Other Academic Clients' Projects

ATB23-07 - Exploring NutRition in GI disease (ENRGI) study

The human gut is a complex system of interconnected relationships between the immune system, gut micro-organisms and dietary nutrients. Perturbations of these relationships leads to a host of chronic disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity and malabsorption, which can require heavy immunosuppressive drugs, surgery, dietary modification or intravenous nutrition for treatment. The goal of this project would be to collect samples for research. Surplus tissue removed at the time of surgical treatment of these conditions would be investigated with cutting-edge techniques that could better describe the interactions between humans, their gut microbiome and food, in order to improve our understanding and deliver the next generation of treatment

ATB24-03 - Improving Diagnostic Pathways for Autoimmune Liver Disease: Insights into Laboratory Practice

Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) and Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) are 2 conditions caused by the person’s own immune system which damages the liver or the ducts linking it to the gut. They can effectively be treated by suppressing the immune system, but if left undiagnosed or if treatment is delayed may result in cirrhosis, liver failure or liver cancer, and even death.

We can test for both conditions in the Immunology laboratory by looking for antibodies in the patient’s blood:

• AIH patients can have smooth muscle (ASMA), liver-kidney microsomal (LKM), nuclei organelles (ANA), SLA/LP or LC-1 antibodies.

• PBC patients can have mitochondria (AMA), sp100 or gp210 antibodies.

Our laboratory offers a single blood test called LKS, which is short for rat Liver/Kidney/Stomach tissues. The tissues are incubated with patient blood and if AMA, ASMA or LKM antibodies are present, they will produce distinct patterns that we can see under the microscope. LKS test cannot detect any of the other equally important antibodies effectively, resulting in missed diagnostic opportunities and going against current clinical guidelines.

The project aims to create a cost-effective testing pathway that includes all relevant antibodies, meets the clinical guidelines and can successfully identify patients who have AIH and PBC. It also intends to highlight the need for adherence to guidelines and standardisation of laboratory testing across the country.

ATB25-01 - Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) stability research

The Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) currently does not invite eligible screening subjects in the armed forces, which leads to health inequalities and the potential to miss detection of bowel cancer. To roll out the programme to armed forces around the world, there are several factors that need to be considered, which includes the temperature that the Faecal Haemoglobin Test (FIT) kits will be exposed to and the transport time.

Published data shows that FIT results can significantly deteriorate when exposed to certain temperatures. However, that data does not apply to the logistical constraints that apply for the armed forces, and they measured stability at FIT concentrations much lower than the English BCSP cut-off, which is 120 µg Hb/g. As such, there is a need to gather evidence to base further decisions on how to develop the BCSP across the armed forces.

ATB25-06 - Investigating AT2 receptor expression in Fibrotic Kidney

Chronic kidney disease and diabetic kidney disease affect millions of people worldwide, leading to scarring (fibrosis) in the kidneys and reduced function. Unfortunately, treatment options remain limited. Recent research suggests that activating a specific protein, the AT2 receptor, may help slow or even stop kidney scarring.

This project aims to investigate whether upregulated AT2 receptors are present in human kidney tissue with fibrotic scarring and to test how well a new drug binds to these receptors. We will use a technique called autoradiography to visualise and measure receptor levels in human kidney samples. By carefully analysing these tissues, we hope to confirm that this new drug could be a promising candidate for treating kidney fibrosis.

If successful, this study will lay the groundwork for further research, potentially leading to new treatment options for patients with kidney disease.

ATB25-06 - Novel protease-activatable chemical linkers for next-generation antibody-drug conjugates

Chemotherapy is a crucial component of cancer treatment as it effectively kills tumours. However, it often leads to significant side effects in patients, as the drugs are not confined to the tumour and also damage healthy tissues. Advanced modern chemotherapy agents are designed to deliver toxic drugs directly to the tumour and minimise damage to healthy tissues. Unfortunately, these drugs frequently fail to accurately distinguish between tumour and healthy tissue, resulting in unintended toxic drug release outside the tumour and side-effects in 90% of patients.

In this study we will use a powerful discovery platform developed at Imperial College that directly studies patient tumour samples to design next-generation drugs that only activate within the tumour. We will test a series of cancer indications with limited treatment options and design advanced targeted chemotherapy agents, demonstrating that they release the toxic drug more effectively within the tumour than currently used technologies. Ultimately, this project will result in more effective cancer treatments with improved safety profiles, facilitating more rapid clinical approval to reach patients in need of new therapies.

ATB24-18 - Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer: Interrogating The Tissue Microenvironment for Novel Biomarkers

Ovarian cancer accounts for ~7500 cancer cases and over 4000 deaths annually in the UK, making it the most lethal gynaecological cancer. 94 % of patients with early ovarian cancer survive for five years, whereas this is only 16 % for late stage, therefore early detection is essential. Ovarian cancer has no national screening programme and symptoms are vague, therefore most cases are detected at a late stage, often with extensive spread of the disease into other parts of the body. Thus, identifying markers for ovarian cancer is essential to detect cases at the earliest, most treatable stage. Tissue microenvironment has been shown to change in cancer formation and progression, including collagen structure. Therefore, this project proposes building on previous work in breast and prostate cancer, by analysing collagen and other proteins in the ovary and fallopian tubes (where some ovarian cancers are thought to develop) using X-rays. Ovaries sometimes also contain deposits of calcium linked to tissue microenvironment, therefore this project also proposes to analyse these deposits by taking images and using X-rays. The project aims to find differences in these structures at a very small scale between normal and cancerous tissue and develop new markers for ovarian cancer.