One of Cambridge’s newest institutes,established to study the relationship between infectious disease and our immune systems,is leading the University of Cambridge’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic,with over 150 scientists and clinicians,the UK’s largest academic Containment Level 3Facility,and arange of collaborators from across the UK and beyond.Based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus,the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease(CITIID)is integrated with the NHS both locally,through Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust,and nationally,in particular through the National Institute for Health Research(NIHR)BioResource.CITIID,based in the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre,opened its doors in September 2019.Following the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2,the virus that causes COVID-19,the institute has redirected all of its research efforts to tackling the pandemic.“The world is facing an unprecedented challenge,with potentially millions of lives at risk,which is why over 150 of my colleagues at our new institute are focusing their expertise on the fightback against COVID-19,”says Professor Ken Smith,Director of CITIID.“Together with our partners in the NHS and NIHR,we aim to identify those patients at greatest risk and understand why the coronavirus makes some people so sick while leaving others with only mild symptoms.Ultimately,we hope this will lead to the development of new treatments against this dreadful disease.”The Institute last week opened what is believed to be the largest Containment Level 3Facility in any UK academic institution.These facilities are required for work on dangerous pathogens such as the coronavirus. 查看详细>>

One short week ago,I called on governments to use existing data and proven machine learning and AI techniques to help healthcare systems combat the COVID-19 pandemic.The response was amazing.My team and Ireceived encouragement,ideas,and proposals for collaboration.We also received,courtesy of Public Health England,a set of(depersonalised)data on existing COVID-19 cases.Along with my team at the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine,I’ve spent the last few days training our models on this data.The results so far are extremely encouraging.Among other things,we wanted to demonstrate that machine learning techniques can accurately predict how COVID-19 will impact resource needs(ventilators,ICU beds,etc.)at the individual patient level and the hospital level,thereby giving areliable picture of future resource usage and enabling healthcare professionals to make well-informed decisions about how these scarce resources can be used to achieve the maximum benefit.Based on the data we received from Public Health England,we now have aproof-of-concept demonstrator showing that this can be done,in the form of anew system we call Adjutorium. 查看详细>>

Five years ago,3D printing was hailed as atechnology that would fundamentally transform the way that most things are made:the hype cycle was in full gear.Breathless columns were written about aworld where Star Trek-style replicators would be in every home,and no less afigure than former US President Barack Obama claimed that 3D printing would change manufacturing forever.Fast-forward afew years and,while 3D printing has advanced rapidly,many companies still aren’t sure whether they should use it,how they should use it and what skills they need to use it effectively.Tim Minshall,the Dr John CTaylor Professor of Innovation and Head of Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing(IfM),likes to use the example of 3D printing to illustrate the challenge that the East of England–and the UK at large–has with skills.With funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council(EPSRC)and the Economic and Social Research Council(ESRC),he has been studying the potential impact of 3D printing on companies of all sizes,including some in the local region.When anew technology is developed,among the first questions often asked are:how many jobs will it create as new business opportunities are realised,and how many people need to be trained to capture these opportunities?But according to Minshall,when it comes to acquiring the right skills to best exploit new technologies,those are the wrong questions.“New technologies come along and we think we need new skills to be developed to use them when the truth is,it’s knowledge about these technologies that needs to be developed–and that’s amore difficult problem,”he says.“If you’re asmall manufacturing firm,and you’ve been doing business in abroadly similar way for decades,and then someone comes along and tells you that you need to get on board with this new technology or you’ll be left behind,how do you know whether that’s actually true?Should you buy the new solution that’s being offered to you,and if you do,do you need to retrain all your staff,or even recruit new staff,to make sure you’ve got the skills to be able to use it?”According to Minshall,companies need to be asking who needs to know about the technology,and what they need to know.“If acompany invests in anew technology but hasn’t thought about these issues,it could be adisaster for their business,”says Minshall.“We run research projects that aim to help companies of all shapes and sizes,but in particular smaller ones,to develop the skills and capabilities they need to adapt to these technologies.”Minshall’s colleague Professor Duncan McFarlane is working on such aproject.Also funded by the EPSRC and in collaboration with the University of Nottingham,the three-year Digital Manufacturing on aShoestring project is looking to help small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)use digital information to enhance their manufacturing operations.“In Cambridge and the surrounding area,there are two fundamentally different types of SMEs:the small manufacturers who make things and the solution providers.The programme aims to support both of these types of SMEs.”One of the aims of the Digital Manufacturing on aShoestring project is to provide SMEs locally and across the country with the building blocks to make the right solutions for them.“We want to get straight to the heart of the digital challenges that manufacturing SMEs are trying to overcome,”says McFarlane.“SMEs want inexpensive and easy digital manufacturing solutions:they haven’t got large specialised IT departments.There are numerous examples of companies investing into digital solutions which turn out to be no benefit at all because they haven’t been developed in line with their needs,and they haven’t got the right skills to use them effectively.And if we can engage local IT solution providers in developing these right solutions then it will be adouble win!” 查看详细>>

