Springboard funding for Reading researchers

Dr William Cross (Biomedical Sciences & Biomedical Engineering) has received funding from the Academy of Medical Sciences for the project ‘Quantifying telomere aging as a biomarker for patient outcome across twelve common cancer types’.

Dr Cross said: “This project will investigate telomeres – pieces of DNA that shorten as we age. I believe that individuals who experience excessive telomere ageing will experience cancer differently from others and that this will be reflected in patient outcomes and in the genomic features observable in subsequent cancers. Thhis funding will be used to fund a PhD student who will spend at least 3-years of concentrated study into this problem.”

Dr Connor Sharp (Biomedical Sciences & Biomedical Engineering) has been awarded funding from the Academy of Medical Sciences for the project ‘(i)nvestigating how E. coli exploits bacterial warfare in the microbiome’

Dr Sharp said: “‘Dangerous infections such as blood stream infections can live in the gut microbiome for long periods of time. We will research the mechanisms pathogens can use to invade and persist in the gut microbiome. We hope that understanding these mechanisms will allow us to remove pathogens from the gut or prevent them invading without using antibiotics.”

Funded projects 

Professor James Ferryman (Computer Science) has been awarded funding for the project ‘Privacy-Friendly, Smooth, Inclusive and Secure Borders (PIONEER)’ from Horizon Europe to serve as primary investigator with partners.

Dr Manuela Gonzalez-Suarez (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) has received a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship from Horizon Europe for the project ‘Trait-based Forecasting of Species Range Trajectories under Global Change (TRAJECT)’

Dr Chengcheng Miao (International Business & Strategy) ‘s project ‘The Journey of ‘Expat-preneurs’: Transforming Expatriates into Entrepreneurs’ has received funding from the British Academy.

Patricia Sanz Morales (Food Microbial Sciences Unit) has been awarded a grant from the University of Southampton to act as co-investigator on ‘A randomised controlled trial investigating the probiotic-mediated suppression of inflammatory cytokines as a mechanism for improving wellbeing‘.

Professor Andrew Wade (SAGES) has been granted funding from The Royal Society for the project ‘Future water resources in glacier-fed catchments: cryosphere component melt and downstream water quality in the Chilean Andes’.

Professor Matthew Worley (History & Classics) has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship from Horizon Europe for the project ‘The Elsewheres of PuNK! Reading Zines and Youth Culture in Turkey (TR PuNK)’.