world - 8 th January 2018 Challenges, Opportunities & Prospects - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The UK’s European university

Moving the fruits of our research into the real world - Challenges, Opportunities & Prospects

8th January 2018 Professor David Wilkinson Professor of Psychology

Setting the scene – why should we bother?

The Problem

“An ageing population that lives longer but not necessarily in better health; rising health inequalities; the increasing influence of unhealthy lifestyle choices; increases in the burden of mental health; the future threat of changing patterns of infectious an respiratory disease, in part due to antimicrobial resistance and air pollution”.

Futures Health Survey, Rand Corporation, 2017.

Setting the scene – why should we bother?

The Problem

“Most of us are receiving good, safe care. However as the system continues to struggle with increasingly complex demand, access and cost, future quality is precarious”.

Care Quality Commission, State of Care, 2016/17.

Setting the scene – why should we bother?

The Problem

“Life expectancy in Medway is lower than the national average. Levels of teenage pregnancy, breastfeeding initiation, smoking, diabetes, and cancer mortality in the under-75s are worse than the national average. Violent crime and long-term unemployment are higher”.

Medway Health Profile, Public Health England, 2017.

First Questions

What kind of translational research do we want to prioritise?

• health care, social care, public health
• technological, pharmacological, behavioural
• ageing, obesity, long-term conditions, anti-microbial resistance,

mental health, primary care

• regional, national, international
• early-, late-stage

As an institution, do we agree that translational research is especially important?

• Are we catering for a need that doesn’t really exist?
• What commitment have local, external partners shown?

What kind of translational research are people currently conducting?

• Where are most people at UoK on the translation pathway?

We can’t formulate the best strategy without first knowing what everyone is already doing.

Translational Pathway

Turning basic research into applicable ideas and products Introducing ideas and products into clinical practice

Cooksey Report, 2006

• clinical collaboration to access

relevant expertise and population

• seed funds to collect preliminary

data to help win-over external funders

• knowledge of relevant methodology
• shift from a theoretical mindset and

tendency to conduct ‘safe academic research’ to one that is more user- focused and high risk

• knowledge of regulatory framework
• industrial collaboration to generate

route to market

• willingness to accept shared
• wnership / reduced academic

freedom

• evidence that (i) care commissioners

will fund the innovation, (ii) doctors will prescribe it, (iii) patients will use it Turning basic research into applicable ideas and products Introducing ideas and products into clinical practice

Translational Pathway

How could we help colleagues move along the translational pathway?

• Run short courses (provided in part by external specialists) to enable students, staff and

local health professionals to develop translational skill sets

• Offer PhD studentships and mini-conferences to seed new cross-school/institutional

collaborations and to develop the next generation of translational scientists

• Facilitate access to public health and other external ‘big data’ archives; support open

access publication, recommission disease registers

• Hold an on-line repository of successful grant and external research ethics applications;

provide a forum for sharing knowledge of downstream regulatory and commissioning processes

• Peer-review grant applications and potential routes to impact; provide additional

strategic steer to KentHealth

• Inaugurate an external advisory board to guide and mentor people seeking to move

beyond the laboratory

• Gate-keep/promote applications to a venture fund
• Coordinate the involvement of local non-academic partners (inc. service users) to help

drive and evaluate our research for the good of the region

What do we want to achieve today?

• Determine the current interest in translational research at UoK
• Determine the barriers to conducting translational research at UoK -

are there bottlenecks or just not enough people fundamentally interested?

• Determine what each School could potentially contribute to / gain

from a cross-disciplinary translational group

• Discuss what, if anything, a cross-disciplinary group could usefully

achieve, identify necessary resources/support, agree the next step.

The UK’s European university

Translational Health Symposium Stages of translation – technology readiness levels

8th January 2018 Carole Barron LF Fellow Director of Innovation & Enterprise

@ICE_UniKent

Kent’s current translation levels – based

• n Kent’s IP

TRL 9 - OCT imaging (SPS); Drug production technologies (Biosciences) TRL8 TRL7 – Development of outcome measures (CHSS & MSOP) TRL6 - Drug development (Biosciences) TRL 5 – Encryption and security (EDA) TRL 4 – Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation(Psychology) , Drug production technologies (Biosciences) TRL 3 Cancer diagnostic (MSOP) TRL 2 Screening technologies (Biosciences) and novel materials (SPS) TRL 1 All technologies

