IEHS
Funder: Ataxia UK
Duration: January 2024 -
Funder: European Commission
Duration: January 2024 - January 2027
Funder: UKRI
Duration: January 2024 - February 2025
Funder: Institute of Communities and Society (ICS) - Brunel University London
Duration: November 2023 - July 2024
Pilot study research
Funder: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Duration: November 2023 - October 2025
Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022
Funder: Institute of Physics (UK)
Duration: October 2023 - January 2023
Funder: British Academy/Leverhulme
Duration: October 2023 - March 2025
Funder: Innovate UK
Duration: September 2023 - September 2026
Working with world-leading partners, this project tackles this big data challenge head on. We will examine ways to significantly reduce the amount of data we need to collect, process and store, whilst still delivering a world-leading precision solution. T
Funder: What Works for Wellbeing
Duration: September 2023 - January 2024
Funder: Medical Research Council
Duration: September 2023 - September 2026
Infectious diseases were once the leading cause of death amongst men and women in almost all age demographics in the UK. However, the discovery of antibiotics revolutionised our ability to treat bacterial infections and, as a result, saved millions of lives. Bacteria inhabit almost every corner of our planet due to their incredible ability to adapt to different environmental niches. This capacity to evolve and survive even in the most inhospitable environments means that, following the introduction of a new antibiotic to our healthcare systems, resistant bacterial strains rapidly appear. This cycle has kept repeating until the emergence, in some instances, of infections that cannot be effectively treated with any currently available antibiotics. This is creating a dangerous situation where a "post-antibiotic" era is now becoming a reality, threatening all aspects of healthcare from cancer treatment to dental work. At the forefront of pathogens that can evolve multidrug resistance is Acinetobacter baumannii. This pathogen can infect individuals who are already sick or have a supressed immune system, leading to a variety of life-threatening clinical complications and, potentially, death. This creates a problem particularly in hospitals where most A. baumannii outbreaks occur. Prior to the 2000s, A. baumannii infections were relatively infrequent and, typically, very treatable. However, there has been a rapid increase in the number of these infections, such that this bacterium now accounts for 20% of all infections seen in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) worldwide. These infections are incredibly difficult to treat, with up to 75% of A. baumannii isolated from these patients being resistant to more than 3 types of antibiotic. Previously, we have shown that the artificial sweetener acesulfame K (ace-K), a compound is consumed by millions of people around the world every day in "sugar free" or "calorie free" food and drinks, has a remarkable ability to tackle this pathogen. We demonstrated that not only can ace-K inhibit this pathogens growth. It can also inhibit a range of virulent processes that it uses to establish infection, including the ability to move from the initial site of infection and the capacity of this bacteria to form communities called biofilms which help it overcome antibiotic therapy. Remarkably, we also demonstrated that this compound will make A. baumannii vulnerable to antibiotics that it has previously evolved resistance to. We now want to explore what exactly ace-K is doing to the cell to stop it growing and to increase its sensitivity to antibiotics. We will use a range of cutting-edge fluorescent microscopy, proteomics and molecular biology techniques to uncover exactly how ace-k effects the bacterial cell and resensitises it to antibiotics. We will develop, characterise and assess novel ace-K loaded wound dressings to tackle acute and long-term, difficult to treat infections and test them in a porcine ex vivo wound model. We will also test these loaded wound dressings in a mouse wound model to determine their capacity to treat infection. As ace-k is approved for consumption by every international regulatory body including the Food and Drug Administration, it means it has been extensively tested for safety. Therefore, there is significant potential that the use of ace-K as a therapeutic to tackle infection could be fast tracked to clinical trials and into hospitals. This would overcome one of the main barriers delaying the introduction of new antimicrobials drugs which is that all the safety testing and trials required before final approval can take over 15 years on average to complete.
Funder: BEIS Innovate Regulatory Pioneer Fund
Duration: September 2023 - March 2025
Funder: What Works Centre for Wellbeing
Duration: September 2023 - January 2024
Systematic Review
Funder: ERA-NET NEURON Cofund 2
Duration: September 2023 - August 2024
The personal, social and economic burden of chronic pain is enormous. Yet patients with chronic pain, clinicians and the public are often poorly served by an evidence architecture that contains multiple structural weaknesses which reduce confidence in treatment practice. Weaknesses include incomplete research governance, inadequate stakeholder engagement, poor methodological rigour and incomplete reporting, a lack of data accessibility and transparency, and a failure to communicate findings with appropriate balance (without spin). These issues span pre-clinical research, clinical trials, systematic reviews and impact on the development of clinical guidance and practice update. Research misconduct presents a further critical risk. Combined, these weaknesses serve to increase uncertainty in this highly challenging area of study and practice, drive the provision of low value care, increase costs and impede the discovery of more effective solutions. The central objective of our proposed network is to develop ENTRUST-PE, a novel integrated framework for enhancing and facilitating the trustworthiness of evidence for chronic pain. This will involve identifying and synthesising a range of available resources into a common framework that supports researchers, editors and publishers to minimise threats to the trustworthiness of pain research.
