Queen Mary University of London

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

A diet high in salt is the leading dietary risk factor for deaths and disability globally. This is mainly because it drives high blood pressure causing heart disease and stroke. High salt intake also increases the risk of stomach cancer, kidney damage, and weakening of the bones. In low-and middle-income countries death from heart disease and stroke are much more likely to occur under the age of 60, than in high-income countries. Salt intake in much of Africa is above the 5g per day recommended by the World Health Organisation. High blood pressure and stroke are important and growing problems in Sierra Leone (SL). Four in five of those experiencing a stroke have high blood pressure, and the average age of stroke is 59. Preventing high blood pressure is an important strategy to reduce population health burden, as resources to treat hypertension are scarce. Reducing salt consumption is a highly cost-effective approach to reduce hypertension and stroke. We do not know the most important sources of dietary salt in SL and there is little data on salt consumption, but it is likely to be excessive  as 91.6% adults report adding salt to their food during cooking, and 31.1% report regularly eating salty snacks. This project brings together expert academic teams and wider stakeholders to develop, implement and evaluate policy interventions to reduce salt intake to prevent high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke in SL. Our team has expertise in heart disease, stroke, nutrition, public health, epidemiology, social science, economics, policy development and evaluation. We will support the Ministry of Health SL to design evidence-based interventions and monitor and evaluate initiatives in this area. We will build an on-going collaboration and create research capacity in SL and West Africa to provide leadership in this area and develop wider networks to facilitate future funded research addressing this important challenge. This will advance our understanding of what key actions to prioritise to reduce salt consumption and hypertension that is particularly relevant to West Africa, where countries face similar challenges, due to environmental and cultural similarities.  We intend to use this funding to complete six objectives, underpinned by six associated work-packages (WPs): 1) to assess population salt intake and understand which foods and eating behaviours contribute high salt to the diet in SL through 24-hour urine collection and dietary recall , plus sampling and analysis of salt content in foods; 2) to understand knowledge, attitudes and behaviour regarding salt consumption of the SL population and of local food suppliers; to identify potential barriers and facilitators of using, producing and/or stocking lower salt food through qualitative research; 3) to build a shared resource of information for key audiences relating to salt intake and high blood pressure for use by our partnership and beyond, through reviewing published evidence, data from WP1-2, and expert input; 4) to use outputs from WP1-3 to establish priorities for research and evaluation with a multi-stakeholder consortium through a series of workshops and generation of theories of change for potential interventions; 5) to test the feasibility of implementation of at least one prioritised intervention in a pilot randomised controlled trial; 6) to extend a network across West Africa and wider Africa as appropriate and build on this project by applying for funding to develop and test further prioritised interventions.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

