Two of the BRC’s Clinical Training Fellows have been awarded grants to continue carrying out their translational research.
Dr Paul Pfeffer’s grant from the Wellcome Trust will allow him to continue his PhD studies investigating whether vitamin D protects the airways from inflammation due to particulate matter air pollution. This research, using lung samples from healthy and asthmatic volunteers, will improve our understanding of how air pollution drives asthma and other diseases, and look at possible strategies to reduce the harm from pollution. The project draws together expertise from the MRC and Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma (Professors C Hawrylowicz and C Corrigan) and MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health (Professor F Kelly), all at KCL. Paul said “The research would not have been possible without priming of the project through a one-year funding award from the BRC”.
Dr Alex Hicks was awarded his grant from the MRC. He is doing a project to “investigate the role of the Coxsackie and Adenoviral Receptor in epithelial junction formation and its impact on inflammation in Asthma” under the supervision of Professor George Santis.
Dr Hicks said “I have thankfully received a clinical fellowship from the Medical Research Council. The BRC was integral in my successful application as its year of funding provided me with the opportunity and facilities to develop the generic research skills and generate the novel data required by the funding councils”
Both Paul and Alex started their research programme in October 2011, thanks to funding awarded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas' for a one-year clinical training fellowship. Like many other recipients of these one-year fellowships, they have gone on to secure highly competitive external funding to continue research
Posted on Monday 24th September 2012