Grant winners - 17 July 2014

National Institute for Health Research

Health Technology Assessment programme

• Award winner: Alasdair MacLullich
• Institution: University of Edinburgh
• Value: £8,431

Development and validation of the 4AT: a new rapid screening tool for delirium

Health Service and Delivery Research programme

• Award winner: Jill Maben
• Institution: King’s College London
• Value: £832,965

A longitudinal national evaluation of Schwartz Centre Rounds: an intervention to enhance compassion in relationships between staff and patients through providing support for staff and promoting well-being

• Award winner: Sasha Shepperd
• Institution: University of Oxford
• Value: £595,302

How best to deliver comprehensive geriatric assessment in a cost-effective way

Royal Society

Wolfson Research Merit Awards

Awards are worth £10,000-£30,000 a year, which is a salary enhancement

• Award winner: Claire Halpin
• Institution: University of Dundee

Understanding lignin biosynthesis to redesign plant biomass

• Award winner: Matt Jones
• Institution: Swansea University

Information interaction for “bottom of the pyramid” users in developing regions

• Award winner: Jon Lloyd
• Institution: Imperial College London

Soils and functional biogeography of tropical lowland forests

Medical Research Council

Research Grants

• Award winner: Carol Joinson
• Institution: University of Bristol
• Value: £326,685

Increasing understanding of risk factors and outcomes associated with continence problems in children and adolescents

• Award winner: Vassilis Koronakis
• Institution: University of Cambridge
• Value: £515,220

Salmonella subversion of GTPase signalling at the host cell membrane, a key aspect of pathogen infection

• Award winner: Kevin Nisbet Couper
• Institution: University of Manchester
• Value: £456,646

mTOR control of effector CD4+ T cell activation during malaria infection

• Award winner: Ann Ager
• Institution: Cardiff University
• Value: £416,233

Dissecting the impact of L-selectin on T lymphocyte dependent tumour immunity

In detail

New Investigator Grant

Award winner: Deena Leslie Pedrioli
Institution: University of Dundee
Value: £450,000

Developing targeted therapeutics for keratinising skin disorders

Keratinising skin disorders are debilitating genetically diverse hereditary diseases that include epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma and pachyonychia congenita. “Unfortunately, because they are individually quite rare, very little progress has been made towards developing effective treatments for these disorders,” said Deena Leslie Pedrioli. “RNA-interference drugs, which specifically block the disease-causing genes, show great therapeutic promise for keratinising skin disorders, and one avenue of my research will focus on developing patient-friendly ways to deliver these drugs into the skin.” She added that her work will also look to identify the molecular mechanisms that drive keratoderma, and hopes that the findings will lead to the development of a generic treatment for most, if not all, keratinising skin disorders.

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