I am an environmental human geographer researching groundwater governance in India to identify pathways for just transformations in the era of climate change. This project examines a fundamental tension in Maharashtra, where drought and excess water appear side by side. What seems surprising, however, reflects critical issues regarding how surface and groundwater are known and how the politics of local, technical and scientific knowledge affect policy decisions. In my PhD, I explored the politics and processes of groundwater knowledge production, application, and circulation in Maharashtra, India. I encountered the idea of ‘wet droughts’ as I engaged with groundwater dependent farming communities, groundwater officials, civil society agencies, practitioners, scientists and consultants to trace which knowledges and practices inform governance. What I found was that drought sat side-by-side with concerns over ‘excess’ water, and that the interaction of groundwater and surface water was key to understanding climate impacts. Building on this, the fellowship consolidates these findings and develops a new research agenda for rethinking the place of groundwater in adaptation to climate change. Through three publications in leading geographical and interdisciplinary journals, I will advance critical debates on human-groundwater relations and governance. All articles emerge from my PhD work and have been presented in various conferences, seminars and workshop wherein comments and discussions have enhanced them. At QMUL, I will deliver seminar in 'Nature and Society' research theme to initiate discussions with fellow researchers working at nexus of water and society. I will organise panels in leading academic conferences of geographical and interdisciplinary nature, convening scholarship at the fore of groundwater governance and the knowledge politics of subterranean and climate adaptation policies. Collectively, these activities will facilitate me to advance my career as an environmental human geographer, focusing particularly on being a research leader in the socio-politics of groundwater governance and climate change. Drawing on my own experiences as practitioner and subsequent PhD, I aim to engage and influence research and practice of groundwater governance. I place significant value on how everyday practices and programmes implemented by state and non-state agencies in India matter to issues of ethics and justice. I will extend the impacts of my research beyond academia by engaging in dissemination and dialogue with practitioners, civil society organisations, and state agencies. Building on my PhD, I will focus on three key activities of knowledge exchange to inform groundwater policy and practice. I will convene a state level workshop on groundwater governance focused on two key areas: (1) reimagining landscapes in the era of climate-induced rainfall variability, and; (2) identifying pathways for participatory groundwater governance programmes that recognise multiple ways of knowing groundwater. The district (administrative unit) wherein my PhD was focused is representative of the regional groundwater challenges and a bellwether for emerging challenges internationally. Through creative dissemination activities, this project will open avenues for how we discuss, understand and respond to groundwater challenges and how our efforts towards just transformations can be embedded in concerns of justice and equity. I regularly maintain a blog that contains posts emerging from fieldwork experiences, data analysis, and sharing some of the preliminary outcomes emerging from the thesis. These were primarily undertaken in Marathi, the local language. I plan to further develop these posts to tie them together as a Marathi language book proposal on groundwater in Maharashtra.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Ageing is characterised by an ongoing process of cell and tissue dysfunction. This results in a number of phenotypes which include senescence (the stable arrest of cellular division) and chronic low-level inflammation1. One of the major hallmarks of senescence is a change in secretion, termed the senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP)2 and this drastically effects cellular and tissue function. Many SASP proteins are associated with haemostasis3 and our previous research has demonstrated that upregulation of certain coagulation factors directly affects senescence4. More generally, dysregulation of coagulation is associated with frailty and thrombosis in the ageing population5,6. Here we seek to investigate the link between senescence, haemostasis, and inflammation by determining the impact of senescence pathways on regulated granule storage and release from the endothelium. Endothelial storage organelles (Weibel Palade Bodies) provide a rapidly mobilised pool of clotting factors (Von Willebrands Factor-VWF), inflammatory  (P-selectin, IL-8) and vasoconstriction (endothelin, ECE) mediators that are essential for a normal response to vascular injury7. Our preliminary research indicates that during senescence, the number of storage organelles increases dramatically. In addition we show the arsenal of stored cargo changes, becoming markedly more pro-inflammatory. This is supported by other research which demonstrates increased levels of VWF are present in the circulation of both older individuals 8,9 and aged animals 10. However, the mechanism underlying the changes in biogenesis and storage are unclear, as are the likely functional effects on inflammation and haemostasis. As such we hypothesise: Senescent endothelial cells exhibit an altered regulated secretory pathway resulting in an increase in the number of endothelial storage organelles. This not only results in an increased secretion of VWF but also a bolus of release of other inflammatory mediators. Limiting storage organelle secretion will provide a way to limit the clotting and inflammatory abnormalities associated with ageing. To test this, we propose to address three interconnected aims. 1. To characterise the pathways that lead to an increase in WPB number in senescent cells. Using in vitro models to characterise the pathways that result in an increase in WPB number. 2. To determine how the contents of WPB vary in senescent compared to proliferating endothelial cells. Using a novel proximity proteomics strategy we will define the changes in WPB storage associated with senescence. 3. Using novel in vivo models, determine how senescent induced changes in WPB release and phenotype impact inflammation and haemostasis. Using an endothelial progerin mouse model that displays senescent phenotypes we will determine the impact of increased WPB number on inflammation and haemostasis and define the impact of the secretion of individual cargo. Overall this project will determine the importance of changes in endothelial storage organelle number and content on the phenotypes associated with senescence. It will also provide mechanistic insight into how this process is controlled and identify which cargo contents are the most important. In the long term this will allow new approaches for the therapeutic control of pathophysiology associated with aging.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Metamaterials are artificial materials that exhibit extraordinary properties to manipulate light, sound, and heat in ways not found in nature. They promise transformative impact across sectors, from ultra-efficient computing and advanced diagnostics to sustainable energy and clean water technologies. However, the commercial rollout of metamaterials remains limited due to fundamental challenges: high fabrication costs, limited scalability, fragmented research efforts, and a lack of sustainable production methods. To address these barriers, the 3D-META-VERSE Research Project will establish a world-class UK centre for the design, scale-up, and real-world deployment of sustainable nanoscale metamaterials. Building on the UK’s internationally recognised strengths in materials science, simulation, and nanomanufacturing, the Hub will create an integrated, end-to-end innovation pipeline, from theory and digital design to prototyping, fabrication, and commercial translation. It is purposefully structured around three tightly integrated demonstrator streams, each aligned to UKRI strategic priorities and industry needs: MetaFab: AI-guided, scalable fabrication methods, including master template creation, injection moulding, and self-assembly. MetaFab will embed low-energy processes and circular economy principles from the outset, supported by sustainability metrics and lifecycle analysis via the shared MetaStructExtractor platform. MetaSense: Next-generation healthcare sensors, including mid-infrared and chiral biosensors co-developed with clinical partners such as Barts NHS Trust. These platforms will target early diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, supported by real-world validation and clinical feedback loops. MetaCompute: Photonic and quantum computing systems using metamaterials for energy-efficient signal processing and AI acceleration. This includes compact delay-line architectures, neuromorphic platforms, and photonic logic gates, in collaboration with partners like Microsoft and Oxford. All demonstrators will share common digital, simulation, and fabrication infrastructure to ensure programme coherence, interoperability, and efficient use of resources. The central enabler is MetaStructExtractor, a shared, AI-powered platform that integrates physics-informed simulation, sustainability benchmarking, and manufacturability assessment. By embedding environmental impact and scale-up readiness into the design process, MetaStructExtractor ensures that every prototype is viable not only in the lab but also in industrial production. This programme targets cross-sector transformative impacts: ICT: Achieve a 20% reduction in energy consumption in data centres and IoT devices, potentially cutting 2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. Renewable Energy: Develop sustainable energy harvesting and storage platforms while reducing reliance on rare earth materials by 30%. Environmental Sustainability: Enable next-generation wastewater management, microplastic filtration, and industrial energy efficiency, delivering 10–15% energy savings. The team is anchored in London, drawing on fabrication capabilities at the London Centre for Nanotechnologies and the Henry Royce Institute (Imperial). It is supported by regional centres of excellence: Scotland: Nanophotonics and quantum devices for MetaCompute. Midlands: Smart energy and environmental sensing, co-created with the UK Metamaterials Innovation Hub (MIH). This distributed model enables regional impact and maximises access to the Team’s advanced facilities. Key partnerships with leading technology firms such as STMicroelectronics, QinetiQ, and IBM will drive industrial relevance and de-risk commercial translation. International collaborations (e.g. Intellectual Ventures) ensure global market connectivity, IP leverage, and open data exchange. To build long-term capacity, the Hub will train 13 PhD students and 8 postdoctoral researchers, embedded in demonstrator teams with industrial mentorship and interdisciplinary skills development. It will offer hands-on technical training, industry secondments, and discipline-hopping exchanges. In collaboration with the UK Metamaterials Network, the Project will also support early-career-led innovation via a streamlined Flexible Fund, aligned to cross-demonstrator priorities and focused on inclusive, scalable impact.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The production of sustainable fuels such as green hydrogen will help us to achieve Net Zero ambitions by powering sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as shipping, aviation and concrete and steel manufacture. Currently less than 4% of UK hydrogen production comes from renewable electricity powered water electrolysis and relies on the use of toxic and scarce catalysts. The production of truly green fuels requires technological innovation based on earth-abundant and low-cost materials. Photoelectrochemical cells offer a transformative pathway towards sustainable fuel production, but so-far high (>15%) solar-energy-to-fuel conversion efficiency has only been demonstrated using photoelectrodes based on expensive inorganic III-V semiconductors. Photoelectrodes based on next-generation solution processable semiconductors, including perovskites, organics, and metal-oxides, promise to be less resource intensive, support more environmentally friendly fabrication methods, and bring greater variation in optical and electronic properties. However, solution processed photoelectrochemical technology has failed to meet the complex optical, electrical and chemical requirements for achieving both high efficiency and long-term stability. In recent work, I addressed some of these challenges in photoanodes for solar water splitting that comprise organic-semiconductor light absorbing layers protected by inorganic carbon sheets functionalised with earth-abundant metal-oxide electrocatalysts. The resulting photoanodes demonstrated record photocurrent for solution-processed photoelectrodes, and promising stability over several days. Despite this progress, significant challenges still need to be overcome in terms of decreasing photovoltage losses and drastically improving operational stability to bring these devices closer towards real-world application. In this project, I will address these challenges through generating new fundamental understanding of the underlying physical processes underpinning the operation and degradation of these multi-layered photoanodes. This will be aided by a unique characterisation tool that I have recently developed (photoelectrochemical mass spectrometry) that allows for unprecedent sensitivity and time-resolution of measuring reaction products, as well as through operando spectroscopy and opto-electronic characterisations. Through careful characterisation of how the properties of the organic photoactive layer, charge-transport interlayers and electrocatalysts affect photoelectrochemical performance and degradation pathways, I will develop design-rules for how to further improve the efficiency and stability of these devices and use these to fabricate optimised photoanodes. Finally, I will design and fabricate photoanodes based on tandem organic photo-absorbing layers which can generate sufficient photovoltage to split water without the need for any external power source. I will investigate the degradation mechanisms and photoelectrochemical water splitting reaction pathways in these tandem photoanodes and use the generated understanding to optimise the efficiency and stability of these photoelectrochemical cells towards metric relevant for cost and energy-return competitive sustainable hydrogen production. The work will provide insight into photoelectrochemical devices comprising multiple types of earth-abundant semiconductors and develop new fundamental understanding to help drive forward photoelectrochemical, photocatalytic and electrocatalytic research into generating solar-driven sustainable fuels and chemicals, cementing the UK’s position as a global leader in this research field. Ultimately, success in this project will help realise devices and understanding that bring us a step-closer to realising sustainable hydrogen production technology to help reducing the worst effects of climate change.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is an infectious disease primarily affecting the lung, and is widespread in low- and middle-income countries. TB is treatable but major challenges remain in TB eradication due to long treatment duration, drug side effects, and emergence of drug-resistant strains. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop new drugs targeting novel metabolic pathways in the bacteria. Biotin protein ligase (BPL), the terminal enzyme in M. tuberculosis (Mtb) biotin metabolism, is essential for the bacterial survival.  We have previously demonstrated that inhibition of BPL is microbicidal, prevents disease relapse in mice, and augments the chemotherapeutic efficacy of the first line anti-TB drugs rifampicin and ethambutol by enhancing intrabacterial accumulation. We have also demonstrated that BPL inhibition results in significant alteration of the Mtb cell wall (CW) architecture. This is an exciting aspect since Mtb CW is its Achille’s heel and has been targeted since the beginning of TB drug development.  Currently,  two of the four first line antimycobacterial drugs target the cell wall. Lipids constitute 60% of the dry weight of Mtb and 15% of its genome is dedicated to lipid metabolism associated genes. Most importantly, CW lipids play a key role in modulating host immune response against Mtb to aid bacterial survival. Taken together, these aspects position BPL as a promising novel drug target for Mtb treatment that is ripe for further investigation. The biogenesis of complex lipids is dependent on activation of Acetyl/Propionyl CoA carboxylases by biotinylation. These enzymes are involved in the first step of fatty acid biosynthesis and their optimal activity is essential for lipid biosynthesis in Mtb. Therefore, we hypothesize that chemical and/or genetic inhibition of BPL could alter CW lipids that act as virulence effectors and are crucial for early interaction between Mtb and the host immune system. This could aid bacterial clearance via enhanced activation of host antimicrobial immune responses. Consistent with the hypothesis, our preliminary data indicate that partial genetic inhibition of BPL (BPL leaky strain) elicits a robust pro-inflammatory immune response against Mtb in murine macrophages mediated via altered TLR2 engagement. These alterations in immune response are mediated by changes in the CW associated and secreted bacterial effectors. Specifically, we have identified changes in complex Mtb lipids including Phthiocerol dimycocerosate (PDIM) and Sulpholipids (SL) in the BPL hypomorph that alter phagolysosome fusion in Mtb infected macrophages. Building on these preliminary data, this proposal will characterise global alterations in bacterial effectors and macrophage responses that enhance immune activation in response to BPL inhibition and elucidate the mechanisms involved. Mtb actively supresses robust macrophage activation using bacterial effectors and our preliminary data indicate that BPL mutants of Mtb lose the ability to evade host anti-mycobacterial responses in this way. Since effective macrophage responses are the cornerstones of robust immune activation, we will use aerosol challenge studies in a murine model of Mtb infection to understand the impact of alterations in macrophage response and on other immune cells in the tissue milieu. This study will present a novel paradigm, where inhibiting a bacterial enzyme potentiates bacterial clearance both indirectly (via augmentation of host antimicrobial responses) and directly (via bactericidal effects).