Innovation

Translation Market End-user

(Hot house of ideas) (Adoption) Academia; Businesses; Healthcare Professionals; NHS;

B A R R I E R S

• Accelerator

Funding;

• End-user

engagement;

• Prototyping;
• Funding –

UKRI, VC & IUK;

• Analysis and

feedback;

• Product

development;

• Licencing of

technology;

• End-user

engagement;

• Healthcare

Professional engagement;

• Compliance;
• Stimulate new ideas;
• End-user

adoption training;

• Analysis and

feedback;

• Ideas creation –

next generation;

Common Commercialisation Framework (income generating – sustainability)

B A R R I E R S

Building Capacity in MedTech - Translating innovation from the research base by removing barriers to market

Purpose: New technologies, processes and knowledge regularly emerge from the University research. IP provides opportunities for collaboration, licensing and impact. Presentations from: Dr Gary Robinson, Senior Commercialisation Manager and Marcus Goodall, Technology Transfer Manager, KIE. When and where: January 23rd 2018 1-2pm Grimond seminar room 4

"Routes to Commercialisation: Understanding IP and how to use it"

The UK’s European university

Translational Health Symposium Sources of Translational funding

8th January 2018 Lucy Druesne Deputy Director of Innovation & Enterprise

The aim of the Biomedical Catalyst is to support the development of innovative healthcare products, technologies and processes. Feasibility – The aim of this award is to analyse and evaluate a project’s potential, aimed at supporting the process of decision Primer - The aim of this award is to conduct a technical evaluation of your idea through to proof of concept in a model system – OPEN NOW Deadline: 7th February 2018

https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/71/overview

Early stage – The aim of this award is to support the development of the proof of concept through to design and early prototype testing. Late stage - The aim of this award is to support projects which test a well-developed concept and show its effectiveness in an environment that is relevant to the use of the product or process. – OPEN NOW Deadline: 7th February 2018

https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/79/overview

Innovate UK - MRC Biomedical Catalyst

Part of the same initiative as the Biomedical Catalyst from MRC, however this scheme is for the Business led applications.

Health related Challenges: Accelerating innovative healthcare and medicines: The aim of this challenge is to speed up patient access to new medicines by developing first-of-a-kind technologies for their manufacture. Government will invest £146 million over 4 years in the areas of advanced therapies, medicines and vaccines development and manufacturing. Current calls: ICSF – Medicines Manufacturing CR&D round 2 is due open in March 2018 ICSF – Digital Health Technology Catalyst is due to open January 2018 From data to early diagnosis and precision medicine - The challenge is to combine the wealth of data created by UK researchers with real-world evidence from

• ur health service. The aim is to allow industry to create new products and services

that will diagnose diseases earlier and help clinicians choose the best treatment for individual patients. Calls pending Healthy ageing - The challenge is to innovate and address the challenges of ageing while capturing a growing global market, so older people’s aspirations are met and that better, more effective care can support an independent lifestyle as they age. Calls pending

Innovate UK - Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ICSF)

Innovate UK and the Knowledge Transfer Network will be holding briefing events for the above calls if you are interested in attending please email entfunding@kent.ac.uk

Intended to support the translation of fundamental discoveries toward benefits to human health. Confidence in Concept: Feasibility award intended to accelerate the transition from discovery research to translational development projects by supporting preliminary work or feasibility studies to establish the viability of an approach. Call expected Summer 2018 Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS): funds the pre-clinical development and early clinical testing of novel therapeutics, devices and diagnostics, including “repurposing” of existing therapies. Call Scheduled to open 16 Feb 2018 Deadline 28 March 2018 Further call every 4 months

https://www.mrc.ac.uk/funding/browse/biomedical-catalyst-dpfs/biomedical-catalyst-developmental-pathway- funding-scheme-dpfs-mar-2018/

Regenerative Medicine Research Committee (RMRC): provides support for high quality proposals that may underpin or progress the development of regenerative medicine therapies to improve human health. Call Scheduled to open 22 May 2018 Deadline 4 July 2018 Further call every 4 months

https://www.mrc.ac.uk/funding/browse/biomedical-catalyst-rmrc/biomedical-catalyst-regenerative- medicine-research-committee-mar-2018/

MRC Biomedical Catalyst

Part of the same initiative as the Biomedical Catalyst led by Innovate UK with MRC, however this scheme is for the Academic led applications, doesn’t require business involvement and doesn’t fund the business.