Funder: Leverhulme Trust
Duration: September 2023 - August 2024
Leverhulme Research Fellowship
Funder: The University of Nottingham
Duration: June 2023 - October 2023
Seed funding to explore a potential new biotechnology/diagnostic application arising as an idea from recent CRISPR work
Funder: The MITRE Corporation
Duration: June 2023 - December 2023
Funder: Medicine and Health Regulatory Agency
Duration: April 2023 - September 2023
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council
Duration: April 2023 - August 2024
Research Network and Stakeholder Events
Funder: Economic & Social Research Council
Duration: April 2023 - June 2023
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Duration: April 2023 - March 2025
In a ground-breaking stride towards revolutionizing cardiac emergency care, Professor Wamadeva Balachandran and his illustrious team at Brunel University London, in collaboration with Harefield Hospital, are spearheading the development of an innovative, life-saving device. This compact, pioneering technology stands poised to transform the way heart attacks are detected – swiftly and accurately, even before a patient reaches the hospital. This remarkable innovation is more than a leap in medical technology; it's a testament to the relentless pursuit of excellence and compassion in healthcare. As this device moves closer to becoming a staple in ambulances, it holds the promise of safeguarding hearts and saving lives, heralding a new era of responsive and advanced emergency cardiac care.
Funder: Ford Motor Company
Duration: April 2023 - March 2023
Funder: Royal Society
Duration: March 2023 - March 2025
Funder: Royal Society
Duration: March 2023 - March 2025
Funder: The Froebel Trust
Duration: March 2023 - May 2024
This project aims to work with low-income families (with annual income of less than £10,000) from diverse ethnic backgrounds in early years settings run by HomeStart (a UK charity) to explore the potential of Froebelian philosophy to support and engage such families in ways that matter to them. Focusing on play, the project will address the following objectives: 1. To understand the significance and relevance of play in the daily lives of low-income families. 2. To understand the key challenges facing these families and examine the way play opportunities can be improved for them. 3. To build on and develop Froebelian ideas to consider how they could become more relevant and meaningful. 4. To inform policy by mobilising more inclusive iterations of Froebelian pedagogies as an instrument for multidimensional social justice.
Funder: N4 PHARMA
Duration: March 2023 - November 2023
Funder: Health Research Board (Ireland)
Duration: March 2023 - March 2025
Funder: Froebel Trust
Duration: March 2023 - May 2024
The project aims to work with low-income families (with annual income of less than £10,000) from diverse ethnic backgrounds in early years settings to explore the potential of Froebelian philosophy to support and engage such families in ways that matter to them
Funder: London Mathematical Society
Duration: February 2023 - March 2003
Research in pair
Funder: London Mathematical Society
Duration: February 2023 - July 2023
Funder: NIHR Application
Duration: January 2023 - August 2023
Principal investigator for the National Institute for Health and Care Research, "Building resilient healthcare systems in extreme heat events: Leveraging South-South learning between India and Bangladesh " Passed the rst stage and awarded the Proposal and Partnership Development $10,000
Funder: Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Duration: January 2023 - December 2025
Funder: Brunel Institute of Communities and Society (ICS)
Duration: January 2023 - June 2023
Funder: Brunel Research Interdisciplinary Lab (BRIL)
Duration: January 2023 - June 2023
Funder: N4Pharama
Duration: October 2022 - August 2023
Company funding
Funder: Arts & Humanities Research Council
Duration: October 2022 - March 2026
Funder: Arts & Humanities Research Council
Duration: October 2022 - March 2025
Funder: Arts & Humanities Research Council
Duration: October 2022 - March 2026
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
Duration: October 2022 - September 2025
Funder: Economic & Social Research Council
Duration: September 2022 - September 2025
Funder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Duration: September 2022 - September 2025
The overall aim of this Ph.D project is to develop an advanced AI decision support system for facilitating zero waste food suply chain management system
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
Duration: September 2022 - August 2005
Funder: Medicine and Health Regulatory Agency
Duration: September 2022 - April 2023
Funder: Brunel University
Duration: April 2022 - August 2022
Request for support of impact activities related to the research findings of externally funded projects won by members of the Interculturality for Diversity and Global Learning research group
Funder: Arts & Humanities Research Council
Duration: April 2022 - September 2025
Funder: Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council
Duration: April 2022 - March 2025