Queen Mary Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Research led by Queen Mary’s Professor Claudia Langenberg and her team has helped to prove the effectiveness of large-scale protein studies using UK Biobank data to understand disease. UK Biobank is the world’s most comprehensive source of biomedical data available for health research in the public interest. In 2023 it released data on nearly 3,000 circulating proteins from 54,000 participants. In 2024, Professor Claudia Langenberg, Director of the Precision Healthcare University Research Institute (PHURI) at Queen Mary, and her colleagues published a landmark study using UK Biobank proteomic data to identify disease risk. This research was one of a small number of studies to use this unique data. Building on this pilot data release, UK Biobank announced today a project to measure up to 5,400 proteins in each of 600,000 samples, including those taken from half a million UK Biobank participants and 100,000 second samples taken from these volunteers up to 15 years later. The new unique dataset is ten times larger than that used in the pilot, and is being funded by a consortium of 14 leading biopharmaceutical companies, known as the UK Biobank Pharma Proteomics Project. This new project will allow researchers to explore a first-of-its-kind database, detailing how changes to an individual’s protein levels over mid-to-late life influence disease. The study will begin by analysing the first 300,000 samples, which will include initial samples from 250,000 UK Biobank volunteers and 50,000 second samples taken at follow-up assessments. Professor Langenberg said: “Adding proteomic data for the full UK Biobank cohort will be an absolute game-changer for prediction of disease onset and prognosis, particularly for the many neglected diseases for which good prospective data are lacking. These include debilitating and life threating diseases, such as polycystic ovary syndrome and motor neurone disease. Just imagine if we could detect these and many other conditions much earlier than is currently possible.” 

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Join our Healthcare Leadership Foundations online course, designed for aspiring leaders and professionals in the public and private healthcare sectors. Complete in just 4 weeks, with an optional extension to 9 weeks through personalised coaching. Up to 16 CPD hours awarded by the Royal College of Surgeons England & General Dental Council. Starting 27 January 2025! Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eZ-Ms2SU or watch on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/euzeBNMf

Want to join my lab (co-supervised by Dr Sarah Morgan) for a 4 year funded PhD looking at selective vulnerability in Parkinson's disease using spatial transcriptomics? 🔬 🧠 👩🔬 👨🔬 🥼 Thanks to Barts Charity we have this exciting PhD studentship opportunity fully funded for students eligible for UK fees only. Deadline: 31st January 2025 ⏲️ Blizard Institute Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Please share with your networks!

📣Breaking new ground in thyroid #cancer diagnosis with AI! 🔬 In our latest research we explored how Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) can improve the accuracy of diagnosing thyroid cancer. Many Congratulations to first author William Dee and team! By generating highly realistic synthetic images of thyroid tissue, we were able to train AI models to better identify cancer-even in challenging and rare tumour subtypes. 📊 Key findings include: -7.45% increase in precision -7.20% improvement in overall performance (AUC) -Enhanced detection of difficult-to-classify tumours This innovative approach addresses global challenges like misdiagnosis and over-diagnosis in thyroid cancer, paving the way for more accurate and timely care for patients. #AI #MedicalResearch #ThyroidCancer #PLOSONE #GenerativeAI #Healthcare Find out more by reading the paper - link is in the comment, below.

New study shows AI can improve thyroid cancer diagnosis with artificially created images. Researchers from William Harvey Research Institute have found a new way to improve the accuracy of #thyroid cancer diagnoses using artificial intelligence (AI). The study used a special type of approach, called Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), to create realistic images of thyroid tissue samples. These fake images were then used to train AI systems to better detect cancer pathologies in real-life samples, potentially leading to more accurate diagnoses. Thyroid cancer is one of the top ten most common cancers globally. Misdiagnosis or overdiagnosis is a recognised issue with thyroid cancer, sometimes leading to unnecessary treatments or delayed care. In the study, the GANs were trained using images from a small number of patients. Despite the limited data, the system learned to create highly realistic images of thyroid tissue, including different cancer subtypes. These images were then added to a training dataset for an AI model, which was used to predict the presence of cancer in new, unseen images. This method boosted the model’s accuracy and generalisability, particularly when dealing with difficult-to-classify tumour types. When tested on data from three different sources, the enhanced model showed an improvement in precision by 7.45% and overall performance (measured by AUC) by 7.20%. It was especially good at identifying minority class images—subtypes of tumours that are hard even for trained pathologists to diagnose reliably. Dr Eirini Marouli, Senior author and Associate Professor in Computational Biology at Queen Mary University of London said: "One of the biggest challenges in AI implementation for medical imaging is getting enough data to train deep learning models. We wanted to see if we could use artificially generated data to fill this gap by creating synthetic images, and it was exciting to see how well it worked, even with a small dataset.” Will Dee, first author and PhD student at Queen Mary University of London added: "Our findings suggest that AI models, supplemented with GAN-generated data during training, could help pathologists make more accurate diagnoses, especially for borderline cases. With more data, we could train even more powerful models that could improve clinical decision-making and patient outcomes". Find out more by reading the paper - the link is in the comment, below.

