Scientists in LIMM are leading a worldwide trial testing a multimillion-pound robot that could significantly reduce the risk of bowel cancer returning against standard keyhole techniques (July 2011) - click here for further information.
LIMM researchers use a library of DNA to create a vaccine that could be used to treat cancer (June 2011). More information available here.
Judith McKenna, Asda’s Chief Financial Officer, visited LIMM on 17th June 2011 to see the Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank. The workings of the Tissue Bank were explained to the Asda colleagues, together with a tour of the facilities in LIMM. Asda is the founding partner of this ground breaking initiative which sees the Breast Research Group at LIMM, headed by Val Speirs and Andy Hanby, working with 3 other centres around the country as one national resource. The Tissue Bank is expected to provide easier access to good quality tissue and ensure that laboratory research is accelerated from the lab to the clinic to benefit breast cancer patients.
Professor David Jayne (Translational Anaesthetic & Surgical Sciences) is Chief Investigator in the ROLAAR trial. The trial will show whether robotic assistance makes it easier to remove bowel tumours using laparoscopic or 'keyhole' techniques and whether using this approach makes the cancer less likely to come back. For more information click here.
Dr Nic Orsi (Section of Pathology) and his collaborators in the Gynaeoncology Group have been awarded £250K by Wellbeing of Women to study the role of lipid signalling molecules in endometrial cancer.
Dr Phil Burns (Section of Pathology) has been appointed Academic Sub-Dean within the School of Medicine.
The Section of Pathology & Tumour Biology in LIMM has been chosen to house the Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank. Click here for further information.
Dr Nick West, academic clinical fellow from the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, has been awarded the British Oncological Association’s Young Investigator Award. Click here for further information.
LIMM was visited by His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent GCVO earlier in November along with supporters of Yorkshire Eye Research. During his visit Prince Michael of Kent, who is the Patron of the National Eye Research Centre, was briefed on on-going eye research in LIMM and toured the facilities here. For more information click here.
The Section of Pathology & Tumour Biology are currently celebrating three student winners. Click here for full details.
Professor Tim Bishop will lead a new Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-funded Centre based at the University of Leeds. The Centre is a new partnership between the University of Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) and CRUK which will provide a framework to strengthen existing work in defined areas of cancer research as well as foster links between scientists and clinicians within the partner organisations. More information can be found here.
Professor James Walker has been elected as Senior Vice President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists for a three year term. He will have special responsibility for International Affairs and this will help to promote the Institute and Leeds University nationally and overseas."
Professor Conny Bonifer has published a landmark paper in Nature Medicine on the involvement of Junk DNA in Hodgkin's lymphoma. The research was carried out by Professor Bonifer and her research group in LIMM in collaboration with Charité University Medical School and the Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin, Germany. The published paper can be read on the Nature Medicine website (see here). A podcast discussing the work has also been released (See here - click on "Going Retro"). The work has also attracted the attention of several national newspapers and has been published as a press release by the University (see here).
Dr John Chester has made national news with the publication of his paper on retargeted gene therapies in Nature Gene Therapy. Dr Chester’s research was endorsed by Cancer Research UK as having “real benefits for patients”. The Nature Gene Therapy paper can be accessed here and the article in the Guardian can be accessed here. The University of Leeds press release about this work can be seen here.
The LIMM Postgraduate Symposium took place on 16th April in the Wellcome Trust Brenner Building, St James’s University Hospital.
The Keynote Speaker was Professor Sir Tim Hunt FRS from the London Research Institute (Nobel Laureate, 2001, for his discovery of the cyclins) who gave a talk entitled ‘Getting in and out of mitosis; very simple, but more complicated than I realised’.
Thirteen LIMM research students from various Sections within LIMM gave talks on their work and posters were presented during the lunchtime session.