Wellcome Trust –

Innovator award: Developing healthcare innovations that could have a major and measurable impact on human health. Open Call apply at anytime

https://wellcome.ac.uk/funding/innovator-awards

BBSRC –

Follow on Pathfinder - The pathfinder scheme enables potential follow-on funding applicants to secure small amounts of funding to carry out preliminary commercial activities. Open Call apply at anytime

http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/follow-on-pathfinder/

Follow on Fund: Enables researchers who have a sound understanding of the market opportunity for their intellectual assets to execute a defined programme of work of up to two years in length that has clearly defined and complementary technical and business plan development milestones. Calls Scheduled Deadlines 11 April 2018 and 10 October 2018

http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/follow-on/

Wellcome Trust and BBSRC

Funding for collaborative projects between medtech SMEs, universities and the NHS that demonstrate proof-of-principle and have a clear pathway towards adoption and commercialisation. The aim is to de-risk projects, making them attractive to follow-on funders and investors. The expected i4i output is an advanced or clinically validated prototype medical device, technology or intervention Product Development Awards (PDA) - These awards comprise both early and late stages of R&D including the clinical development of laboratory-validated technologies

• r interventions. – Call opens 25th April 2018

Challenge Awards – Challenge Awards are commissioned on an ad hoc basis in areas of existing or emerging healthcare need. The expected output is a disruptive technology with the potential to offer improved outcomes for NHS patients. Current Challenge Award – Mental Health 2017 and 2018 - Applications are invited for the development of innovative technological solutions which can influence the patient care pathway and improve patient outcomes for mental health conditions. – Call opens 1st February 2018

https://www.nihr.ac.uk/funding-and-support/funding-for-research-studies/funding- programmes/invention-for-innovation/

NIHR - Invention for Innovation (i4i)

@ICE_UniKent

Translation – what funding for which stage?

TRL 9 - TRL8 - TRL7 – TRL6 - IUK Biomedical Catalyst Late Stage Award/MRC DPFS/NIHR i4i TRL 5 – IUK Biomedical Catalyst Early Stage Award/MRC DPFS/NIHR i4i TRL 4 – IUK Biomedical Catalyst Primer Award/MRC DPFS/NIHR i4i TRL 3 – IUK Biomedical Catalyst Feasibility Award/MRC Confidence in Concept Scheme/MRC DPFS/BBSRC Follow-on Fund TRL 2 – BBSRC Pathfinder TRL 1 -

The UK’s European university

Moving the fruits of our research into the real world - Challenges, Opportunities & Prospects

8th January 2018 Dr Konstantinos Sirlantzis Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Systems School of Engineering & Digital Arts

• 40 years for Medical-related research
• 19 Academics involved in Medical-related research

applications in the last 5 years

• 1 Academic Joint Appointment with EKHUFT
• 20% of current PhD candidates engaged in

Medical-related research topics

• Long-standing internship programme (Erasmus+)
• Evidence of significant success in funding both

from National and International sources

Translational Research Symposium

Medical research areas [EDA]

• Robotics and Mobility Assistive Technologies
• Assistive Devices for empowering disAbled People through

robotic Technologies (ADAPT)

• Empowerment of Disabled people through the User

Coproduction of Assistive Technology (EDUCAT)

• Facial gestures for accessing assistive technologies (EKHUFT

fellowship)

• Autonomous wheelchair control (SYSIASS)
• Evaluation of the REX Bionics Exoskeleton

Translational Research Symposium

Medical research areas

• Instrumentation and Physiological Measurements
• Biological cell studies
• Diffusion-Reaction Model to Study Cell Signalling in the Ovary and in

the Intestine

• Biomechanics
• Development of a Multiparameter Assessment Tool for Upper Limb

Motion in Neurorehabiliation

• Cardiology
• His-Purkinje system electrocardiology
• Gait analysis & podiatry
• Single element triaxial piezoelectric tranducers
• Neonatology
• Diaphragmatic EMG respiratory monitoring

Translational Research Symposium

Medical research areas

• Telemedicine and Body-worn Sensor Networks
• Adaptive Assistive Rehabilitative Technologies-Beyond

the Clinic

• Epilepsy Networks - Joined up thinking for better care
• KTP Integrating healthcare IoT technologies and

healthcare data analytics

Translational Research Symposium

Medical research areas

• Space for Pre-clinical trials enabling appropriate access

to technology users/patients (T1 Gap – Cooksey report)

• Space charges model to promote the development of

translational research

• Integrated “Shop front” for Medical/Health Technology

Research supported by evidence of knowledge base critical mass and successful funding

