Research Project Grants Awarded - August 2008
At their meeting on 29th August 2008, the Members agreed to award four Research Project Grants as follows:
£85,219 over 19 months to Dr Andrew J. Roe (Infection & Immunity) & Dr Richard Burchmore (Functional Genomics Facility), University of Glasgow, for the identification of proteins targeted by salicylic aldehyde inhibitors in Escherichia coli 0157.
Scotland has the highest rate in Europe of infection with the bacterium E. coli 0157, which causes serious disease, particularly in the very young and the elderly. This project aims to identify the proteins involved in the processes used by the bacterium to enable it to attach itself to the gut wall and also to understand better how they work. The results should provide pointers to the development of compounds which could be used to block the attachment of E. coli O157 to the wall of the gut and thereby reduce disease.
£56,016 over 12 months to Dr David A. Ferenbach and Drs Jeremy Hughes & David Kluth (Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh), for an investigation of the role of resident renal macrophages and apoptotic cells in preventing acute kidney injury.
When any organ suffers a period without adequate blood supply (ischaemia), whether or not a blood supply is later restored to it, the tissues are damaged. In the kidney, this type of injury is a key cause of acute renal failure and is frequently fatal. The aim of this project is to investigate whether the kidney can be protected from this type of injury by making use of some of the cells involved in the body's normal defence and repair mechanisms, but which are not normally present in the kidney.
£133,793 over three years to Dr Joanna L. Parish (Bute Medical School, University of St Andrews), for a structural study of ChIR1, a DNA helicase required for sister chromatid cohesion and papillomavirus genome persistence.
Cell division, involving the accurate copying and separation of the DNA into the resultant daughter cells, is important for the growth and maintenance of the body but its failure can result in cancer. During separation of the DNA, duplicated chromosomes are temporarily 'glued together' by a protein complex. This project will use X-ray crystallography to study the basic structure of an enzyme (CHlR1) which is known to be required for the gluing process and has also been shown to be essential to maintaining infection with the cervical cancer-causing papillomavirus.
£149,761 over three years to Dr Hironori Ishizaki & Dr Elizabeth Patton (Edinburgh Cancer Centre, University of Edinburgh) for an investigation involving a small-molecule approach to melanocyte development, regeneration and disease.
Melanoma is responsible for more than 80% of the deaths from skin cancer and its incidence, particularly in Scotland, continues to rise as the most aggressive form is resistant to chemotherapy. The research of this project is focused on improving understanding of first, how the pigment cells that become melanoma (melanocytes) develop, migrate and survive and second, the genetic and cellular events that cause them to form moles and progress to become invasive cancer.