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The world is currently trapped in a vicious heating cycle, whereby global warming increases the need for cooling technologies, but these technologies themselves exacerbate global warming. Vapour-compression refrigeration, the method that currently dominates, relies on gaseous refrigerants that contribute significantly to global warming and accumulative “forever chemicals”. For this reason, there is a widely acknowledged, urgent need to find a successor technology. Among the most promising such technologies are heat pumps based on barocaloric materials. Like vapour-compression refrigerants, these materials can be converted between high- and low-entropy phases by applying external pressure; the crucial distinction is that here both phases are solid, so that they cannot leak to the atmosphere. This enables clean, compact, and efficient refrigeration. In our previous EPSRC-funded work, we have developed an unprecedented understanding of the atomic structure and dynamics that give rise to barocaloric effects. As a result, we have developed several novel, highly promising materials. However, there is a limit to what can be learned from laboratory measurements on the materials alone. For instance, the thermal conductivity, which limits the cooling power, depends not just on the barocaloric material but on the whole device architecture, while the device efficiency is crucial to real-world competitiveness; both of these require a full working model to determine accurately. To progress further, we therefore need to build and test a working prototype, which will bridge the gap between academic materials research and future commercial development. This is precisely what we propose here. We will produce a working demonstrator model whose design and components can easily be tuned, and use our expertise in the physics and chemistry of barocaloric materials and heat transfer engineering to optimise its properties. In particular, we will use experience from other caloric materials to incorporate active regeneration, which will allow this device to operate over a larger, and hence more useful, temperature drop. At the conclusion of this project, the prototype will be sufficiently competitive with existing cooling systems to achieve early-stage financing towards further development. Achieving barocaloric refrigeration on a commercial and industrial scale will remove our dependence on fluorinated refrigerant gases, thus reducing their contribution to global warming (typical global warming potentials are over 1000 times that of CO2 by mass) and environmental accumulation. Because of this technology’s high efficiency, it will also reduce the power consumption associated with heating and cooling. Widespread use in the UK and worldwide (global market size US$233B; projected annual growth 6–7%) will have a very substantial economic impact.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-08

The rise of radical conservative political forces seeking to transform liberal orders in accordance with reactionary ideals of tradition, authority and ethno-national civilizational solidarity has profoundly challenged prevailing assumptions about the direction of global politics. Previously dominant views about the inexorable spread of liberal democracy, economic globalization, and human rights are confronted by right-wing ideologies and movements that many assumed had been long left behind. This radical conservative – or as we also call it ‘radical right’ – resurgence has come in many forms, including the activities of individual thinkers, the rise of political parties, and pervasive effects of digital mobilization, to name but a few. In recent years, it has also been furthered by the striking growth and prominence of radical conservative think tanks seeking to shift the political discourses and policy agendas of global politics in drastically new, anti-liberal or illiberal directions. Although these trends have spurred a surge of interest in reactionary visions of international politics, the discipline of International Relations (IR) generally lacks the conceptual tools necessary for critically engaging these radical conservative forms of knowledge production. Right-wing political thought has no distinct place within the theoretical frameworks that have dominated the field of IR since the end of the Second World War, and these ideas are largely absent from the discipline’s historiography (McKay and LaRoche 2018; Drolet and Williams 2018). Similarly, there is a paucity of empirical knowledge about contemporary conservative visions of global politics, the institutions in which they are being produced, and the strategies through which they are being promoted. Right Worlds seeks to redress this situation through three interrelated objectives. First, the project seeks to explain the absence of conservative thought within IR by analysing the politics of knowledge creation that exiled such ideas to think tanks and policy organizations during the Cold War. Recovering this forgotten history will allow scholars to better understand the limitations that the field’s dominant theories place on its ability to engage critically and effectively with the contestations in knowledge production that play key roles in radical conservatism today. Second, the project analyses the historical development of a body of radical conservative IR in a para-academic constellation of research, educational, and policy-advocacy think tanks outside the academy since at least the early 1960s. While largely ignored in academic IR, the thinkers operating in this para-academic field were influential in developing and promoting ideas about world politics that need to be taken seriously as distinctively conservative forms of international theory. Finally, the project examines the emergence of a new wave of these para-academic institutions dedicated to advancing radical conservative ideas and agendas about international affairs. Focusing on institutional initiatives founded within the past decade in Europe and the United States, the project will draw on international and institutional political sociology to map the most significant of these institutions, their ideological positions and policy orientations, the strategies they adopt to advance their ideas about international affairs, the objectives they seek to achieve, and the patterns of collaboration and competition between them.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-07

