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This case study summarises a body of research on Multiple Sclerosis (MS) developed at Plymouth University under the leadership of Professor Zajicek and Professor Hobart. Hobart's work on linical outcome measurements has directly influenced clinical research, trials and drug licensing, especially in MS and Alzheimer's disease. The MS scales developed by Hobart have been endorsed by the United States FDA and are in demand by commercial organisations in the development and trialling of treatments for MS and have led to the licensing of new drugs. Zajicek has led the topical field in evaluating the potential benefits and risks of cannabis for treating MS, contributing to the evidence base behind the medical use of cannabinoids in general, and pioneering its global potential use to slow neurodegeneration.
Our research on cannabis, ketamine and MDMA (ecstasy) has used pioneering methods to provide a unique new evidence-base on which illegal drugs can be evaluated. This work has influenced government policy and legal proceedings in the UK and abroad. We have engaged widely with drug users, other members of the public, drug services and the media to disseminate our findings widely, and increase public knowledge of the topic. Our research on the effects of recreational drug use thus has changed national and international media discourse about this topic, and has increased public awareness and engagement.
Research undertaken by Professor Woodroofe has impacted on a range of beneficiaries: people with multiple sclerosis (MS), their families and carers, and health professionals, including nurses, physiotherapists and doctors. This has been achieved through an array of innovative dissemination activities involving shared learning among researchers and beneficiaries. Through these activities beneficiaries gained a greater knowledge and deeper understanding of the disease process in MS, which they subsequently shared within their own networks. Woodroofe's research on MS has been published in leading international journals making an important contribution to the field and underpinning the impact achieved.
A novel technique named Selected Ion Flow Tube-Mass Spectrometry, SIFT-MS, has been researched and developed by Professor David Smith and Professor Patrik Spanel at the Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine (ISTM), Keele University. This technique allows real time, on-line analysis of trace gases in air and exhaled breath. This development stems from basic research into the reactivity of ions in the gas phase, in which Smith & Spanel are recognised international experts, combined with a complete understanding of the engineering and technical requirements of successful analytical instrumentation. SIFT-MS instruments have been developed initially from large laboratory devices to the current, transportable commercial instruments that are produced by two independent manufacturers and sold worldwide. They are used in various fields of research, including immediate analysis of exhaled breath and urine headspace for clinical diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring, cell biology, and in environmental and food sciences. They have important practical use in the safety of customs workers in container ports and in prospecting for oil and gas. SIFT-MS instruments manufactured in the UK have been exported to Austria, Czech Republic, China and the USA.
By identifying a novel approach to treat allergy and autoimmune disease the University of Bristol has created a new field of research into antigen-specific peptide immunotherapy. Initial work carried out by Professor David Wraith at the University has since 2008 led to the creation of new businesses, (including the spinout company Apitope), generated 100s of millions of pounds of investment and underpinned both the adoption of new technology and the development of new products by the pharmaceutical industry. The commercial impact of this research into antigen specific immunotherapy is on-going and expanding.
Epilepsy, a condition that affects ca. 1% of the world's population, has severe clinical consequences; people with epilepsy (PWE) and poorly controlled seizures exhibit nearly an order of magnitude increase in premature death relative to the general population. About one-third of PWE do not benefit from treatment with currently approved medicines. Although historical evidence has suggested that cannabis might be useful in the control of epilepsy, work initiated by Drs Ben Whalley and Gary Stephens at University of Reading revealed that non-psychoactive components of cannabis can control epileptic seizures in animal models. This finding has led to a funded collaboration of ca £1.4M with GW Pharmaceuticals (UK) and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals (Japan) to establish a case for translation of two such components, cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabidavarin (CBDV), to human clinical drug trials. In particular, Reading research has resulted in GW trialling CBD (Phase 2, 50 participants, design stage) for a new indication of epilepsy treatment. A Phase 1 trial for CBDV (20 participants) began in July 2013, with a Phase 2 trial to begin immediately after successful completion of Phase 1. Results from the use of CBD on an open-label basis have shown major quality-of-life improvements for the patients concerned.
Carol Robinson's research at the University of Oxford in the mid-1990s led directly to her proposing a new type of mass spectrometer to enable more detailed analyses of larger molecular assemblies than previously possible. The design is marketed worldwide by Micromass UK Ltd (part of Waters Corporation), generating a new area of research within industry and academia in which intact protein complexes can be analysed by mass spectrometry and the chemistry of small molecules and drugs bound to them investigated, thus contributing to the search for novel pharmaceuticals. Since 2008, Waters' successful commercialisation of the new technology has led to sales worth many millions of dollars.
Researchers at the Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford have played a major role in the development of an effective and innovative treatment for the chronic debilitating disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Research arising from the work of immunologists in Oxford, and partner neuroscientists in Cambridge University, has shown that low dose treatment with the lymphocyte depleting antibody alemtuzumab can break the cycle of disease in MS. Alemtuzumab acts by re-setting the immune system, leading to long-term arrest or remission, without increasing the risk of infection or malignancy. Large-scale studies since 2008 have shown that treatment is more effective and better tolerated than conventional forms of therapy. In June 2013, the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommended that the drug be licensed for people with active relapsing-remitting MS. The research by Oxford University and its collaborators into the use of alemtuzumab in MS has been shown to benefit patients; it offers hope to millions of sufferers worldwide; and has had a major impact on the pharmaceutical industry.
Q-Technologies Limited is an award winning company spun out from the University of Liverpool (UoL). The company mission is to bring to market the novel, patented technology developed through research undertaken by Taylor and colleagues in the Mass Spectrometry (MS) research group in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics from 1995. Impact is economic resulting from formation of a profitable business, currently employing 7 people, and via IP assignment generating £1.2M in 2013. Impact is also environmental via the realisation of a novel sensor with unparalleled monitoring capabilities providing improved water quality monitoring.
First commercialised in 1996, Quadrupole Orthogonal Acceleration Time of Flight (Q-TOF) Mass Spectrometry (MS) has become the most important of the enabling technologies for structural characterisation in `omics research including Proteomics, Metabolomics, Glycomics and Lipidomics. Prior to this revolutionary development, mass spectrometric methods lacked the sensitivity and resolution needed for unambiguous structural characterisation at the femtomole (10- 15M) level. Today, research is both enabled and accelerated by the use of many thousands of Q-TOF instruments in medical research, cancer research, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, forensics and chemical industry laboratories worldwide. As a consequence of this innovation, which resulted from the research and consultancy advice of Professor Howard Morris, industry has invested in R&D, and highly skilled (mainly British) jobs have been created as well as protected.