Medical research highlights
With the support of our funders, medical and biomedical experts are conducting research into areas from infection and immunity to antimicrobial resistance
Universities are exciting places – not only because students come here to study at a key stage in their lives. They’re also where new ideas – some with the potential to save lives – are generated, investigated, developed and tested.
Every year, hundreds of graduates and friends support the medical research teams at the University of Plymouth.
The University has research facilities to be proud of at our Derriford Research Facility. Its location, right by the hospital, encourages a close partnership with the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.
With the support of our funders, medical and biomedical experts are conducting research into areas such as infection and immunity, neurodegenerative diseases, brain tumours and antimicrobial resistance.
Brain Tumour Research
Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other form of cancer yet, for years, research has had a fraction of the funding other cancers have received. The University of Plymouth is one of only three specialist centres of brain tumour excellence in the UK, established with the charity Brain Tumour Research. Professor Oliver Hanemann leads a highly collaborative team that focuses on understanding how low-grade brain tumours develop and grow.
Achievements to date include:
- Discovering a novel mechanism that brain tumour initiating cells use for growth.
- Helping to identify new drug targets and successfully using repurposed drugs as well as new first-in-class drugs.
- Investigating biomarkers, which may help towards tailored treatments for slow growing brain tumours.
What’s next?
Looking ahead, the research team aims to find effective ways to target the tumour and its micro environment, as well as tumour cells. They have also applied for funding for clinical trials to move their research from bench to bedside.
A big thank you
Oliver Hanemann, Lead of Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence
Parkinson’s Disease Research
At a time when the number of people in the UK living with Parkinson’s is increasing, Plymouth is fast becoming one of the UK’s foremost Parkinson’s research centres.
Treatments with the potential to slow down the development of Parkinson’s are ready to be tested. The research team are working on ways to fast-track trials.
The team are also working on a project looking at digitising the award-winning ‘Home Based Care’ pathway based at University Hospitals Plymouth. This initiative equips patients with a wearable device that monitors their movements, and helps them to manage their condition.
For trials to move forward, it’s important to have effective ways of measuring the impact of the condition.
What’s next?
Future goals include the long-term aim of setting up a Movement Disorders Centre. This will bring the research and care of patients across a range of conditions under one roof, and act as a hub for clinical and research excellence.
Multiple sclerosis (MS)
Every week in the UK, around 250 people are diagnosed with MS (Multiple Sclerosis), a neurologic disease causing irreversible damage to the nerves in their brain and spinal cord. The impact on how people feel and function, and their quality of life, workability, and relationships is profound. At present there is no cure and new treatments are being developed to stop or inactivate MS.
Researchers at the University of Plymouth are providing new insights into how MS changes over time through the South West Impact of Multiple Sclerosis project. They’re following 1,600 people with MS in Devon and Cornwall to increase understanding of the impact of MS and find better ways of helping patients. The researchers are looking at everything from initiatives to improve clinical services to clinical research trialling new treatments.
What’s next?
The MS research teams primary focus will be to continue developing better ways of measuring change on the impact of MS. Accurate measurement tools can make clinical trials of new treatments shorter, less expensive and more effective – they also improve clinical monitoring and support of people with MS. Specific symptom areas of focus are in walking, upper limb function and fatigue which are a focus for emerging treatments in MS.
Together, we’re helping to improve the lives of people living with MS.
Jeremy Hobart, Professor of Clinical Neurology
Huntington’s research
Huntington’s is a fatal disease, which affects a person’s ability to think, reason, walk and talk. A child who has a parent with Huntington’s has a 50% chance of developing the condition as a result of a faulty inherited gene. Symptoms usually become apparent in patients between 30 and 50 years old, and worsen over time, leading to people needing full-time care.
There is currently no cure for Huntington’s, but Professor Shouqing Luo and his team believe there is real potential for the development of an effective therapy for this devastating neurological disease. They are working with international researchers, clinicians and the pharmaceutical and biotech industries to investigate manipulating activity at a cellular level.
They’re looking at:
- Protein aggregation toxicity
- RNA toxicity
- Neurodegeneration.
What’s next?
With your support, we can move fast to bring new treatments and, eventually, a cure to the estimated 5,700 people in the UK alone with this progressive brain disorder.
There is a real potential for the development of effective therapy for this devastating neurological disease. We really hope that our work can provide hope to people.
Professor Shouqing Luo, Professor of Neurobiology
Researchers need equipment
Your support also helps invest in the equipment that researchers need to progress their work. Here’s how friends of the University have recently helped:
Mass spectrometer: analysis at ten times the speed
Proteomics is the study of proteins, which is an important part of several current research projects including work to validate new drug targets and biomarkers for brain tumours.
We were recently able to purchase a new state-of-the-art mass spectrometer, which is commonly used in proteomics to measure the weights and chemical structures of proteins. We’re grateful to everyone who helped buy this vital piece of equipment, including The Wolfson Foundation. Researchers can now analyse samples ten times faster than before.
Optical imaging scanner: gathering evidence for clinical trials
Thanks to the Peninsula Medical Foundation for helping to buy a new optical imaging scanner, which is used to scan, measure and track the growth of tumours. It can also work in reverse – monitoring how a tumour shrinks in response to a new treatment.
With their help, the teams now have a more efficient and effective way of gathering evidence to support clinical trials.
Thank you
Our fundraisers
Each year, many of you don your running shoes, host an event, or take on a personal challenge to raise funds for these research teams. Here are some of the people who have gone the extra mile in the last year.
John’s friend and best man died of a brain tumour. He chose to use his 400th Park Run to raise funds in his friends memory for the brain tumour research team at Plymouth. He set an ambitious fundraising target, offering to run the 5km course in his gorilla suit if the target was met.
Jordan’s raised over £5000 for Huntington’s research at the University by taking on several running endurance challenges. Having lost his mother to the disease in 2017 at the age of 60, Jordan decided to get tested, and found that he also carried the gene.
I wanted to support Plymouth because I’d heard about the research into Huntington’s and the potential to make a real difference. As well as helping me with my own diagnosis, it’s a fitting tribute to my incredible mum.
We’re so grateful to these families for all of their fundraising efforts, and it’s thanks to such support that we’re able to continue what we do.
Shouqing Luo
Professor of Neurobiology
Thank you for helping to get new projects under way and enabling research to move forward more quickly.
David Parkinson
Principal Investigator, Brain Tumour Research Team, University of Plymouth
Support our medical research
By donating to the University, you ensure we have the necessary resources to move this research forwards and tackle the health challenges facing us all. All donations, no matter what size, will enable us to continue this vital work.