  Iron deficiency (ID) is a major healthcare challenge, impacting quality of life, increasing mortality, and costing global health systems billions annually. Despite being inexpensive to treat and recognised for its potential to improve life quality and reduce healthcare costs when addressed early, ID remains systematically under-diagnosed and under-treated. Tackling ID presents a significant opportunity for preventative healthcare.   Context: ID has serious health and economic consequences. It reduces vaccine effectiveness, raises maternal mortality, and impairs child development. It has major detrimental impacts on conditions like heart attack, stroke and cancer leading to longer hospital stays and higher mortality. In the UK, 30% of patients with acute heart failure have ID, despite high quality evidence demonstrating that treatment improves quality of life and reduces mortality by 40-60%. Costs of ID to healthcare are huge due to ID’s compounding effects on a wide range of other conditions. The cost of anaemia to surgical care alone, when assessed in the German system, was estimated in excess of €1 billion annually. Despite these well-documented impacts, ID remains common, affecting over 5% of the UK population and up to 30% internationally.   Challenge: A critical challenge is the failure of current methods to diagnose ID early. We show that current screening using the full blood count (FBC) misses 80% of cases, only effectively detecting advanced disease, and resulting in a strong bias towards delayed diagnosis. This delay causes significant, avoidable risk. Our research demonstrates this can be overcome using a novel approach to the FBC.   Solution: We are developing innovative tools in collaboration with clinicians, scientists, and mathematicians to detect ID early. By applying machine learning to the high-dimensional FBC (HD-FBC) (individual-cell level data collected during FBC analysis) we have created models in blood donors that increase diagnostic sensitivity from 20% to over 80% while maintaining specificity. Our approach augments an existing ubiquitous test, making it scalable without significant investment. We are uniquely positioned to deliver, having curated extensive HD-FBC datasets (usually deleted post-analysis) and implemented a secure federated learning (FL) network allowing efficient model training across institutions. This ensures performance across diverse populations without compromising data privacy.   The Gap: Ensuring we can translate model performance from blood donors to the clinical setting.   Aims: To improve healthcare outcomes and reduce morbidity and mortality due to underdiagnosis of ID by improving early detection.   Gap Fund Objectives: Expand our ID detection model, trained in blood donors, to clinical cohorts at Barts Health NHS Trust. Improve stability across diverse populations by using FL to train simultaneously across large clinical and donor datasets (BartsHealth, University College London, INTERVAL trial) and validate within unrelated datasets (Amsterdam UMC, STRIDES trial) Develop protocols for prospective studies These steps will confirm performance in clinical datasets, allowing us to apply for DPFS to fund prospective impact studies   Applications and benefits: The developed model will automate real-time screening of HD-FBC samples, replacing current, ineffective screening methods. It will provide rapid diagnosis at initial blood test, reducing diagnostic delay and the need for follow-up testing. It is rapidly scalable, requiring only the addition of software to current infrastructure. Improved ID identification will enhance patient care and reduce long-term costs associated with untreated ID and its complications. By addressing this significant gap in ID management, our approach offers a practical and impactful advancement in the drive towards preventative care.  

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Tendinopathy is a highly painful and debilitating condition, markedly reducing quality of life for millions of people. It is common among athletes and accounts for many sporting injuries, but is also regularly seen in the non-sporting public and impacts ability to work and general mobility. Unfortunately, current treatments often do not restore tendon function because we do not yet understand the complex biological processes driving tendinopathy. This is partly because the research models we use to investigate tendinopathy are not sufficiently alike human tendon. Animals generally do not develop tendinopathy in the same manner and models using human cells have not captured the recently identified diversity of human tendon cells, making it difficult to accurately study the disease. This project aims to address these gaps by developing advanced in vitro (lab-based) models of human tendinopathy, capturing the diverse cell populations and tissue environments of human tendon, to provide the crucial platforms we need to understand and treat tendinopathy. Termed organ-on-a-chip technology, this new approach brings together cutting-edge engineering and biology to build controlled, miniaturised organ environments containing human cells, to accurately reflect human biology and allow researchers to study disease and treatments in ways previously not possible. Our “tendon-chips” will simulate the complex micro-environment of human tendon, including the different cell types in tendon, tendon-specific vascular cells (that form blood vessels), and immune cells. We will build one chip on a commercially available chip-system, to offer the research community a widely accessible platform. It will include a tendon compartment and a vasculature compartment, linked by a semi-permeable membrane, enabling us to investigate the inflammatory processes and immune cell recruitment occurring in tendinopathy. We will also develop a custom-built chip with three compartments, namely the vasculature and two compartments for the two different tendon cell populations. This is important, as research suggests it is interaction between tendon-specific cell populations which drives disease, so separating the cells allows us specific insights into those interactions. We must ensure robust, repeatable human-relevance in our models, so we will identify optimal conditions for maintaining cells in the chips, to ensure they thrive and behave as they would in the body. This includes finding the materials to house the cells and adjusting factors like nutrient availability, stiffness of the surfaces, and mechanical forces that mimic how tendons are stressed during movement. Once built, we will investigate how to drive tendinopathy in our model. By testing how tendon cells respond to mechanical stress, inflammation, and other disease-causing signals, we will uncover the specific cellular and molecular drivers of the disease. In summary, we aim to build new, human-relevant tendon models and drive them to tendinopathy, to provide new understanding of the processes leading to tendinopathy and inform the development of more effective therapies. The benefits of this work are far-reaching. Establishing a new standard in disease modelling, this research aligns with the MRC’s focus on advancing molecular and cellular medicine. Our models have the potential to reduce reliance on animal models, speed up the discovery of new treatments, and improve outcomes for patients suffering from tendinopathy, by guiding researchers, clinicians, and pharmaceutical companies in developing new drugs and regenerative therapies for tendinopathy. Ultimately, this project aims to reduce the burden of this condition on individuals and healthcare systems, offering hope for more effective management of tendon disease.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-07

This grant award is a salary buyout for the role of IRIS Science Director. The science director is responsible for the overall scientific direction of the IRIS project.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-07