Two of the most innovative US universities,along with their UK counterparts,will meet with the minister and innovation and industrial strategy leaders from UK government on Monday 25 February.Lesley Millar-Nicholson,Director of MIT’s Technology Licensing Office,and Karin Immergluck,Executive Director of Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing,were invited by UK Research and Innovation(UKRI)and Cambridge Enterprise Chief Executive Tony Raven to confer with UK policymakers and university peers.Participants in Monday’s meetings,held at the Department for Business,Energy&Industrial Strategy,include Chris Skidmore MP,Minister of State for Universities,Science,Research and Innovation;David Sweeney,Executive Chair of Research England;leaders from HMT and the Industrial Strategy Board as well as the heads of technology transfer at the universities of Cambridge and Manchester,Knowledge Transfer Ireland(KTI)and Cancer Research UK(CRUK).On 26 February Millar-Nicholson and Immergluck will join the“6U”group of UK universities—Cambridge,Edinburgh,Imperial,Manchester,Oxford and UCL—which meets regularly to exchange strategies and best practices for commercialising research.The goal is to share expertise and identify areas for international collaboration. 查看详细>>

Funded by UK Research and Innovation(UKRI),the Centre for Doctoral Training in Application of Artificial Intelligence to the study of Environmental Risks(AI4ER)is one of 16 new Centres for Doctoral Training(CDTs)announced today.The Cambridge Centre will be led by Professor Simon Redfern,Head of the Department of Earth Sciences.Climate risk,environmental change and environmental hazards pose some of the most significant threats we face in the 21st century.At the same time,we have increasingly larger datasets available to observe the planet,from the atomic scale all the way through to global satellite observations.“These datasets represent atransformation in the way we can study and understand the Earth and environment,as we assess and find solutions to environmental risk,”said Redfern.“Such huge datasets pose their own challenges,however,and new methods need to be developed to tap their potential and to use this information to guide our path away from environmental catastrophe.”The new Centre brings computer scientists,mathematicians and engineers together with environmental and geoscientists to train the next generation of thought leaders in environmental data science.They will be equipped to apply AI to ever-increasing environmental data and understand and address the risks we face.At the same time as human-induced climate change becomes increasingly apparent,urbanisation and the growth of megacities generate other risks,as society becomes potentially more fragile and vulnerable to geohazards such as earthquakes,volcanic eruptions,floods and tsunamis.Alongside satellite data,autonomous sensors,drones,and networks of instruments provide increasingly detailed information about such risks and their potential impacts. 查看详细>>

A new‘brain training‘game designed by researchers at the University of Cambridge has been licensed through Cambridge Enterprise to app developer Peak,specialists in evidence-based‘brain training‘apps.According to new research published this week in the journal Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience,the app improves users‘concentration and the scientists behind the venture say it could prove to be awelcome antidote to the daily distractions that we face in abusy world.In their book,The Distracted Mind:Ancient Brains in aHigh-Tech World,Adam Gazzaley and Larry D.Rosen point out that with the emergence of new technologies requiring rapid responses to emails and texts and working on multiple projects simultaneously,young people,including students,are having more problems with sustaining attention and frequently become distracted.This difficulty in focussing attention and concentrating is made worse by stress from aglobal environment that never sleeps and also frequent travel leading to jetlag and poor quality sleep.“We’ve all experienced coming home from work feeling that we’ve been busy all day,but unsure what we actually did,”says Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry.“Most of us spend our time answering emails,looking at text messages,searching social media,trying to multitask.But instead of getting alot done,we sometimes struggle to complete even asingle task and fail to achieve our goal for the day.Then we go home,and even there we find it difficult to‘switch off’and read abook or watch TV without picking up our smartphones.For complex tasks we need to get in the‘flow’and stay focused.”In recent years,as smartphones have become ubiquitous,there has been agrowth in the number of so-called‘brain training’apps that claim to improve cognitive skills such as memory,numerical skills and concentration.Now,a team from the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cambridge,has developed and tested‘Decoder’,a new game that is aimed at helping users improve their attention and concentration.The game is based on the team’s own research and has been evaluated scientifically. 查看详细>>

This prestigious award means Cambridge Enterprise is now recognised as being among the best employers in the Eastern region.The award is aresult of the exceptional results we achieved in the Best Employers Eastern Region survey;our employees rated us on ahost of factors including turnover,career progression,working practices and values.Our survey results placed us in the top 25%of employers in the Eastern Region,which means that our employees said they felt more engaged in their work than at least 11,250 who participated.As aresult of our placement,we were then invited to submit further information for the chance to be recognised with accreditation.That additional data,along with our survey scores,were then assessed against aframework by an external panel resulting in Gold Accreditation. 查看详细>>

The Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme represents amulti-million-pound commitment from the private sector to accelerate progress on UN Sustainable Development Goals.The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership(CISL)is launching The Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme today(11 July),with the support of some of the UK’s leading companies.The programme will attract researchers from around the world to identify solutions to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).In aunique model for the University,up to 15 Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellows will be appointed to undertake three-year studies to mobilise global evidence on the world’s most pressing challenges,enabling companies and policymakers to build amore sustainable economy.Founding sponsors of the Fellowship Programme include Anglian Water,Asda,AstraZeneca,The Equal Opportunities Foundation,Heathrow Airport Holdings,Paul and Michelle Gilding,Sainsbury’s,Sappi and Unilever.As atribute to his 70th birthday year,and in recognition of his lifetime’s dedication to environmental issues,the Fellowship Programme is named in honour of CISL’s Patron The Prince of Wales.This effort is even more urgent given the UN’s announcement last week that progress on the SDGs has been slow and not on track to reach its 2030 targets.“Universities contribute to society through the creation of new knowledge and the development of new skills,”said Professor Stephen Toope,Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.“It is our aspiration to do this in ways that are relevant and purposeful.The Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme,hosted by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership,will help us to do just that by allowing academics to engage productively with business,government and financial institutions for society’s benefit–both in the UK and globally.”The SDGs were launched in 2015 to provide aglobal framework for development with 17 Goals to be achieved by 2030,such as ending poverty,tackling inequality and climate change.Governments have cited the critical role of the private sector in delivering the Goals.“The Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme will create arich intellectual space for collaboration between researchers and industry as we seek breakthrough ideas and leadership actions towards meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals,”said Polly Courtice,Director of CISL. 查看详细>>

PredictImmune,a developer of pioneering prognostic products for guiding treatment options and improving patient outcomes in immune-mediated diseases,today announced the appointment of Paul Kinnon as its new Chief Executive Officer.He joins PredictImmune having spent over 20 years in anumber of successful executive positions in the United States.To date,PredictImmune has raised£4.7m Series Aequity funding for the commercial development of laboratory services and diagnostic kits for routine use in clinical gastroenterology,and an additional£4.3m investment from the Wellcome Trust to support aprospective multi-centre clinical trial of aprognostic biomarker product for treatment guidance in Crohn’s disease.Kinnon said:“This is an exciting time for PredictImmune and I’m honoured to have been appointed to lead the company as it enters the commercialisation phase of its expansion.I look forward to working with the highly qualified and experienced team at PredictImmune to implement the global commercialisation of its unique and revolutionary products to market and increase the company’s potential long-term value.”Immune-mediated diseases,such as inflammatory bowel disease,vasculitis and Lupus are common,chronic and incurable,and there is currently no way of knowing whether apatient is likely to experience asevere,relapsing form of the disease.PredictImmune’s innovative prognostic products will identify patients who may benefit from state-of-the-art(biologics)anti-inflammatory drugs.Andrew Sandham,Executive Chairman of PredictImmune,commented:“Paul has more than 25 years of global leadership experience in disruptive life science and diagnostics companies and has aproven track record in transforming organisations while driving commercial success and growth.I’m delighted to welcome Paul to the team and look forward to working with him to bring our ground-breaking products to market.”Kinnon began his career as an analytical chemist at Smithkline French&Beckman Research,a predecessor company of GlaxoSmithKline.Throughout his executive career,he has held leadership positions with Transgenomic,ZyGEM Corp.,Life Technologies,Guava Technologies and Cellomics,generating more than$60m in funding,creating global partnerships and increasing shareholder returns.Kinnon takes up his new position with immediate effect and will be based at PredictImmune’s UK headquarters at The Babraham Research Campus. 查看详细>>

Business Secretary Greg Clark today announced funding for aseries of ambitious technology projects that will transform the way medicines are discovered,enabling the pharmaceutical industry to develop groundbreaking drugs faster,cheaper and better than ever before.The projects are the first wave of major initiatives for the£103m Rosalind Franklin Institute,that launched today at the Harwell Campus,Oxfordshire.New drugs are discovered through aslow and painstaking process of trial and error,often taking ten years and billions of pounds to develop.The Rosalind Franklin Institute(RFI)is investing£6m to create:The World’s most advanced real-time video camera,the key to anew technique that uses light and sound to eradicate some of the most lethal forms of cancer.A new project pioneering fully-automated hands-free molecular discovery to produce new drugs up to ten times faster and transform the UK’s pharmaceutical industry.A ground-breaking new UK facility that will revolutionise the way samples are produced and harness Artificial Intelligence(AI)to generate new drugs for clinical testing within afew weeks.The RFI will harness disruptive new technologies such as AI and robotics to dramatically improve our understanding of biology,leading to new diagnostics,new drugs,and new treatments for millions of patients Worldwide.It will pioneer new ways of working with industry,as part of the UK’s AI and Data Grand Challenge,bridging the gap between university research and pharmaceutical companies or small businesses.This will build on the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy and put the UK at the forefront of the industries of the future. 查看详细>>