April 2017 LSI Staff Update

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QMUL
 

Our joint statement of intent with Barts Health NHS Trust (BHT) in January heralds a new third phase of Life Sciences. This will require expanded planning and development work and a number of changes are being planned to our oversight and governance arrangements. This edition of the quarterly LSI staff update contains some information on this as well as on upcoming opportunities and events within the LSI Research Centres, public engagement and researcher development.

If you have any queries about the news within this update, or you want to find out more about the LSI, please contact me at lifesciences@qmul.ac.uk.

Best wishes,

Bill

Professor Bill Spence
Life Sciences Initiative Interim Director and Vice-Principal (Research)
vp-res@qmul.ac.uk

Overview

The development of the QMUL Life Sciences Initiative (LSI) has proceeded in three phases:

Phase One – 2013/14

The overall opportunity was scoped and the interest and expertise in Life Sciences (LS) across QMUL was explored.

Phase Two – 2015/16

Structured leadership was installed and four LS-badged research centres were identified, with investment directed into these whilst still allowing some seed funding for other initiatives. This was aided by the growth of the LS PhD cohort; LS-badged educational programmes; our community, public and patient engagement (CPPE) activities; equality and diversity, and researcher development work.

Phase Three – 2017/18

We plan to build upon the statement of joint intent with BHT in order to fully plan for the physical development of the LSI. The new 40,000 square metre development provides enormous opportunities – this area is equivalent in size to about six Graduate Centres. Set within a larger LS campus development in Whitechapel, it will make use of the full site and the opportunities provided by adjacency to the Royal London Hospital and key parts of the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

The development will include teaching, public engagement, research and innovation (including bioincubator) spaces, as well as partnership areas, attracting pharma and informatics companies, university and other partners, alongside offices and staff and student accommodation.

A new governance structure for the LSI is being put in place. This will include an overall Steering Group and three key groups with oversight of the estates developments, the academic work, and external relations. A new part-time position of Dean for Life Sciences will be advertised soon, and the person in this post will lead the academic work. The search for a permanent Director of Life Sciences is also expected to be started during 2017/18, once land agreements are finalised. The new governance structure will also mesh with new joint oversight arrangements with BHT that are being agreed.

Education update

Applications for undergraduate programmes coming under the Life Sciences umbrella have been healthy overall, with some individual variations. Newer programmes in Global Health, and Pharmacology and Innovative Therapeutics are seeing significant increases in applications. The quality of applicants remains strong, reflected by a high number of conditional offers. Postgraduate programme applications are consistently higher than at this time last year.

Early March saw the second LSI Open Day, where applicants were invited to consider an alternative degree within the Life Sciences. Led by Professor Lucinda Hall, Life Sciences Initiative Deputy Director of Education, the day included round table discussions with current students and academic staff and this has been a factor in leading to approximately 200 students accepting places on alternative courses.

Research update

PhD studentships

The quality of proposals received for the LSI PhD studentships was extremely high, and six studentships have been funded across the three faculties.

LSI Centre for Genomic Health

Sponsoring 10 places on three-day express course

The ‘School of Genomic Medicine’ is a three-day ‘express’ course directed at clinicians and other healthcare professionals who may be interested to learn about genomics but don’t have the time to undertake a full time MSc course. The LSI Centre for Genomic Health is sponsoring 10 places for both clinical and non-clinical staff on a competitive basis. Click here for more information and to apply.

East London Genes & Health – 20,000 volunteers milestone

Earlier this year, the East London Genes & Health community-based genetics study reached the milestone of 20,000 gene samples volunteered by the local community. The study aims to improve health among people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage in east London by analysing the genes and health of 100,000 local people.

LSI Centre for Bioengineering

EPRSC-CDT application

With a primary focus on student support, the centre is also building proposals for Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) applications, offered by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). If approved, select students receive four years of funding, training in research and technical skills and networking opportunities between university teams and industry.

Bioengineering seminar series, Spring 2017

LSI Centre for Computational Biology / Mind in Society

Machine learning in deep neural networks

The School of Physics and Astronomy held a colloquium on Friday 31 March, welcoming guest speaker David Barrett, College Research Associate at St John’s College, Cambridge and researcher at Google DeepMind. This engaged an enthusiastic audience with the leading edge of machine learning and computational neuroscience developments.

MedCity Collaborate to Innovate (C2I)

MedCity announced the winners for their £2m programme (which matched SMEs - small-medium enterprises - with partner institution academic research groups with complementary expertise) to commercialise life sciences discoveries at their launch event earlier this month.

Representatives from the Business Development team (who worked closely with MedCity and SMEs to match-make potential ideas with prospective research groups in QMUL) and the LSI were in attendance alongside the awardees.

Congratulations to Professor Tim Warner

We would like to congratulate Tim Warner on his appointment as Director of the Blizard Institute, and to thank him very much for his excellent work as LSI Deputy Director (research and innovation).

Upcoming events

2017 LSI Image Awards

LSI are seeking outstanding and engaging images produced by QMUL staff, students and members of the local community. Shortlisted images will be displayed to the public locally in Whitechapel and will be exhibited at a public prize-giving event on Wednesday 31 May, with the overall winner also receiving an Apple iPad Pro with Apple pencil.

Entries will be judged by a panel led by Bill Spence and representatives from the LSI, London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the Wellcome Trust.

Further entry guidance including how to submit your image can be found here. Entries must be received 5pm on Tuesday 2 May.


London Life Sciences SEHTA event - Thursday 8 June

SEHTA (South East Health Technologies Alliance) have been commissioned by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to deliver ‘London Life Sciences’ – an event on behalf of QMUL and BHT – to promote the plans for the initiative to SMEs and other industry representatives. The half-day event will be held on Thursday 8 June, 9.30am-2.30pm, in the Perrin Lecture Theatre at the Whitechapel campus, and will be an opportunity to network with industry and small businesses. Further details will be circulated in due course. Register your place via Eventbrite.

Community, Public and Patient Engagement (CPPE)

Public engagement training

The Centre for Public Engagement (CPE) are running training to provide introductions to ‘Engaging the Community’ and ‘Working with Policy Makers’. The team will take you through the public engagement theory and provide practical examples to create a strong base to start planning your work to engage with these two external groups. Read more and book a place at: www.qmul.ac.uk/publicengagement/cpe/training.

Can a child understand my research? - Wednesday 5 April

Join the Centre of the Cell team for an interactive training session where they take you through the tips and tricks of communicating with children and young people. With props, stories and nearly 10-years of experience running engaging events for local schools and families, this is a training session not to be missed! Register your attendance via the Life Sciences website.

Image in heading banner courtesy of Kseniya Shuturminska