• Specialised support providing strategic and long-term

interface to Health Services Providers and related Industry (T2 Gap – Cooksey report)

• Strong interdisciplinary culture to enable efficient

communication and collaborations development

Barriers to translation:

What we can contribute:

• Wide range of technology expertise
• From Computer Vision to Robotics and Measurements
• Biomedical Engineering UG programmes
• Health Engineering Network
• Links to our International Partners
• Currently more than 30 HE Institutions, Health Services providers,

Industry

• Links to our National Partners (including)
• Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network (KSS-

AHSN

• South East Health Technologies Alliance (SEHTA)

How we can benefit from collaborating in a medical thematic grouping?

How we will benefit:

• Improved knowledge of activity in UoK for sharing
• f expertise - Opportunity for collaborative funding

applications

• Possibility of inclusion in EPSRC Doctoral Training

Centre

• Possibility of creating an Evaluation Centre for

Health technology (supported by KSS-AHSN)

• Partner in a Centre for Collaboration in Academic

Health Science (CLAHRC)

• Enhance recruitment for UG, PG and staff to EDA

How we can benefit from collaborating in a medical thematic grouping?

The UK’s European university

Moving the fruits of our research into the real world - Challenges, Opportunities & Prospects

8th January 2018 Professor Ian McLoughlin Head School of Computing, Medway

Translational Research Symposium

Medical research areas

(Medway, Canterbury & both campuses)

• Neuroscience (many projects)
• Vegetative state
• Consciousness
• Parkinsons
• Attention, effort, emotion
• Cognition

Palani Ramaswamy, Howard Bowman, Caroline Li, Srivas Chennu

• Computational speech prosthesis & machine hearing

Ian McLoughlin

• Human motion

Caroline Li

• Dementia and frail elderly care

Ian McLoughlin

• Health data analysis

Alex Freitas, Fernando Otero, Palani Ramaswamy + various smaller projects Most of the school – just talk to us, we are very friendly! Our skills include data visualisation, data analysis, HCI and security.

Translational Research Symposium

Neurodynamics of Consciousness Music + EEG to Determine Coma; Vegetative or non-Vegetative State

Medical research areas – some examples

Caroline Li Srivas Chennu Palani Ramaswamy Ian McLoughlin

• Extreme lack of PhD students – one reason is that
• verseas PhD fees at Kent are prohibitive
• Translational research funding not easy to obtain

for “Computer Science” PIs

• Teaching/research balance at Kent more like post-

1992 institution than Russell Group institution!

• University too Canterbury-centric

Barriers to translation:

What we can contribute:

• Expertise in areas such as neuroscience, speech, AI, machine learning

+ skills in data processing, sensing, analysis, visualisation

• Lots of novel ideas for impactful research projects
• Good research links with Medway Maritime & county Health Informatics

service (10 minutes away), local CCG (4 minutes walk), simulated surgery and general wards (one on-campus, one off-campus)

How we will benefit:

• Potential access to collaborators (to strengthen grant applications)
• Greater institutional recognition of the excellent research being done on

the Medway campus

• Confidence to realistically target more ambitious research funding

How we can benefit from collaborating in a medical thematic grouping?

The UK’s European university

Moving the fruits of our research into the real world - Challenges, Opportunities & Prospects

8th January 2018 Professor David Wilkinson Professor of Psychology School of Psychology

• ‘Dementia Gardens’ (Swift)
• Development of new QoL assessment tools in dementia (Brown)
• Phase I - III clinical trials assessing the efficacy and safety of neuro-

stimulation in neurological disease: Parkinson’s Disease, Stroke, Migraine, Traumatic Brain Injury (Wilkinson, Javedi, Forrester)

Current Applied Research Areas - Psychology

• Neuropsychiatric outcomes in military veterans (Wilkinson)
• Mental health in gang members / imprisoned offenders (Wood,

Vasquez, Gannon & Tyler)

• Development of a new behavioural treatment for fire-setters

(Gannon & Tyler)

• Social and communication deficits in Autism, the elderly and other

specialist groups (Ferguson, Bergstrom, Williams, Ponari, Abbott- Smith)

Barriers to translation:

• Access to NHS patients, health professionals and clinical research

infrastructure (i.e. fMRI, polysomnography, clinical test space)

