Videos on the Oxford BRC YouTube Channel

The Molecular Diagnostics Theme is focused on improving medicine by better classification of disease, allowing more accurate prediction of patients’ prognosis and better prediction of how they will respond to different treatments. This will help to offer the most suitable treatments to patients with cancer and other diseases. NIHR Oxford BRC Molecular Diagnostics Theme Lead, Prof Paresh Vyas, explain

For many diseases a large proportion of patients will be a low risk of developing the serious complication of their disease becoming uncontrolled over time. It is therefore important to be able to identify those few patients who are at risk of a poor outcome. This will save the lower risk patients unnecessary investigation, treatment or surveillance, and focus our resources on those at highest risk. As an example, we will attempt to use genetic analysis of precancerous polyps and stem cells to separate patients with bowel inflammation (ulcerative colitis) into those at high and low risk of severe inflammation or bowel cancer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBJMFotN9tM&t=18s

NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Molecular Diagnostics Theme Advances in technology mean that we now have an unprecedented ability to identify the molecular alterations that drive the growth and spread of cancers. While many of these alterations are likely to be associated with differences in prognosis or probability of treatment benefit, current analytical methods are inadequate to confirm this in cases where the alteration is uncommon, or in cases where multiple alterations are present. In the Precision Biomarkers sub-theme, we will develop new statistical methods to address this challenge. Our aim is to realise the potential of new technologies to refine care for patients with cancer, and in so, doing reduce both under- and over- treatment. In addition to improving cancer care, the methods we seek to develop should be applicable to other disease types, and thus help to achieve the ambition of Precision Medicine more broadly.

Dr Alastair Webb: Stroke – don’t let the pressure get to you! High blood pressure is a contributing factor in around half of all strokes. On top of the 9.5 million people diagnosed with high blood pressure in the UK, an estimated 5.5 million are undiagnosed and untreated. In this public talk at the John Radcliffe Hospital on 18 October 2016, Dr Alastair Webb explains how high blood pressure affects the brain and how diagnosing high blood pressure can improve the prevention of stroke and other vascular diseases. Dr Webb is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Development Fellow, at the Centre for the Prevention of Stroke and Dementia, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford; and an Honorary Neurology Consultant with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. To find out more about our research into stroke and vascular conditions: https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/research-themes-overview/stroke-and-vascular-dementia/ and into neurological conditions: https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/research-themes-overview/neurological-conditions/

Part of Therapeutics, Small Molecules and Biologics – Technology Showcase, Oxford 2018

Part of Therapeutics, Small Molecules and Biologics – Technology Showcase, Oxford 2018

Part of Therapeutics, Small Molecules and Biologics – Technology Showcase, Oxford 2018

Part of Therapeutics, Small Molecules and Biologics – Technology Showcase, Oxford 2018

Part of Therapeutics, Small Molecules and Biologics – Technology Showcase, Oxford 2018

Open Access training session for Oxford BRC researchers in June 2018, given by Owen Coxall and Judith Ames of Bodleian Health Care Libraries, University of Oxford. Open access allows free, easy public access to biosciences research publications, in line with the policies of UK higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. It is a way of eliminating permission and price barriers in order to guarantee free access to biosciences research publications. This facilitates greater exposure and higher citation rates because researchers from other countries can view other researchers’ work. This webpage: http://openaccess.ox.ac.uk/ outlines the University of Oxford’s commitment to open access, in which the Bodleian libraries team play a crucial role. They also provide dedicated support for our BRC researchers. Enhancing open access is also an important work package of the EU-backed Starbios2 project, in which the NIHR Oxford BRC is an important partner. Starbios2 aims to implement the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach in research institutions to achieve a more ethical and inclusive model in bioscience research. This video was commissioned to facilitate learning for our BRC researchers and funded by the Starbios2 project to facilitate opportunities for mutual learning with our European collaborators.