The endometrium is the inner lining of the uterus, which dynamically changes during the menstrual cycle and is vital for fertility. The endometrium enables embryo implantation, supports its growth, and creates an intimate partnership with the placenta to enable cross-talk between the mother and the fetus. Notably, many aspects of the feto-maternal interface display marked differences across species, but the genetic components that have fueled this evolution are not well understood. We have been investigating the role that endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) played in the evolution of pregnancy. ERVs are stretches of DNA that originated from ancient viruses and got incorporated into our genomes. We have previously shown that ERVs help to regulate human placental gene expression. We have now found that certain ERVs are also highly active in the human endometrium, specifically in the epithelial cells that help the embryo attach and supply it with nutrients before the placenta is formed. Here, we propose to investigate how ERVs affect endometrial function and have contributed to its evolution. Recent technical advances have enabled growing of endometrial epithelial cells in vitro, forming so-called endometrial organoids, which can be genetically manipulated. We will inactivate specific ERVs in endometrial organoids using molecular tools, and ask how this affects the ability of endometrial cells to grow, respond to hormones and secrete nutrients. We will also dissect the underlying mechanisms, testing the hypothesis that ERVs are important to regulate endometrial gene expression. Finally, we will compare ERV activity in the endometrium and placenta of three different primate species to gauge the extent to which ERVs have helped to shape the feto-maternal interface. These insights will establish whether ERVs are important for basic endometrial function, providing arguments for a deeper investigation into how they affect women's reproductive health, namely during ageing.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Electrospun composite cathodes combining inverse vulcanised sulfur polymers can contribute to fully exploit the potential of lithium sulfur batteries by combining the high surface area from the electrospun 1D nanofibres with the inclusion of high sulfur content copolymers, enabling faster charging rates, using a fully scalable processing technique. In a comparison with commercially available lithium-ion batteries for mobile applications, lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries exhibit a high theoretical specific energy of 2600 Wh/kg, at least three times higher than the current lithium ion battery technology, making it a great contender for high energy applications in mobile devices. Yet the use of Li-S faces major hurdles, which stem from sulfur's lack of processability and insulating nature, as well polysulfide shuttle effect, all of which leads to the loss of capacity and degradation of the lithium anode through the formation of lithium sulfide. My fellowship will address these issues by using spinnable sulfur-rich copolymers in combination with conductive carbon particles and a stabilising high molecular (bio-) polymeric carrier to a non-woven fibre mat, which can be directly used as a cathode in a lithium sulfur battery without the need to making an ink to deposit onto a current collector. The interaction with the surface area of the electrospun fibres will result in an outstanding high electrochemical active surface area, while providing a stable matrix from the fibrous structure that prevent polysulfide shuttle effect. I envisage the new developed Li-S batteries to display initial capacities >1300 mA h g-1 and capacity retention of > 80% after 100 cycles, compared to current Li-S batteries with conventional sulfur electrodes which exhibit capacities of 300–500 mA h g–1 and capacity retention < 50% after 50 cycles. The outcome of this research will contribute significantly to advancing Li-S battery technology. Moreover, these new electrodes will be fully recyclable and there are plans within the fellowship to conduct life cycle assessment to explore the feasibility of the recycling process as well as technoeconomic analysis of the newly developed cathode materials. Additionally, as I develop the new electrodes, I plan to substitute some of the carbon components by biomass waste materials, such as lignin, which I have extensive experience working with. In preliminary experiments, I have demonstrated the feasibility of producing sulfur-based fibres as cathode in a Li-S battery. This fellowship takes the research to the next level which involves further tailoring of the fibres and optimisation of the conductivity for optimal application as electrode, including their application in Na-S batteries, too. I believe this project will have a positive impact in the battery community and beyond. Sulfur co-polymers have shown to exhibit outstanding capabilities in domains such as mercury capture from aqueous solutions, application for which freestanding fibre mats with large surface area would be highly beneficial.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-06

The proposed project focuses on the analytic and arithmetic properties of L-functions. An L-function is a far-reaching generalization of the famous Riemann zeta function. The Riemann Hypothesis, one of the Millennium Prize Problems, asks to locate the places where the Riemann zeta function becomes zero. Analogously, the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis presents a similar inquiry for general L-functions. Unfortunately, both of these problems remain unsolved given the limitations of existing technology. However, there is a relatively more tractable problem that asks for the growth estimate of the L-functions as the arguments become increasingly large. Such are commonly referred to as the subconvexity problems in literature. The subconvexity problems are profoundly interlinked with the theory of automorphic forms which have numerous connections in diverse branches of mathematics, starting from number theory, such as the distribution of prime numbers, to mathematical physics, exemplified by the equidistribution of high-energy waveforms. The project aims to prove subconvexity on average for an extremely fascinating family of L-functions. This problem is a weaker version of a subconvexity problem that is infamous for being notoriously difficult. Moreover, this subconvexity problem is closely linked with the Quantum Unique Ergodicity conjecture, a special case of which was successfully resolved by Lindenstrauss, earning him the Fields Medal in 2010. Accomplishing the goals outlined in this project will pave the way toward a resolution of the aforementioned subconvexity problem. The specific objective of the project is the asymptotic evaluation of a high moment of the standard L-functions for the general linear group with arbitrary dimensions. The project's methodology includes techniques derived from representation theory, analytic number theory, and harmonic analysis to address this problem comprehensively. The novel tools and findings of this research project will establish new avenues of exploration within the realms of both number theory and automorphic representation theory.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Synopsis: This proposal is concerned with the application of Linear Algebra in possibly the most computationally intensive and ubiquitous use of matrices today, the inner workings of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). The Project Lead (PL) will Discipline Hop from Electronic Engineering to Mathematics to improve his understanding of Linear Algebra, including Matrix and Tensor Decomposition and Random Matrix Theory. The immersion into Mathematics paves the way for research, engineering and innovation in DNNs. The work is structured as a learning phase followed by a phase for initial studies that pave the way for a larger, follow up grant. As Deep Learning "artificial brains" continually get larger and more sophisticated, the humans that create them increasingly struggle to fully understand them. Yet, as these machines are deployed more and more in society, that understanding becomes ever more vital. As deployments and applications of DNNs diversify and spread throughout society, ways to reliably construct these artificial brains have become essential, as have improved techniques for their evaluation. This sets the context for our aims and objectives. There are two main challenges: one is concerned with creating tools to probe and understand the workings of AI's artificial brains; the other is to develop reliable engineering practices needed to democratise AI, so that its benefits can be widely applied, with confidence. This proposal addresses these needs: it explores recent literature and argues that, in order to be well positioned to prepare a comprehensive research programme (as a future, larger proposal), the PL needs to update his coding skills and learn new mathematics. This will be followed by pilot studies to prove ideas and develop research protocols for studies of this increasingly important subject. We coin the term Artificial Neuroscience (AN) to encompass techniques for the examination and understanding of the inner workings of vast systems of interacting artificial neurons. With measurement and understanding comes the capability to control and engineer DNNs, which is the bigger vision behind this proposal, and which this preliminary work prepares for. From one perspective, the proposal falls under the umbrella term Explainable AI (XAI). Yet this work is not about investigating black boxes post-hoc. Rather it is concerned first with understanding 'open' boxes, and then with re-structuring those boxes' component parts (primarily the weight matrices) to gain improved performance, increased reliability and more principled engineering. Currently, there is no capability in the UK for exploring DL models in this way that is known to the proposal team. Thus it might be argued that development of such tools is strategically important for the UK to attain its aspiration to become an AI Powerhouse. Where appropriate, the research grounds its studies in music source separation for several reasons: the PL has a solid background in this topic; there are excellent existing models, datasets and frameworks; music and audio signals exhibit strong correlations in time and frequency, this property being suggestive of compact structures in DL models. As almost all related studies to date (see Approach) are confined to toy examples, or address Computer Vision or Natural Language Processing, addressing audio should bring new insights.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-05

