King’s College London Confidence in Concept 2017
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Technical Summary
The Confidence in Concept scheme is a key part of MRC’s translational research strategy and provides annual awards to institutions, to be used flexibly to support the earliest stages of multiple translational research projects. The award can be used by the institution to support a number of preliminary-stage translational projects. The projects supported should aim to provide sufficient preliminary data to establish the viability of an approach –– before seeking more substantive funding. It is 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.
Publications
Nichols C
(2020)
A New Crystal Form of the SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Binding Domain: CR3022 Complex-An Ideal Target for In-Crystal Fragment Screening of the ACE2 Binding Site Surface
in Frontiers in Pharmacology
Tran MC
(2021)
Bedside monitoring of lung volume available for gas exchange.
in Intensive care medicine experimental
Cronin JN
(2019)
Dynamic single-slice CT estimates whole-lung dual-energy CT variables in pigs with and without experimental lung injury.
in Intensive care medicine experimental
Cronin JN
(2019)
Dynamic single-slice CT estimates whole-lung dual-energy CT variables in pigs with and without experimental lung injury.
in Intensive care medicine experimental
Cronin JN
(2020)
Mechanical Ventilation Redistributes Blood to Poorly Ventilated Areas in Experimental Lung Injury.
in Critical care medicine
Borges JB
(2020)
Real-time effects of PEEP and tidal volume on regional ventilation and perfusion in experimental lung injury.
in Intensive care medicine experimental
Gacesa R
(2020)
Solid-Phase Synthesis and Analysis of Iron-Binding Catecholato Chelators.
in International journal of molecular sciences
Sayers S
(2019)
Structure-functional changes in eNAMPT at high concentrations mediate mouse and human beta cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes
in Diabetologia
De Nicola GF
(2018)
The TAB1-p38a complex aggravates myocardial injury and can be targeted by small molecules.
in JCI insight
| Description | Cannabidiol for psychosis in Alzheimer's dementia |
| Amount | £14,850 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | M893 |
| Organisation | Rosetrees Trust |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2019 |
| End | 05/2021 |
| Description | Continuous arterial oxygen monitoring to personalise ventilatory strategies |
| Amount | £33,412 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2020 |
| End | 08/2020 |
| Description | Multiple Long Term Conditions Challenge Fund |
| Amount | £1,046,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 01/2022 |
| Description | NIHR i4i |
| Amount | £482,933 (GBP) |
| Organisation | National Institute for Health Research |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2020 |
| End | 08/2023 |
| Description | Ose Immunotherapeutics |
| Organisation | OSE Immunotherapeutics SA |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | NA |
| Collaborator Contribution | Access to IL-7Ra blocking antibody (OSE-127 |
| Impact | NA |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Oxford Optronix |
| Organisation | Oxford Optronix Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Use of Oxylite data acquisition system |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partnership on follow on grants |
| Impact | Partnership on follow on grants |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Tuberculosis Biomarker |
| Organisation | London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) |
| Department | TB Centre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This funding has allowed to set up extracellular vesicle isolation from small plasma samples (down to 250 microliter) at KCL. This project is still undergoing and we hope to generate meaningful data for TB pathophysiology in 2020. It has also allowed me to set up a new method at KCL that has undertaken a great deal of technical and admin work (ethics, biological safety, etc). At the moment we are hoping to establish the 'confidence in concept' early in 2020. Bringing samples from Africa has proven very challenging and we have set up all the technical work using healthy samples employing our 5th Floor Tower Wing ethics and has enabled a new collaboration with the University of Southampton as well as St Thomas' (Prof Paul Elkington and Dr Marc Tebruegge). This project has led me to collaborate and co-supervise a PhD student with Dr Bahijja Raimi-Abraham (KCL) across campus as we share interests in TB research. In addition, we plan on applying for future grants/projects together. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They have collected 50 clinical samples as well as clinical data form patients with TB. We will leverage on the infrastucture that TREATS has set up in subsaharian Africa. These are 150 serum samples - 100 in kind contribution from TREATS. TREATS was funded by a 12.5M EUR grant; the samples that they will provide to this project is a small subset from their well-characterised cohort, thus, the in-kind contribution is only a figure but I cannot really estimate. |
| Impact | Grant 'Identifying a novel tuberculosis diagnostic biomarker using human blood extracellular vesicles' from the MRC Confidence in Concept Scheme. The multidisciplinary nature of the award combines clinical (sample/data collection), molecular (extracellular vesicle extraction and characterisation) and bioinformatics (processing and integration of the sequencing data with clinical outcomes) |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Title | Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) Treg constructs |
| Description | Insertion of STAT5 signalling motifs into the CAR constructs delivers pro-survival signals that enhance the viability and suppressive function of Tregs recognizing an antigen through the CAR. |
| IP Reference | PCT/GB2019/052422 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | |
| Licensed | Yes |
| Impact | Spin Out and follow on funding: Quell Therapeutics (https://quell-tx.com/) with a £34M investment from Syncona Ltd |
| Company Name | QUELL THERAPEUTICS LIMITED |
| Description | A spin-out biotechnology company focused on developing engineered T regulatory (Treg) cell therapies. |
| Year Established | 2019 |
| Impact | Quell has secured £34M Series A financing from Syncona. |
| Company Name | NEUROGENEUS LTD |
| Description | Company focussed on neurodegenerative disorders aiming to be the first to deliver AAV-GRN therapeutics to ALS and FTD patients. |
| Year Established | 2019 |
| Impact | Have raised £3m from charitable sources and made great progress in generating unencumbered intellectual property. |
| Description | Focus groups with children and young people to establish their views on cold exposure to improve cardiometabolic health |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Focus groups with children and young people to establish their views on the use of a cooling garment to deliver intermittent cold exposure with the aim of inducing brown adipose tissue to improve cardiometabolic health. This activity is for children/young people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (aged 8 and older) and health controls of the same age. We are keen to modify the study protocols according to the views of these groups. The views of the parents of children aged 8+ will also be obtained. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Policy Lab |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This multidisciplinary 1-day Policy Lab was organised in collaboration with the King's Policy Institute to discuss the idea that cold exposure could be used as an early life intervention to improve cardiometabolic health. The meeting included approximately 40 stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds, including clinicians, scientists, policy makers, school and community groups, charity representatives, the Science Gallery London and research strategy teams. It was agreed that either a targeted experimental medicine approach or a more subtle reduction in ambient temperature could result in induction of brown adipose tissue (or beiging of white adipose tissue) that would in turn improve cardiometabolic health by reducing serum and hepatic lipids and improving susceptibility to diabetes mellitus. A major output was to design a template for a multidisciplinary, collaborative programme of work to address the quesiton of whether intermittent cold exposure is an effective early life intervention to improve metabolic health. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |