Keele University
Keele research continued to make headlines and improve lives across the world this year .
£ 2.2m
Professor Christine Roffe is leading a research team which has secured £ 2.2m of funding to investigate whether a common anti-sickness drug could be repurposed to prevent pneumonia and reduce the risk of premature deaths in stroke patients .
Research that improves lives
Professor Deirdre McKay
Professor Deirdre McKay was part of an international research team with colleagues in Indonesia , who have developed a new wood-plastic composite building material which is designed to reduce plastic pollution . Low- and middle-income countries like Indonesia have a particular problem with plastic pollution , as on top of the waste created by development in the country , much of the world ’ s plastic waste is sent there for sorting and disposal . To combat this the researchers have developed a new wood-plastic composite , made by combining low density polyethylene ( LDPE ) plastics with natural , Sumateran durian wood . The material was evaluated to Japanese Industrial Standards and found to pass the tests making them suitable to be used as a building material .
Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham
Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham has been working with colleagues at Cambridge and Manchester to raise awareness of a rare type of heart failure , in a bid to improve treatment outcomes for patients . Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction ( HFpEF ) is the cause of half of all cases of heart failure in England – but this research found that poor awareness of the condition among GPs could be hindering opportunities to improve care for patients .
Dr Roberto Galizi
Dr Roberto Galizi and colleagues have developed a novel technology which allows them to control populations of mosquitoes to help combat harmful diseases like malaria . Dr Galizi and his colleagues previously developed gene drive technology which allowed them to influence and bias the gender of mosquito offspring , resulting in all-male groups which eventually led to population collapse . This year , they have now developed a gene drive that enables them to reverse the effects of the original gene drive , giving them even greater control of the technology and providing a useful tool in the fight against deadly diseases like malaria which are transmitted by these insects .
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