A major contributor to anthropogenic carbon emissions are separation processes in industry, which account for 10–15% of global energy consumption. This is mainly attributable to the tremendous amount of heat needed for the liquid-to-gas phase changes required during classical industrial operations used in the chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industries, such as evaporation and distillation. These are used to recover and purify the organic solvents in which many chemical reactions are carried out. As the pharmaceutical industry makes the transition to net zero, there is a need for alternatives to evaporation and distillation to recycle solvents. Membranes are physical barriers that can be used to selectively permeate some molecules in a liquid, while retaining others. The great advantage of membrane separation is that there is no need to boil the liquid to separate its components – everything can be done in the liquid phase. This is why membrane reverse osmosis has become the predominant technique for seawater recovery by desalination – it uses a great deal less energy than evaporation. We have recently developed at a small-scale, a whole new range of polymer membranes with excellent selectivity between solutes present in organic solvents. These membranes are fabricated by dissolving a polymer in an (often toxic) organic solvent, and then we make them chemically stable by crosslinking them by through immersion in another (this time hot) organic solvent with a crosslinker, which joins the polymer chains and stops them degrading. Using this approach, we can make membranes that filter out solutes bigger than about 250 daltons. This is suitable for separating big and small solutes in solution but is not sufficient to filter all solutes from a solvent and enable it to be recycled. The production of membranes also creates environmental burdens, and so it is important that we make sure that any waste created in making membranes, and in end-of-life disposal, is a lot less than the waste avoided by using the membranes. The objectives of this research programme are: (i) to develop a simulation and modelling framework that enables us to evaluate the overall environmental burdens involved in making, using and disposing of a membrane to establish where the main burdens are, so we can reduce/eliminate them; (ii) we will seek to develop new, sustainable processes for membrane manufacture, completely eliminating the use of organic solvents in membrane crosslinking and replacing toxic solvents used in membrane fabrication by green, biobased alternatives; (iii) to discover membrane surface treatments that can prolong membrane lifetime and so improve overall environmental performance; (iv) we will develop ways of employing these membranes for complex molecular separations in pharmaceutical manufacturing, if necessary, using multiple membrane steps to achieve challenging goals with minimal energy inputs; (v) we will further study how these new approaches based on membranes can usher in the use of green solvents for the pharmaceutical processes. If we achieve (i)-(v), we will then turn attention to a stretch objective,  new membranes based on bio-derived or recycled polymers. Our  research will be guided and shaped by collaboration with our industrial partners Merck, Exactmer, and AstraZeneca who bring expertise and challenges from membrane manufacturing, green solvent utilisation, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Ultimately our goal is to enable manufacturing of medicines with a significantly reduced environmental burden, contributing towards sustainable growth in the UK.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Membrane contact sites (MCS) define communication between intracellular organelles functioning both as connectors and checkpoints. The MCS's role in the preservation of cellular homeostasis is now vastly accepted increasing the attention to the repertoire of molecules governing their function to inform biological mechanisms underpinning diseases. Thus, compromised MCS between organelles lead to corrupted cell signalling which ensues in pathological onset. Recently, the presence of MCS between mitochondria and the nucleus has been uncovered in mammalian cells by our group. Called Nucleus Associated Mitochondria (NAM) these newly identified MCS are proposed to prime the expression of genes required for cellular resistance to stressors by ensuring a tethering mechanism for homeostatic intracellular communication. Mitochondria are paramount to cellular homeostasis and influenced by the interplay between anabolic and catabolic processes of preservation. Loss of mitochondrial integrity triggers pathological reprogramming whereby the redesigned bio-energetic routes cause cellular and systemic damage. Defective mitochondria are nonetheless resilient and promptly relay with the nucleus to stimulate or repress the expression of genes which protect cellular integrity. This process is termed Mitochondrial Retrograde Response (MRR) and dictates the degree of cellular adaptation to stress. This is part of the bidirectional interplay between the nucleus and mitochondria: the anterograde one which goes from the nucleus to mitochondria to empower biogenesis (i) and the retrograde which travels in the opposite direction to prime the genome (ii). NAM concur with the efficiency of the MRR by forming physical contacts which expedite the adaptation of the nucleus to mitochondrial priming. The characterization of the tethering mechanism at the basis of the NAM may therefore enlighten the hierarchy between signalling and genetics both in physiology and pathology. Based on these premises, we hypothesise that contacts between mitochondria and the nucleus rely on a repertoire of molecules (i) that establish a dynamic tether to command signalling and metabolism (ii), shaping genetic and epigenetic profiles in mammalian cells (iii). We shall test this by achieving the following experimental aims: I. Identify the molecules composing and regulating the NAM tethering complex; II. Assess cell signaling and mitochondrial-nuclear metabolic crosstalk in NAM-modulated cells; III. Appraise the role of NAM in genetic and epigenetic reprogramming. The proposed experimental plan will utilise state-of-the-art techniques of biochemical, metabolic, and signalling analysis along with multi-omics approaches to provide proof that the physical interaction between mitochondria and the nucleus is instrumental for successful and integrated cell signalling at the basis of functional homeostasis. The team assembled to complete the experimental plan holds the expertise and ambition to inform on these hidden aspects of cellular communication by revealing a regulatory axis which determines the homeostasis of mammalian cells. A timely and innovative effort which will deliver impact at multiple levels starting with first-in-class training for early career researchers in one of the fast-growing fields of experimental biomedicine.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the top ten cancers worldwide, with around 300,000 cases diagnosed annually. The most reliable prognostic factor for OSCC patients is metastatic spread to the lymph nodes of the neck, which is associated with an over 50% reduction in five-year survival. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a tumour cell sub-population that have tumour initiating capacity and the plasticity required for the phenotype switching which drives tumour metastasis. CSCs exhibit hybrid epithelial-mesenchymal characteristics and can switch between migratory mesenchymal and proliferative epithelial phenotypes. This triggers local invasion and intravasation, leading to tumour spread, followed by establishment of a secondary tumour at a metastatic site. Understanding this metastatic cascade is critical for developing better therapeutic options and driving improved prognosis for OSCC patients. Interactions with the tumour microenvironment (TME) strongly influence this phenotypic plasticity that drives tumour spread, and present new therapeutic avenues where TME modulation may prevent tumour metastasis. Identification of essential molecular cross-talk between hybrid CSCs and the surrounding TME is now needed and, due to the complex multi-factorial nature of the in vivo human TME, this needs to be approached within an experimental system that reproduces the key aspects of this complex TME. Current approaches use xenograft and syngeneic mouse tumour models, and we propose to replace these with in vitro tumour models possessing human TME complexity. This builds on our established expertise, and presents distinct advantages over mouse models, including a human TME and the ability to analyse dynamic interactions in real-time. We will develop these models in combination with in-depth analysis of human patient samples and data, which we will use to validate our new models and support their dissemination and uptake. Functional characterisation of mechanisms of tumour-TME crosstalk controlling cancer metastasis will provide new targets whose therapeutic modulation may prevent tumour metastasis, and further advance the value of these new models to the research community. The outcomes of this study will be curated and disseminated as an open community resource, which researchers will be able to interrogate for their own studies. Alongside dissemination of our new in vitro models, this will provide a critical resource to the metastasis research community, both in OSCC and solid tumours more broadly, and will provide an alternative to in vivo models, which are currently the most common method for investigating interactions with the TME.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Why are we doing this work? In the UK around half a million older people break a bone each year. These people often need surgery and rehabilitation to get better. We have been working to improve the rehabilitation that older people get after surgery to fix a broken bone. We will take two steps to further improve this rehabilitation. Project 1: We will measure what older people do during rehabilitation in hospital after a broken bone. Therapists write sentences to describe everything older people do during rehabilitation. This helps all members of the team know how best to help the older person get better. It is difficult to use these notes for research as what one therapist writes can be quite different to another. New technology allows us to look for key words or phrases in the sentences written by therapists for thousands of patients at once. This will help us to understand how much rehabilitation support differs from one older person to the next after surgery to fix a broken bone, and whether this influences their chance of getting better. Project 2: We will take the first steps to improve how older people access rehabilitation once they go home. When people leave the hospital, how long they wait for rehabilitation depends on how community teams decide who should be seen first. We don't really understand how these decisions differ across teams and what this means for people who are waiting. In this work, we will gain an understanding of how community rehabilitation teams decide who should be seen first, and whether this makes it harder for some older people to access rehabilitation than others after they break a bone. We will then create a 'toolkit' to help these teams decide who should be seen first in a way that is consistent and fair for all people seeking support. What will we do? Project 1: Patients, carers, therapists, and researchers will help us to create a list of rehabilitation treatments that people often receive in hospital after surgery to fix a broken bone. We will then use technology called 'natural language processing' to try to identify these treatments in the sentences that therapists wrote for over 3,000 patients admitted to a London hospital for surgery to fit their broken hip, leg, or ankle. We will seek to identify how often and for how long patients have these treatments. We will then see how well the technology does at identifying these treatments by comparing the results directly with the notes that therapists wrote for 400 patients. We will then describe how much treatment differs for patients with these broken bones, and whether there have been any changes over time. Project 2: We will gather initial information from the evidence and discussions with patients, carers, therapists, service managers, policy makers, and researchers on how decisions are made on who should be seen first by community rehabilitation teams. This will help us to create a theory, or idea, on what might be important to look for in further evidence searches and discussions with these groups. We will complete this additional work and bring all the information together into a 'toolkit' to help these teams make more consistent and fair decisions about the order in which patients should be seen. Who will be involved? The work will be supported by patients and carers at each step, to ensure that it is relevant to their needs. Patients and carers will help us to share the findings of the work at meetings with healthcare professionals from around the world. The work will also be supported by a research team who will have opportunities to learn new skills to support them to take the next step in their career. What will happen next? The work will allow us to create initial evidence for new approaches to using data and use existing evidence to improve rehabilitation for older people with broken bones. We will continue to work with patients and carers while growing a supported research team.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

