with age. To overcome this, researchers focused on a chemical modification of the DNA molecules that can deactivate genes without affecting the actual sequence. This modification, called ‘methylation’, turns genes ‘on’ and ‘off’ as we age following a pattern that is yet to be fully understood. However, using artificial intelligence, King’s scientists have now decoded a small fraction of this pattern that can be used to estimate age from DNA.
These findings could help form the next great tool for forensic investigators across the globe. The main application for this technology will be helping the police build profiles for unknown individuals involved in crime investigations. However, forensic units from different countries are already suggesting different angles to take with this tool. Of those, undoubtedly the most ethically controversial is the age verification of immigrants claiming to be minors for legal reasons. In any case, extensive validation is required before this technology is used in real cases, which means there might be years before police officers get their hands on it.
The take home message from this research is that age leaves an imprint on our DNA that we can now decipher. So, you might want to take this into account before celebrating your 28th birthday for the third time.
Emily Read Joint Second Prize
Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
Using mini-guts to model inflammatory bowel disease
New techniques that recreate the gut in a petri dish could help researchers understand the causes of inflammatory bowel disease.
Approximately 1 in 200 people across the UK live with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic condition that causes severe diarrhoea and abdominal cramps. The causes of IBD are unknown, however, factors such as genetics, diet and the bacteria that live in our gut are known to have a role. The complexity of this disease has made it difficult to study, which has limited the number of available treatments.
What is being done?
A recent advance in stem cell technology has allowed researchers to recreate the gut in a petri dish. The technique involves taking stem cells from the lining of the gut and growing them as microscopic ‘mini-guts’ that are also known as organoids. Scientists at King’s College London are growing these mini-guts with the immune cells and gut bacteria that are known to contribute to inflammation in IBD. This system mimics real-life conditions more closely than studying each component individually and reduces our reliance on animal testing.
Why is this research important?
By combining these components in a controlled environment, the researchers are able investigate how the interactions between the lining of the gut, immune cells and bacteria trigger inflammation. Studies have shown that certain bacteria are more common in the gut of patients with IBD. The mini-gut system is being used to understand how these ‘bad bacteria’ create inflammation by compromising the lining of the gut and stimulating gut-resident immune cells. A better understanding of these early events in IBD will hopefully enable development of new targeted therapies.
What’s next?
The researchers hope to create a full human model of IBD in a dish, using stem cells, immune cells and bacteria derived from patients. This will allow them to make comparisons with healthy individuals to find out which disease mechanisms are common in IBD and how they vary person to person. Once established, this system will be used to screen novel IBD treatments.
Laura Meade Shortlisted Entry
Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
Mind the Gap: supporting patients with chronic pain conditions
Researchers at King’s College London are working towards enhancing the treatment of chronic pain. An online intervention of an exercise programme and psychological support is currently being offered to people with chronic pain, such as low back pain and osteoarthritis. 25% of people in the UK suffer from chronic pain, costing the NHS over £5 million per year. Exercise has previously been found to reduce pain and increase quality of life for chronic pain sufferers, but less than half of these patients complete the exercises prescribed by their healthcare practitioner. Existing research shows that patients may benefit from additional resources between their physiotherapy appointments to support their exercise efforts. Lead researcher on the project Laura Meade stated, “many of our participants express frustration with their current care, and that they struggle to manage their conditions”. This online intervention, the MEADE protocol (Managing Exercise ADhErence) works alongside regular physiotherapy by providing psychological support with a type of talking therapy called motivational interviewing and aids patients in developing exercise plans with an exercise app called Physitrack. The intervention provides structured support to patients, helping them address, and overcome, barriers to maintaining their prescribed exercises. The intervention was piloted on ten participants with positive results. Gemma, a patient in the study who suffers from fibromyalgia (widespread pain throughout the body) said “there aren’t really any good opportunities to get psychological support. I think that’s the big gap for people that have chronic pain, and this was just as good as therapy”. Online care is becoming more popular in the NHS and the use of exercise apps and video chats allow for greater accessibility to help patients manage their conditions. The researchers say the next steps are to continue the project with more patients to measure longer term outcomes. These findings may support the increased availability of additional resources to help these patients better manage their chronic pain conditions.
HSDTC Science Image Competition 2019
PhD students at King's were invited to submit an image which tells their research story. Submitted images needed to convey either the totality, or an aspect, of the research that they do. Images could have shown, for example, the subject matter of their research, such as an image of cells or the brain, or research in action, for example the methods, equipment or facilities used in their research.
We were looking for images which might explore the social impact that their research has on a global, population, or individual scale. They may be a true representation of the subject, or manipulated post-production, such as with false colouring; or they could show their research in a more abstract way. We were open to entries created by many techniques, including but not limited to: photography; microscopy; medical imaging; new and emerging imaging techniques; data visualisation; artistic media.
