Forever Keele 3
3
Keele News
Here’s a round-up of some of the interesting achievements and innovative
research that has been happening at Keele over the last few months.
awarded funding for a major new
research project to investigate new
methods of disrupting the spread of
cancer.
Keele ranked in UK Top 10 for
Student Experience
Keele University has ranked in the UK
Top 10 for the Best Student Experience
in The Times and The Sunday Times
Good University Guide 2020.
In England, medicine at Keele is
ranked 3rd behind only Oxford and
Cambridge, and received a score of
99.6% for graduate prospects. Also
in England, Nursing ranked 6th with
a perfect 100% score for graduate
prospects.
Keele scientists developing new
chemical probe to study the spread
of cancer cells
Keele University scientists have been
Dr Gavin Miller and Professor Mike
Watkinson, from Keele’s School of
Chemical and Physical Sciences,
are leading the study which aims to
develop a chemical probe that can
detect the activity of an enzyme which
is present in higher levels during the
growth of cancer cells.
It is hoped that the probe will be used
to initiate new therapeutic strategies
against cancer, by using it as a tool in
screening for and selecting potential
inhibitors of the enzyme.
The research will be funded by a
£450,000 grant from the Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research
Council (EPSRC-SFI), and conducted
in collaboration with Trinity College,
Dublin, and the University of St
Andrews.
Dr Gavin Miller said: “A key event in
cancer cell proliferation is regulated by
enzymes that control the extracellular
surroundings of cells that are involved
in this process. More specifically,
enzymes that act upon important
biological carbohydrate molecules,
called heparan sulfates.
“We are proposing here to design
and synthesise a series of molecular
carbohydrate tools that would be
capable of detecting the activity of
one of these key enzymes, called
heparanase.
“Using our knowledge of synthetic
carbohydrate chemistry and molecular
sensing technology we propose
to build a probe that can detect
the activity of heparanase, which
would allow the future development
of programmes that use this tool
to screen for and select potential
inhibitors of the enzyme, providing an
inroad to new therapeutic strategies
against cancer.”
Volunteers plant 300 trees on Keele
campus to help combat climate
change
Keele Wildlife Society has thanked
students and staff who came out
to help plant hundreds of trees on
campus in a bid to combat climate
change.
Over two weeks, volunteers planted