There is an urgent need for the development and implementation of new tools for the rapid diagnosis of urinary tract infections (UTI) and its drug resistance profiling. In this co-developed project, we will, in concert, develop, evaluate and refine three approaches for the rapid and accurate diagnosis of UTI and their resistance profiles, and establish their clinical utility with our partners in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, with the vision of promoting improved healthcare and wellbeing. Prompt and precise diagnosis including drug resistance profiling is critical for timely and accurate treatment of UTI, and reducing its progression to urosepsis. Sepsis kills 11 million people every year (2.9 million deaths under the age of five) and over 25% of sepsis cases start as UTIs. However, due to the lack of reliable and rapid diagnostics, patients are often empirically prescribed antibiotics. The rationale being that ‘gold standard’ culture-based techniques needed for bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing are time-consuming (typically up to 48 hours). This is a major cause of concern from many angles, as antibiotics can have serious adverse side-effects, and their overuse drives resistance. This happens as clinicians (and patients) are all busy, neither wants a repeat appointment, and the guess might work. What is needed is a work-flow where a patent’s urine sample is analysed (ideally within 30-60 mins), to allow the right antibiotic to be prescribed at the right time for the specific patient – in essence personalised medicine. The aims and objectives of this project are to support: (i) sustainable health via resource efficient early diagnosis of diseases through the innovative use of chemistry and electrochemistry and thus promoting well-being; (ii) inclusive and equitable training and technology validation with our partners and (iii) help develop sustainable livelihoods supported by strong foundations for sustainable, inclusive economic growth and innovation To achieve this, the objectives set encompass a series of parallel strands, as shown below: The application of a suite of technologies for the rapid and early assessment of UTI  (and drug resistance profiles) in parallel with standard culture methods. A better understanding of and tackling key healthcare technology challenges specific to resource-poor settings Building focused, proactive and long-term interdisciplinary partnerships through dynamic collaborative relationships: establishing these as exemplars of best practice. Promoting across the international team both highly collaborative and multi-cross-disciplinary ways of working to enhance the provision and availability of better healthcare Leveraging the breadth of our international leading science excellence to: Provide training, skills development and knowledge transfer with our partners Embed within our partners an enhanced capability whilst promoting a strong culture of independence, innovation and entrepreneurship in the healthcare sector Enabling the very best, world-class collaborative research that builds stronger and lasting relationships and thus excellent research in the partner countries in the development of innovative research capability focused on affordable healthcare. The potential applications and benefits are myriad - The area of UTI and the antibiotic resistance profiling are the initial targets. Once validated, infections from multiple other areas will become accessible to the technology, showing its broad importance, and broader impacts. In addition, the project also has the potential to kick start a change in MedTech, in which electrochemical sensing, that offers low-cost solutions with robustness and quantification within a clinical diagnostic setting, becomes main-stream.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-04

  Our vision is to research and develop a new generation of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors and ultra-low-energy semiconductor devices. Our research proposal addresses one of the most urgent, important and costly problems facing the UK: the huge energy required to power the data centres needed to train and run AI-enabled computing. John Pettigrew, CEO National Grid, warned at the Oxford Aurora Forum (March 2024): “The electricity demand from UK data centres is predicted to rise sixfold over the next 10 years.” The main reason data centres consume so much energy is that they contain millions of silicon devices such as transistors which are energy inefficient (our laptops get hot because of the energy-hungry silicon devices they contain). If we are to reduce the energy consumption of data centres, we must replace silicon devices with low-energy-consumption devices made from new materials. The front-runner materials for this are the atomically thin new class of materials called 2D materials. The first 2D material was graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, the thinnest material in the world. Graphene is the best electrical conductor in the world. This is because the conduction electrons move along the surfaces of graphene, whereas in silicon they move through the bulk. Think of skating on ice: you can skate on the surface much faster than trying to travel through the ice. This results in high-speed graphene devices. IBM, Intel, and Samsung invested over $5 billion to manufacture graphene electronics; however, although graphene devices could be assembled by hand using the tiny graphene flakes then available, graphene could not be scaled up for high-volume manufacturing. This major technological drawback was removed when the Programme Lead's group, then at Cambridge University, invented a new way to scale up and made device-quality, large-area graphene. They then made a graphene sensor to measure magnetic fields and electric currents. A company, Paragraf, was set-up to manufacture graphene devices. Importantly, the power consumption of Paragraf’s sensors is 1000 times less than that of silicon sensors. This raises our expectations that other devices made from 2D materials will also have a very low power consumption, because the conduction electrons move along their surfaces. Our proposed next-generation, ultra-low-energy semiconductor devices aim to reduce the electricity consumption of data centres by 100 times. The power demand of UK data centres would then drop to a much more manageable value, which would save many £billions in electricity costs. Our research team from the universities of QMUL, Glasgow and Nottingham, supported by 23 partner industries contributing over £2 million to the project, will build upon our world lead in wafer-scale graphene electronic devices to produce more complex prototype devices using other 2D semiconductors (e.g., hBN, gallium selenide) at wafer-scale and integrate them, layer by layer with graphene. We will translate our unique scientific knowledge and expertise of 2D graphene electronic devices into new prototype semiconductor devices, ranging from simple diodes to nanometre-scale novel transistors, such as Dirac-source transistors suitable for integrated circuits for use in data centres. Our research will be revolutionary and give the UK a world lead in low-energy, high-speed electronics beyond silicon, enabling the UK to build a new electronics industry in 2D semiconductor devices.        