Prizes were awarded to the LIMM students who gave the two best talks and the best poster:
Best talk winner:
James Poulter (Section of Ophthalmology & Neuroscience) - prize sponsored by Thermo Fisher
Best talk runner up:
Urszula Burska (Section of Molecular Gastroenterology) - prize sponsored by The Ritchie Charitable Trust
Best poster winner:
Rosalyn Jewell (Section of Epidemiology & Biostatistics) - prize sponsored by Thermo Fisher
The event was sponsored by Thermo Fisher and The Ritchie Charitable Trust.
The Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine celebrated Darwin Day on November 24th 2009 in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species (which was published on 24th November 1859) and 200 years since Darwin's birth.
External lectures were given by Dr Gordon Chancellor from the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex; Professor Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London; and Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, Royal Society Wolfson Professor at Leicester University.
The 4th UK Mesenchymal Stem Cell Meeting will take place on the 14th April 2010 - more.
The British Association of Cancer Research (BACR) Administrtive Secretariat is to be located in the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine from 2010 - more.
Professor Alex Markham, Head of the Section of Translational Medicine, has received an honorary degree from the University of York for his significant contribution to medical sciences.
David Westhead, Professor of Bioinformatics in the Faculty of Biological Sciences, will be joining LIMM as a Visiting Professor of Bioinformatics to consolidate and expand on the current collaborations with the genomics interests in the Institute. Initially Professor Westhead will be spending one day a week in the Wellcome Trust Brenner Building and we hope in the future to extend the collaborative activity.
Professor Terry Rabbitts will be joining the Council of the Academy of Medical Sciences from 2009 (see http://www.acmedsci.ac.uk/p66.html or for more information on the AMS see http://www.acmedsci.ac.uk).
Professor Sir Alex Markham, Head of the Section of Translational Medicine in LIMM, received the award of Doctor of the University of Stirling earlier this month, in recognition of his contribution to the prevention of cancer. The award was conferred at the University's graduation ceremony which was held in St Andrew's Cathedral in Inverness on 7th November.
Paul Ko Ferrigno's work on "Electrical Protein Detection in Cell Lystates" was a winner in the Technology category of the 4th annual Nano 50 awards. These recognise the top 50 technologies, products and innovators that have significantly impacted - or are expected to impact - the state of the art in nanotechnology. The work was a collaboration between Paul Ko Ferrigno in the Section of Experimental Therapeutics in LIMM with physicists and engineers including Professor Giles Davies, Dr Christoph Walti, Dr Dave Evans and Dr Steve Johnson.
Craig Jordan, Visiting Professor of Molecular Medicine in LIMM, was admitted as a new Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in July - more.
Professors Pamela Rabbitts and Terry Rabbitts have been awarded a five year programme grant from Yorkshire Cancer Research to establish the YCR Centre for Pre-Cancer Genomics - more.
Professor Craig Jordan, Visiting Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, has been awarded the prestigious David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award for his demonstration of the effectiveness of tamoxifen in breast cancer and creation of designer oestrogens - see link.
Professors Tim Bishop and Pamela Rabbitts have been elected as Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (May 2008). They are among this year's election from the United Kingdom's leading medical researchers and their election to the Academy Fellowship recognises their excellence in medical science.
Professor Paul Emery, Head of the Section of Musculoskeletal Disease, has been appointed as Director of the Leeds Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit (LMBRU) funded by a prestigious establishment grant from the National Institute for Health Research - more.
Dr Graham Taylor, Head of Cancer Research UK Genomic Services, has been awarded the title of Visiting Professor in the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Professor Craig Jordan, Vice President at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadephia, has been awarded the title of Visiting Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Alex Markham, Professor of Medicine and Head of the Section of Translational Medicine, has been awarded a knighthood for his services to medicine in the 2008 New Year’s Honours list. Professor Markham, formerly Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, had the original vision for the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine and was also a driving force behind the laws banning smoking in enclosed public spaces.
Peter Selby received the Pfizer Lifetime Achievement Award in Oncology from the British Oncological Association in December 2007 for his work in improving the care cancer patients receive. In addition Peter has been appointed President of the Association of Cancer Physicians - an organisation for medical oncologists in the UK.