• Bureaucratic, opaque nature of gaining NHS research ethics

approvals

• Not knowing where in the University to find relevant theoretical and

methodological expertise

• Finding the resources to generate pilot data and then having time to

write the grant applications

• Lack of senior strategic steer / incentivisation

School of Psychology

Contribute:

• Subject-specific expertise in mental / neurological health
• General expertise in experimental design (inc. survey design, clinical

measurement) and qualitative (i.e. conversation analysis) and quantitative (i.e. mediation analyses) statistics

• State-of-the-art facilities for manipulating and measuring

neurobiological function and overt behaviour

• Established links with local NHS trusts (KMPT, EKHUFT), 10 and 20

schools, prisons, community groups (Margate Task Force, U3A), and charities (Age UK, Parkinson’s UK, Combat Stress)

What can we contribute/gain from a thematic grouping?

Gain:

• Access to technological & biomedical expertise
• More involvement in cross-disciplinary projects
• Better understanding of how to navigate the translational pathway

The UK’s European university

Moving the fruits of our research into the real world - Challenges, Opportunities & Prospects

8th January 2018 Darren Griffin

Programme Director MSc Reproductive Medicine: Science & Ethics

School of Biosciences

• Taking the lead in the University’s Science Expansion Plan,
• iBaMM, the Institute for Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine.
• Re-structuring to 5 research themes
• Supporting staff in the production an increased number of high quality research and enterprise outputs
• Increasing the School’s competitiveness in bidding for external research funding
• Enhancing the one-to-one support of colleagues
• Encouraging interaction and collaboration within the School and with external

collaborators/stakeholders, promoting interdisciplinary research

• Embedding, and further expanding upon, the School’s strong impact culture,

targeting support for impact activities

• Expanding the post-graduate taught (PGT) and post-graduate research (PGR) provision
• Increasing the internal and external visibility of the research and enterprise activity
• Aiming for an impressive return in REF2021 (impact cases)

Translational Research Symposium

Biosciences Research Strategy

Current Applied Research Areas Biosciences

1. INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

• Next generation biotherapeutics, vaccines, recombinant proteins
• Warren, Smales, Robinson, Robinson
• Computing, EDA, MSOP, Algacytes,

2. CANCER AND AGE RELATED DISEASES

• Cancer Drug Resistance and Therapeutics
• Garrett, Michaelis
• CRUK, Crick, Royal Marsden

3. INFECTION AND DRUG RESISTANCE

• Pathogens, Infectious Disease and Public Health
• Bacteria, viruses, yeast
• Tuite, Von der Haar, Gourlay, Shepherd, Rossman, Tsaousis, Buscaino, Blomfield, Xue

4. CELLULAR ARCHITECTURE AND DYNAMICS

• Biosensors and Muscle Disease
• Geeves, Mulvihill, Toseland, Kad, Goult

5. REPRODUCTION, EVOLUTION AND GENOMICS

• Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Reproductive Medicine,
• ‘Omics and biotechnology for food production
• Griffin, Ellis, Wass
• London Women’s Clinic, CISoR, Paragon, JSR Genetics

• Whole genomic analysis to improve fertility outcome in

humans and domestic animals (Griffin)

• Fungal Colonization and Early Failure of Voice

Prosthesis Following Total Laryngectomy (Gourlay)

• Novel expression technologies for the synthesis of

biotherapeutic recombinant proteins at industrial scale (Robinson, Smales)

• Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Sleeping Sickness (Rooney,

Smales)

• Preclinical studies to aid clinical development of the

experimental cancer drugs (Garrett, Michaelis)

Translational Research Symposium

Current Translational Research Priorities

• ££££ (internal pump-prime funding)
• Facilities (e.g. labs that companies can’t refuse)
• Help with applied grant writing (LINK, KTP,

Innovate UK)

• Shared experiences
• Time
• Sometimes to be left alone

Translational Research Symposium

How to Facilitate Translation

• Shared experience
• Help in grant writing
• Advocates internally and externally

Translational Research Symposium

What can we contribute/gain from a thematic grouping?

Case Study

• Established pig (and cattle) screening service

for fertility

• Developed commercially available FISH based

screening kit for pigs (cattle kit is in progress)

• Over 1,000 cases
• 15 customers in 10 countries
• Income ploughed back into lab to fund PhD students
• Significant changes to breeding programme in

Denmark as a result of screening

• Each abnormality
• What the University did right
• Helped us write a KTP grant
• Helped us administer it
• Press releases
• Weren’t “grabby” for the modest income

CISoR (Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Reproduction)

• A lot of academics and their commercial partners from different disciplines with a lot in common
• A working on something to do with the following

1) Assisting human reproduction 2) Barriers to human reproduction 3) Non-human reproduction

• In the following areas

1) Inter-disciplinary research 2) Impact, knowledge exchange and enterprise 3) Communication, policy, public debate, consultation, media; 4) Education, training and skills

• Finding an excuse to get together

– Often, and an enjoyable way – Networking

• Collaborative ventures that might not otherwise have happened

– Such as academic-industrial projects

• Celebrate achievements
• We have some experience with interdisciplinary groupings

Dr Gurprit Lall

Barriers to Translational Research

• Collaborators
• NHS
• Clinicians- contacts and availability for research - time and funds are

restricted.

• Funding
• Ethics – can be a perceived barrier
• Knowing where to go- Infrastructure.
• Kent specific:
• Communication across School and Faculties- promote common interests

and synergistic collaborations.

• Cross campus links- difficult, but not impossible.

Thematic Groupings- Contributions and Gains

Areas of Research within our School:

• Biological Sciences

– Neuroscience/ Behavioural Neuroscience – Immunology – Virology – Renal physiology

• Chemistry and Drug Delivery

– Pharmaceutical drug delivery – Medicinal Chemistry – Material Science

• Pharmacy Practice

– Public Health – Medicines Optimisation

Current Applied Research Areas: Medway School of Pharmacy

• Atrial Fibrillation screening programme of the over

65’s.

• Medway School of Pharmacy in collaboration with cardiologists

from the Medway Maritime Hospital, GPs and clinical pharmacists from local practices.

• Stroke
• Medicine management and care for stroke survivors.
• Alternative medicines/ therapies
• Effectiveness and use of Herbal therapies in the management
• f disease.
• Light therapy and depression.
• Leukaemia Biomarkers.
• LPHN1 has been found to be a biomarker for human Acute

The UK’s European university

Moving the fruits of our research into the real world - Challenges, Opportunities & Prospects

8th January 2018 Dr Karen Hambly Senior Lecturer & Lead for Sports Therapy, Physical Activity & Health Research Group, School of Sport & Exercise Sciences

• Exercise as therapy – Parkinson’s, APS, cardiac, stroke,

respiratory, COPD, low back pain & musculoskeletal injuries

• Exercise induced symptoms & behaviour
• Compliance, effectiveness & impact in real world populations
• Intensity/dosing & practical implications
• Exercise for prevention and general health
• Perceived effort in physical activity behaviour
• Use of stimulants to enhance exercise adherence
• Clinical Practice Guidelines – International & European
• Musculoskeletal rehabilitation – cartilage repair, knee,

hamstring, morphology of thoracolumbar fascia

• Functional movement biomarkers & novel technologies – EMG

shorts, stretch sensors, respiratory vests, load insoles

• Immune function & illness risk/vaccination responses

Current Applied Research Areas - SSES

• Clinician input & involvement
• Access to clinical populations (and control groups)
• Funding avenues
• Ability to carry out large trials
• Staffing & allocated research time
• Cultural resistance to new interventions

Barriers to translation:

What we can contribute:

• In vivo research expertise - biochemical, physiological &

measurements in humans

• Experience in working with clinical populations
• Enthusiastic, motivated team with range of expertise in

interdisciplinary research

• How we will benefit:
• Interaction with variety of experts, clinicians & patients
• Better networks & increased critical mass
• Enhanced grant capture/success
• Increased quality & impact of research

How we can benefit from collaborating in a medical thematic grouping?

The UK’s European university

Moving the fruits of our research into the real world - Challenges, Opportunities & Prospects

8th January 2018 Professor Adrian Podoleanu Professor of Biomedical Optics School of Physical Sciences

• Applied Optics Group
• Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary

Science

• Functional Materials Group
• Forensic Imaging Group

Translational Research Symposium

[School of Physical Sciences]

Applied Optics Group

Adrian Podoleanu Adrian Bradu George Dobre Michael Hughes

RESEARCH PG EDUCATION ENTERPRISE

BIOMEDICAL OPTICS LASERS SENSING

OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY

PG EDUCATION 3 Marie Curie Early Stage Training sites

• 3. European Industrial Doctorate, 1.4M Euros, 2014- 2018,

pool of supervisors drawn from all schools in the FoS, UCL-Inst. Ophthalmology, Northwick Park Hospital London, Technical University of Denmark, Optos

