NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH
Award winner: Sebastian Brendan Lucas
Institution: Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital Trust
Value: £35,048
Predictive clinico-pathological features derived from systematic autopsy examination of patients who die from A/H1N1 (pandemic flu) infection
NIHR HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT PROGRAMME
The NIHR's Health Technology Assessment programme produces independent research information on the effectiveness, costs and impact of healthcare treatments and tests for those who plan, provide or receive National Health Service care. Listed here are the November-December 2009 grant awards.
Award winner: Ibrahim Abubakar
Institution: Health Protection Agency
Value: £2,653,069
Prognostic value of interferon gamma release assays in predicting active tuberculosis among individuals with, or at risk of, latent tuberculosis infection
Award winner: Sharon Anne Simpson
Institution: Cardiff University
Value: £1,458,796
Weight loss maintenance in adults (WILMA)
Award winner: Mark Thursz
Institution: Imperial College London
Value: £2,122,492
Steroids or Pentoxifyline for alcoholic hepatitis (STOPAH) trial
BRITISH ACADEMY
Four Wolfson Research Professorships have been awarded by the British Academy to established scholars in the UK. The awards, of £150,000 each, will be provided to the winners over three years and will allow them to concentrate on a specific research programme, freeing them from teaching and administrative duties.
Award winner: Roy Foster
Institution: University of Oxford
The development of radicalisation among opinion-formers and revolutionaries in Ireland, c.1890-1920
Award winner: Robert Frost
Institution: University of Aberdeen
The Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1386-1815
Award winner: Mary Morgan
Institution: London School of Economics
Rethinking case studies across the social sciences
Award winner: David Perrett
Institution: University of St Andrews
Perceptions of health
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL
In a joint funding scheme between the BBSRC and the US' National Institute on Aging, six collaborative research teams - consisting of researchers from the US and the UK - will be awarded £4 million in an effort to help the world's ageing population live longer and healthier lives. The transatlantic projects aim to further understanding of the biology of the ageing process, looking at areas including the genetic and molecular effects in the body that determine lifespan, and how environmental factors impact on the genetics of ageing.
Award winners: Peter Adams, University of Glasgow, and John Sedivy, Brown University
The Wnt-chromatin axis in ageing
Award winners: Arne Akbar, University College London, and Janko Nikolich-Zugich, University of Arizona
Mechanisms of reduced T-cell immunity in older adults
Award winners: Clare Blackburn, University of Edinburgh, and Nancy Manley, University of Georgia
Steroid receptors and transcriptional control of thymic rebound
Award winners: Queelim Ch'ng, King's College London, and Hang Lu, Georgia Institute of Technology
Sources, transmission and effects of transcriptional noise in C. elegans ageing
Award winners: Dominic Withers, Imperial College London, and Brian Kennedy, University of Washington
S6 kinase and ageing
IN DETAIL
Award winners: Chris Richardson, Bangor University, and Steve Austad, University of Texas Health Science Centre, San Antonio
Mechanisms of exceptional longevity in the world's longest-lived animal
Examining the longevity of the ocean quahog shellfish, which can live for up to 400 years, this project will evaluate three plausible mechanisms of ageing that may determine the lifespan of shorter-lived species. Symptoms of ageing in molluscs, such as muscle loss, are similar to those in humans. By comparing different members of the bivalve molluscs, the researchers hope to further understanding into the prolonged existence of the creatures to help provide insights into the human ageing process.