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

This proposal is bringing together R&I related staff by a complementary set of participating organisations that will use multidisciplinary technological approaches to provide a proof-of concept framework for designing and introducing greener practices in pharmaceuticals. Knowledge will be transferred around the core technical activity that will be the introduction of HME as a novel production method, based on AI-ML tools and supported by environmental assessment for greener pharmaceuticals.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

MENSREP breaks new ground theoretically and empirically as the first study to examine the political representation of men. Male dominance in politics fosters complacency about men's representation, yet male politicians are less diverse than their female counterparts on measures such as race and class. This matters, because men have distinctive gendered needs that intersect with their other traits. For example, education and health outcomes are gendered in ways that vary between different groups of men. The interests of elite male politicians are not the same as those of other men, resulting in policies that disserve many men. Cultures of masculinity in politics hinder discussion of sensitive topics and also motivate elite men to preserve their dominance at the expense of women and disadvantaged men. MENSREP argues that more diversity in politics - both between the sexes and within them - can improve representational outcomes for men and women. Building on my pioneering work in this area, it looks at how men are represented, by whom, and to what effect. It identifies the "critical actors" who make claims on behalf of men, and explores linkages between politicians and men's movements. It develops a new theoretical framework for examining the ideology of critical actors, the groups they are targeting, and their end goals. The framework helps us to distinguish between representation that is aligned with or hostile to feminism, that is inclusive of diverse men or narrow in its focus, and that seeks to be transformative or to defend the status quo. MENSREP uses mixed methods, including quantitative analysis of whether more diverse legislatures produce better outcomes for men; network analysis of the relationships between politicians and men's movements; interviews; and content analysis of parliamentary debates. MENSREP opens up a whole new research field, offers a much-needed counter-narrative to extremist movements, and has the potential to address major policy problems.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic disabling condition affecting a third of the population over the age of 55yrs, it is the main cause of workplace absenteeism (30.8million working days are lost annually) and accounts for 1-2.5% of the GDP in western countries. There is no treatment that effectively halts or reverts OA and current treatment, namely joint replacement, costs the NHS £5.2bn annually, with indirect costs accounting for a further £8bn. In addition to the economic threat OA poses in a growing, ageing population, the effect on an individual’s well-being is formidable – movement, independence, pain and mental health are all significantly impacted. In our lab we have been developing a treatment for joint injuries based on Agrin, a molecule naturally found in healthy cartilage but absent in OA patients. We have demonstrated that intra-articular injection of a proprietary engineered version of Agrin has remarkable efficacy in repairing cartilage lesions, restoring joint function, and providing pain relief. Beyond healing acute cartilage defects, Agrin also prevents OA development, making it a true disease-modifying therapy. The wealth of molecular, cellular and large animal data gives confidence that fast-tracking this into human cartilage defect conditions is both clinically and commercially appropriate. Agrin is highly suitable as a therapeutic due to its low cost of manufacture,  suitability for large-scale manufacturing, ability to be locally administered and very high potency. Our findings have been published in a number of high-impact journals. We are completing the preclinical package for a therapeutic version of Agrin, commercially through our spin-out company ReFleks with support from Queen Mary Innovation (QMI). A spin-out approach has been chosen as the most effective and efficient strategy for advancing the therapeutic molecule to clinical application, leveraging the world-leading expertise of the founding team and the agility of a dedicated company to secure investment. This model ensures targeted resource allocation and rapid decision-making. We will recruit an interim CEO and COO to facilitate the recruitment of our executive team to propel the company forward. ReFleks' mission is to pioneer the development of the first disease-modifying therapeutic for cartilage defects and osteoarthritis, transforming treatment by addressing the underlying causes rather than just managing symptoms. Ultimately our aim is to treat patients and overcome a major bottleneck in OA drug development, which is the sporadic and unpredictable progression of OA, leading to the large scale and lengthy duration of clinical trials, ultimately hindering timely market entry. To circumvent this, we are recruiting an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse cohort (North-East London OA -NELOA) of patients (through our BRC) post joint injury- as 51% of patients who have suffered a knee injury will go onto develop secondary OA within 12 months. This patient cohort will enable us to distinguish those patients who will progress to develop osteoarthritis from “non progressors” using clinical and imaging data (MRI, X-Ray, bloods etc), PROMS and wearable data. We have developed the ReFleks App to monitor patients’ health whilst providing users with news, PPI events and research. This is available in English and Bengali to be as inclusive as possible for the diverse NELOA cohort. This approach will help predict which patients will develop osteoarthritis within a year, enriching clinical trial cohorts and reducing trial size and duration, thereby speeding up delivery of treatments, such as Agrin.

UKRI Gateway to Research · FY 2025 · 2025-03

With their power conversion efficiency now surpassing 25% and rivalling those based on conventional silicon, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) offer maximum potential in decarbonising the future energy supply. Nevertheless, the commercialisation of PSCs has generally been hindered by their limited stability, often associated with the degradation of constituents triggered by various environmental, mechanical and device-related stressors (e.g. humidity, oxygen, light and flexing), resulting in a device lifespan significantly inferior to conventional PV technologies (e.g. 20 years guaranteed for commercial silicon PV panels). In addition, the decommissioning and disposal of aged perovskites PV modules can be both costly and environment unfriendly. To overcome these remaining barriers, Rep- PPV aims to develop more sustainable halide perovskite materials and devices capable of regenerating themselves after degradation. These are not only capable of extending their current device lifespan, but also can substantially alleviate the disposal requirements. This will be achieved through a comprehensive understanding and control of the reversible processes responsible for the degradation of halide perovskite materials (through rational materials engineering) such that the aged products can be turned into fresh devices again, without the need for resource- and energy-intensive decommissioning and replacement. To deliver Rep-PPV, the researcher's existing expertise will be advanced by receiving trainings on; personal development, supervision and mentoring, materials and device simulation, operation and maintenance of specific research facilities particularly for in-situ study as well as health and safety. Rep-PPV will establish a new generation of sustainable perovskite PV technologies with built-in recyclability, thereby paving the way for their large-scale and sustainable deployment across a range of application areas.