To mark the NHS’s 70th anniversary, NIHR Oxford BRC’s Director Prof Keith Channon outlines the importance of Oxford in the history of medical research and how the city’s hospitals and the University’s medical school have worked together to benefit NHS patients. As well as looking at some landmark medical breakthroughs, Prof Channon will also explore some of the world-leading research that Oxford-based researchers are currently working on. To find out more about the work of the Oxford BRC please click here: https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/

On 13 June, NIHR Oxford BRC staged its 2018 Technology Showcase at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, with the theme Therapeutics, Small Molecules and Biologics. The event, organised jointly by the NIHR Oxford BRC, the Oxford Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) and Oxford University Innovation, attracted a host of leading academics, clinicians and investors to discuss the most exciting commercial opportunities and projects in areas such as small molecule discovery, vaccines, experimental medicine and novel modalities. If you would like to find out more, please click on the links below; https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/ https://www.oxfordahsn.org/ https://innovation.ox.ac.uk/

BRC public talk on tuberculosis 17 May 2018 Dr Carolyn A. Day, Associate Professor of History at Furman University and author of Consumptive Chic: A History of Beauty, Fashion and Disease (London: Bloomsbury, 2017). During the first half of the 19th century, there was a tubercular moment in which cultural ideas about beauty increasingly intertwined with the disease process of tuberculosis to allow for the ravages of the illness to be presented in an aesthetically pleasing light. As a result, there was a dynamic interaction between fashion and disease, one that defined beauty practices and fashion in Britain during the period.

BRC public talk on tuberculosis 17 May 2018 Dr Tim Walker, Specialist Registrar in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, on Tackling the TB pandemic by reading its DNA. Dr Walker explains how the study of TB genetics is changing the way we diagnose and treat the disease, and how it might help control the spread of TB. But can it help eliminate the disease completely?

BRC public talk on tuberculosis 17 May 2018 Dr Philip Fowler, Senior Researcher, Modernising Medical Microbiology, University of Oxford, on Enlisting citizen scientists to help classify M. tuberculosis strains. BashTheBug.net is a Citizen Science project that invites everyone to help us measure how well a large number of M. tuberculosis strains grow when exposed to different concentrations of 14 different antibiotics. It was launched on the Zooniverse platform in April 2017 and since then over 10,000 people have done over 750,000 classifications helping us build an accurate and consistent picture of how genetic variation confers resistance to different antibiotics.

Clare Mackay, Professor of Imaging Neuroscience and Masud Husain, Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience are senior researchers at the National Institute for Health Research’s Biomedical Research Centres in Oxford. In this accessible and informative public talk they will explore the latest research into the debilitating neurodegenerative disorders Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. They will show how cutting edge research is: increasing our knowledge of the mechanisms causing these disorders, offering the prospect of earlier diagnosis and supporting the development of potential new therapies to slow the progression of the disease.

Dr Rahman is Clinical Director of the Oxford Respiratory Trials Unit. Here he discusses the challenges of respiratory medicine in the UK.

Is dieting really worth it? January is peak season for dieting. Almost half of adults polled last year had a New Year resolution to lose weight. But few of these good intentions last, because dieting is hard work. While we struggle to balance all the other demands in our busy lives, it’s reasonable to ask: Is dieting really worth it? Professor Susan Jebb addresses this question based on research conducted in the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. Explaining new research showing that doctors could help more people to successfully lose weight and outline the latest thinking on crash diets. She examines the evidence on the health benefits of losing weight and why even short-term diets may be good for you in the long-term. This talk as part of Obesity Awareness Week.

Dr Ioannis Spiliotis, Clinical Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, will examine what the causes of diabetes could be and explore the discoveries that have shaped our understanding of this disease.

Video for clinical researchers on the benefits of recruiting their patients to the 100,000 Genomes Project. The video features Professor Kassim Javaid of the University of Oxford, who is the national lead for the Musculoskeletal domain of the Genomics England Clinical Interpretation Partnership (GeCIP), and Dr Ed Blair, consultant Clinical Geneticist and Clinical Director of the Oxford NHS Genomic Medicine Centre, one of the 13 centres in England working to implement the 100,000 Genomes Project. In their discussion, Ed and Kassim explain the 100,000 Genomes Project and its aims, with a focus on how it can benefit patients with musculoskeletal disorders and generate important data to help medical research in this field. To find out more information, visit https://www.genomicsengland.co.uk