• 2. “HIGH RESOLUTION OPTICAL MEASUREMENTS AND

IMAGING” (HIRESOMI), 3 HEs and 2 SMEs in Europe, 2.4 MEuros, 2006-2010, 11 PhD students and 11 short term early stage researchers, two workshops and a Summer School;

• 1. “Training in optical devices, configurations and

techniques applied in biomedical optics”, Marie Curie Training Site, Euro: 200K, 2002-2005, 8 PhDs for a duration

• f 10 months each;

• 4 licence agreements
• Over 20 patents protecting OCT technology
• 1 patent licensed to Optopod Ltd/UoK
• 1 patent to be exploited jointly with NUI, Galway
• Innovate UK on a functional OCT for the eye
• i4i NIHR, dual OCT probe head at Northwick Park

Hospital, London

• Translation of enface OCT technology to OTI,

Opko, Optos PLC, Scotland.

ENTERPRISE

Epithelium Bowman layer Stroma Endothelium

Finger skin

Dental constructs Art conservation

Drosophila

Cornea

Cornea

OCT IMAGES

RETINA

Tympanic membrane

Epithelium Bowman layer Stroma Endothelium

Cornea

OCT IMAGES

1ST eye OCT in NY 1ST eye OCT in Japan 2005 1ST eye OCT in Europe

1st OCT/SLO at the Institute of Ophthalmology London EPSRC 2000

Dental constructs

Cornea

RETINA

Art conservation

Finger skin

Tympanic membrane

Drosophila

Epithelium Bowman layer Stroma Endothelium

RETINA

Cornea

1ST eye OCT in NY 1ST eye OCT in Japan 2005 1ST eye OCT in Europe

1st OCT/SLO at the Institute of Ophthalmology London EPSRC 2000 System at Northwick Park Hospital NIHR i4i 2012 Larynx

Dental constructs

Cornea

OCT IMAGES

Art conservation

Finger skin

Tympanic membrane

Drosophila

Epithelium Bowman layer Stroma Endothelium

OCT endoscope

• St. Mary

IC/HC 2015 En-face System at Northwick Park Hospital NIHR i4i 2012

Cornea

2016, Innovate UK, Optos Scotland High potential to extend results to other medical imaging and non destructive testing applications

Tympanic membrane

OCT IMAGES

1ST eye OCT in NY 1ST eye OCT in Japan 2005 1ST eye OCT in Europe

1st OCT/SLO at the Institute of Ophthalmology London EPSRC 2000

Dental constructs

Cornea

RETINA

Art conservation

Finger skin

Drosophila

Functional Materials Group

• Dr. Anna Corrias
• Dr. Robert Barker
• Dr. Gavin Mountjoy

Translational Research Symposium

Dr Anna Corrias Magnetic nanoparticles for MRI contrast agents and hyperthermia Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are good alternatives to current contrast agents since they are non-toxic. The same superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can be exploited to kill tumor cells by selective hyperthermia. Gavin Mountjoy ‘Bioactive’ glass puts minerals back into damaged teeth Bioactive glasses stimulate the formation of the bone mineral apatite, Collaborators at QMUL have launched new BioMinC toothpaste

Translational Research Symposium

Rob Barker Bridging the Gap Between Biology, Physics, Chemistry & Engineering: From Fundamentals to Application

Using Physics to Understand Biology at Sub-nanometer Resolution Microfluidic Devices for Real-Time Disease Monitoring & Diagnostics Systems Remote Sensors for Real-Time Monitoring & Epidemiology in Plants and Animals

Functional Materials Group

Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science

• Dr. Robert Barker
• Dr. Jingqi Miao

Translational Research Symposium

Rob Barker Bridging the Gap Between Biology, Physics, Chemistry & Engineering: From Fundamentals to Application Dr Jingqi Miao fluid dynamics, applications in health (biological) science Synergy with Applied Optics Group,

• n

OCT Angiography with no injection

Microfluidic Devices for Real-Time Disease Monitoring & Diagnostics Systems

• 1. Barriers to translation:
• Lack of clinical guidance, not possible to image

patients, unless collaboration with external collaborators (Medical School?);

• Our competitors develop activity in engineering

centres associated to training hospitals: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston/Wellman Lab+Schepens Eye Research Institute, Northwestern University, Bascom Palmer Miami, etc, in UK: UCL, Imperial College + St. Mary.