The judges were looking for images which are: informative; captivating; and which clearly communicate the research being done.
Anastasia Aliferi First Prize
Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
Can DNA reveal our age?
Chemical structures called ‘methyl-groups’ attach to our DNA with a different pattern at different stages of our life as they play a key role in controlling the expression of genes. Decoding that pattern can help us estimate someone’s age when all we have available is their DNA, like for example from a crime scene stain. This image is an artistic representation of the topic and was created using Microsoft PowerPoint.
Richard Taylor Second Prize
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
Elucidating the mechanisms of RNA regulation underpinning axon development in zebrafish motor neurons
This image shows cells from zebrafish embryos dissociated 24 hours post fertilisation, and cultured for 6 days in media containing neurotrophic factors. The culture was fixed and stained to visualise all cell nuclei, motor neuron morphology and all neuronal projections. Cell nuclei are labelled by DAPI in blue. Axonal processes from all neurons are labelled red by targeting acetylated-tubulin. Motor neurons, which, in the animal, innervate muscles and induce their contraction, express green fluorescent protein (GFP), and therefore fluoresce green. Neurons seem to cluster and extend out axons toward each other, as well as towards those in neighbouring clusters.
The image was taken during the second year of my PhD, as part of a set of experiments undertaken to optimise the growth of healthy and mutant zebrafish neurons on transwell inserts. Cell bodies sit on top of a Polyethylene Terephthalate membrane whilst neuronal projections grow through tiny pores and adhere to the underside of the membrane.
Following optimisation I was able to sever the neuronal projections from their cell bodies, and collect them for RNAseq. This allowed me to identify all of the RNAs present in growing healthy axons, and compare them to those in mutant axons. By taking this approach, we can learn more about the local regulation of RNAs in axons, which underpins their development. Furthermore, we can also better our understanding of how perturbed local regulation of RNA is relevant to neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS.
Ellie Alberts Shortlisted Entry
Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
Dynamic interplay of immune cells in gut inflammation
This image is human colon tissue, was taken using the imaging mass cytometry technique, where metal tagged antibodies have bound to various immune cells, a few highlighted here (Cyan = E-Cadherin, Red = CD68, Blue = CD45, Magenta = CD4 and Green = CD20). This picture represents the interactions and behaviour of various immune cells within gut homeostasis, and how furthering our understanding of this can contribute to the development of precision medicine when treating patients with intestinal inflammatory disorders. This was taken using the programme MCD viewer, after importing images displaying individual channels into a the software and merging the images.
Rayane Chami Shortlisted Entry
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
We are more than our mean amplitudes
This is a photo of brain activity recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). It portrays my brain activity as I tested the machinery. In this image, every independent horizontal line represents brain activity from one electrode and one part of the scalp. Due to faulty electrodes, the overlaying components can be seen over the expected brain activity, resembling an aquarelle painting. The brain activity from faulty electrodes do not simply merge with activity of other electrodes, they overlay them as independent yet salient reminders of all we cannot yet explain. To me, this image reflects the layers of our identities. Who we are may not be a simple sum of our brain activity, but may also involve all the experiences that science cannot explain yet. We mistakenly learn to see neuroimaging as an infallible and advanced technique, the same way we see our identity as one that remains constant and reliable. Given that this is often not the case, the fluctuation of amplitudes across time is a good representation of the impact our experiences have on who we are. The only manipulation to the image was a black and white filter applied.
Stuart Smith Shortlisted Entry
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
Detecting difference: Change in the brains of children with Rolandic epilepsy in seizure remission
This image represents brain development over four and half years in healthy participants and those with Rolandic epilepsy (RE) between childhood and adolescence. The image was generated using longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and advanced computational techniques which can detect differences in the outer layer of the brain called the cortex at a sub-millimetre scale. This technique is useful in the study of RE, as the epilepsy has no apparent cause, seizures generally stop with or without the use of anti-epileptic drugs and clinical MRI scans will be comparable to those seen in healthy children. What is remarkable about this image is that it shows a difference in brain development between children with RE and healthy children. These images will help in our understanding of the cause and co-occurring cognitive problems in children with Rolandic epilepsy.
Statistically significant thinning (p=<0.05) of the cortex represented in blue, thickening in red. Left half of image: Left brain hemisphere. Right half of image: Right brain hemisphere. Images in columns 2 and 3 corrected for multiple statistical comparisons. Upper row: Changes in cortical thickness in healthy participants, Middle row: Changes in cortical thickness in participants with RE. Lower row: Statistical differences between the two groups, with age as a nuisance factor. The yellow region represents a statistically significant (p=< 0.05) increased thinning of the cortex in children with RE. This region is within the left frontal lobe and extends into the insula. Images were created using the open source Freesurfer software https://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/. Plastic-wrap effect added using Microsoft PowerPoint.