A major study aiming to improve outcomes from higher risk operations has ruled out a fluid therapy approach during surgery. The results from the large international trial, published in the BMJ, have shown that using a type of fluid therapy during major planned gut surgery did not reduce infections afterwards. It did, however, increase the risk of arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms). Due to these results, they recommend avoiding routine use of this technique for these patients. More than 300 million major surgeries are performed around the globe each year. High-risk surgeries can lead to short or long-term medical problems. In the UK, more than 50,000 patients aged over 50 are reported to undergo major gut surgery every year. After surgery, around one third of these patients develop a hospital acquired infection. Many of these patients will die within a few months of surgery. Previous smaller studies had suggested that a fluid therapy approach using advanced cardiac monitoring might reduce complications after major surgery. This global clinical trial aimed to either recommend the treatment if it was beneficial, or withdraw it from routine use if ineffective or harmful. The OPTIMISE II trial of almost 2,500 patients undergoing major planned operations on their gut at 55 hospitals worldwide found the more advanced treatment approach made no difference to the risk of infection following major planned gut surgery. However, it did find that more patients in the treatment group had abnormal heart rhythms just after surgery, presumably due to the inotrope treatment. The researchers therefore state that routine use of this technique in this circumstance should be avoided. Professor Rupert Pearse, a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at Queen Mary, was Chief Investigator for the trial. He said: "We are delighted to complete this international trial which brings to closes a decades long and controversial debate among doctors about how to care for patients having major surgery. Our findings will guide treatment for tens of thousands of patients each year.” Professor Mark Edwards, a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at UHS and a researcher at the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), and study co-lead said: “This was an amazing international effort to get high quality evidence on this intervention, following decades of uncertainty. Although the approach we trialled was unfortunately not found to be beneficial, we now have clear information that could support practice recommendations impacting many thousands of patients having surgery every year.” You can find the link to the published article in the pinned comment, below.

A major study aiming to improve outcomes from higher risk operations has ruled out a fluid therapy approach during surgery. The results from the large international trial, published in the BMJ, have shown that using a type of fluid therapy during major planned gut surgery did not reduce infections afterwards. It did, however, increase the risk of arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms). Due to these results, they recommend avoiding routine use of this technique for these patients. More than 300 million major surgeries are performed around the globe each year. High-risk surgeries can lead to short or long-term medical problems. In the UK, more than 50,000 patients aged over 50 are reported to undergo major gut surgery every year. After surgery, around one third of these patients develop a hospital acquired infection. Many of these patients will die within a few months of surgery. Previous smaller studies had suggested that a fluid therapy approach using advanced cardiac monitoring might reduce complications after major surgery. This global clinical trial aimed to either recommend the treatment if it was beneficial, or withdraw it from routine use if ineffective or harmful. The OPTIMISE II trial of almost 2,500 patients undergoing major planned operations on their gut at 55 hospitals worldwide found the more advanced treatment approach made no difference to the risk of infection following major planned gut surgery. However, it did find that more patients in the treatment group had abnormal heart rhythms just after surgery, presumably due to the inotrope treatment. The researchers therefore state that routine use of this technique in this circumstance should be avoided. Professor Rupert Pearse, a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at Queen Mary, was Chief Investigator for the trial. He said: "We are delighted to complete this international trial which brings to closes a decades long and controversial debate among doctors about how to care for patients having major surgery. Our findings will guide treatment for tens of thousands of patients each year.” Professor Mark Edwards, a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at UHS and a researcher at the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), and study co-lead said: “This was an amazing international effort to get high quality evidence on this intervention, following decades of uncertainty. Although the approach we trialled was unfortunately not found to be beneficial, we now have clear information that could support practice recommendations impacting many thousands of patients having surgery every year.” You can find the link to the published article in the pinned comment, below.

A few comments about our work on tau in naked mole rats with Ewan St. John Smith and Chris Faulkes and how we hope it will bring us closer to new dementia treatments. Excited for Gabriela Meda leading on this in the new year and for the further findings in this project Blizard Institute Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. Part of Alzheimer's Research UK christmas campaign. https://lnkd.in/eCrU7iDw

Surprising ‘two-faced’ cancer gene role supports paradigm shift in predicting disease : A genetic fault long believed to drive the development of oesophageal cancer may in fact play a protective role early in the disease.    The unexpected discovery, funded by @Cancer Research UK and published today in Nature Cancer, could help doctors identify which individuals are at greater risk of developing cancer, potentially leading to more personalised and effective preventive strategies.  Just 12% of patients with #oesophageal cancer in England survive their disease for 10 years or more. The UK has one of the world’s highest incidences of a subtype called oesophageal adenocarcinoma, which develops from a condition called Barrett’s oesophagus – but only around 1% of people with Barrett’s go on to develop cancer each year. In the new study, the research team sought to better understand why some cases of Barrett’s lead to cancer, while others do not. Researchers analysed a large gene sequencing dataset from more than 1,000 people with oesophageal adenocarcinoma and more than 350 people with Barrett’s oesophagus and found that defects in a gene called CDKN2A were more common in people with Barrett’s oesophagus who never progressed to cancer.  The research showed that if normal cells in our oesophagus lose CDKN2A, it helps promote the development of Barrett’s oesophagus. However, it also protects cells against the loss of another key gene encoding p53. Loss of p53 strongly drives the progression of disease from Barrett’s to cancer.  The team found that potentially cancerous cells that lost both CDKN2A and p53 were weakened and unable to compete with other cells around them, preventing cancer from taking root. In contrast, if cancer cells lose CDKN2A after the disease has had time to develop, it promotes a more aggressive disease and worse outcomes for patients.     Lead researcher, Francesca Ciccarelli, Professor of Cancer Genomics at Queen Mary University of London’s Barts Cancer Institute and Principal Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, where the experimental work in this study took place, said: “We often assume that mutations in cancer genes are bad news, but that’s not the whole story,” says lead researcher. “The context is crucial. These results support a paradigm shift in how we think about the effect of mutations in cancer.”  The findings could have significant implications for how we assess cancer risk. They suggest that if a person with Barrett’s oesophagus has an early CDKN2A mutation but no mutations in p53, it could indicate that their condition is less likely to progress to cancer. On the other hand, later in the disease, CDKN2A mutations may signal a poor prognosis. Further research is needed to determine how to best apply this new knowledge to benefit patients in the clinic.   This paper was funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the experimental work in this study took place at The Francis Crick Institute.