• Can we create a white clean space

associated to the local hospitals where patients can be seen by clinicians from local hospitals, with us assisting?

REFLECTIONS ON BARRIERS TO TRANSLATION

External links, AOG maintains 8 active links with 3 hospitals in London, 1 in USA, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Romania, 1 in NZ Associated status to staff from 6 such sites: USA, Denmark, Romania, Ashford, Maidstone, London. Some contributed to PG teaching and student visits.

Translational Research Symposium

How to compensate for the lack of a medical school?

Quite time consuming, WAM in SPS had no component on the extra time required for nurturing these links and for the associated ethical approvals.

Could the WAM be adapted to reward those involved in translation?

• 2. Barriers to translation:
• At the current level of developments, the most

successful groups are those that produce best quality images. All core Physics is the same for all OCT competing groups, what makes the difference is the image quality that comes from good electronics, good signal processing, good image processing (Engineering);

• At academic level, the cost obtainable on a

licence is not given by the core Physics of the OCT system but by the extra Engineering developed around it.

• (More interdisciplinary PhD positions, for joint

supervision, allocated to two or more schools can secure a good product to be licensed for more added value)

SPS

Contribute:

• Inter-schools collaboration, Field Programmable Gate

Array (FPGA) from EDA

• Inter-schools collaboration, Graphics Processing Unit

(GPU) from Computing

• Segmentation, variance imaging, image processing

protocols developed by EDA and Computing

What can we contribute/gain from a thematic grouping?

Gain:

• AOG can concentrate on the Optics
• A better price for the University when

negotiating the licence

• 3. Barriers to translation:
• Too small in comparison with close (London

based) competing big players

• BRCs in South East received over 1 b in the

last 5 years

• Clusters of engineering and clinical groups,

research institutes

• UCL research
• Kent less known, or less visible in proximity to

London structures, clinical translation from AOG and translation of materials from other SPS groups eclipsed by the big players

SPS

New initiative: detecting deception with OCT, Howard Bowman, School of Computing

By strengthening our interdisciplinay cross schools interaction and bridging the gap, to enhance our visibility 1PhD School of Pharmacy (G. Lall/V. Gubala) 1PhD Electronics and Digital Arts (P. Lee, S. Moser) 1PhD School of Computing (F. Barnes/K. Kapinchev) 1PhD School of Biosciences (D. Griffin, G. Robinson)

• 1. How to compensate for London eclipsing us?

Could Interdisciplinary PhDs awarded on a competitive basis be a solution?

0.7 mm

• 2. How to compensate for London

eclipsing us?

Strategic links to enhance our visibility: a) Specsavers announced rolling of OCT to 740 practices on the High Street, KIE (Jackie Fotheringam)+AOG, can we be involved in training their technical staff? b) MedCity (collaboration between the Mayor of London, Imperial

College Academic Health Science Centre, King’s Health Partners, UCL Partners, Cambridge Health Partners and Oxford Academic Health Science Centre), KIE (Heather Cobb), CEO

visit already planned

• 3. How to compensate for London

eclipsing us?

ANSWER: Simply, by being part of it, strengthening current links with London structures

• a. Mark Green: memorandum of understanding

between UCL and Kent. This is not confined to materials, signed by David Price as Vice Provost for Research, and covers all of UCL.

• b. Project partners on a number of initiatives. New

computer (around £6m), microscope, NMRs, XRDs etc around about £7m. The equipment is at UCL but we can use it as internal users.

• b. Applied Optics Group

BRC-UCL Institute of Ophthalmology London, Visual assessment, 2017-2020, £178,529 Robotic Endobranchial Optical Tomography, joint EPSRC EP/N019229/1 with Imperial College, Hamlyn Centre (HC), £429,776, 1/05/2016-30/04/2019 Ultra thin rotating engine, 1 mm diameter

• 3. How to compensate for London

eclipsing us?

SOLUTION to avoid being eclipsed by London: by being very part of London structures. We need to remain competitive in order to be favoured and be attractive. Would the University consider extra support to maintain such existing links?

Could Interdisciplinary PhDs awarded on a competitive basis be a solution, to those developing joint research with co- supervision from Imperial and UCL?

We are in a continuous competition with others and those in the top leagues translate and translate well

Being small does not mean that we are destined to be ignored and neglected by big players, but individual current niche success can only be perpetuated,replicated and maintained by institutional support!

Translational Research Symposium

Thanks for your attention

Open Discussion

Next Steps……… Professor David Wilkinson