Workshops aim to improve health care for patients with learning disabilities

Keele University has been awarded almost £50,000 to help train up to 240 healthcare professionals working with patients with learning disabilities in North Staffordshire.

The funding, from the Staffordshire and Shropshire Locality Board, means that a team of experts – including people with learning disabilities and their parents – can develop and deliver eight one-day workshops to improve the knowledge and skills of health workers across the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

The bespoke learning package will help staff identify and meet the needs of patients with learning disabilities and supports the educational toolkit My Next Patient has a Learning Disability: A Toolkit for Supporting People with Learning Disabilities, launched in May this year.

Project lead Dr Sue Read, Reader in Learning Disability Nursing at Keele University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, said: “The workshops will promote best practice in terms of developing therapeutic relationships and communication with people with learning disabilities and their families and assist health care professionals to recognise factors affecting perceptions of individuals’ quality of life.”

Evaluation will include a before and after analysis by a panel comprising people with learning disabilities, carers, healthcare practitioners with expertise in learning disabilities, representation from senior management of the acute hospital trust and staff from the school of Nursing and Midwifery involved in the project.

Keele scientists use InfraRed light to aid early detection of cancer

Scientists from Keele University and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire are using a new InfraRed beamline to study lung cancer cells.

Left to right: Pijanka Jacek, Keele University; Josep Sulé-Suso, University Hospital of North Staffordshire and Keele University; Jacob Filik, PDRA, Diamond; Gianfelice Cinque, Principal Beamline Scientist for B22; Katia Wehbe, Senior Support Scientist, Diamond and Mark Frogley, Senior Beamline Scientist, Diamond.

The team are the first people to a new experimental station at the UK’s national synchrotron facility, Diamond Light Source. With 14 out of the 16 operational beamlines at Diamond using intensely powerful X-rays to carry out experiments, the new InfraRed (IR) MicroSpectroscopy beamline (B22) is an exciting addition to the facility.

This special light, which is the same as the kind that in your TV remote but much brighter when using a synchrotron source, enabled the researchers to reveal the molecular composition of single cells.

Being able to “see” inside a cancerous cell on such a microscopic scale helps scientists in their search for the characteristic markers of cancer, and in the future could provide an easier, quicker and more objective way to classify tumor development in patients.

The ultimate aim of this research is to find and set up a method that could be used in hospitals, which applies IR light to detect early signs of cancer as an aid to diagnosis. Being able to pick out cancer cells from healthy ones, before the cancer cells grow and form a tumour, would be a major breakthrough in future medical diagnosis.

Lead researcher on the project and lung cancer specialist, Dr Josep Sulé-Suso of Keele University’s Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, said: “We’re very pleased to be able to use the UK facility Diamond to carry out this research. Previously we have used the French Synchrotron SOLEIL and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble to carry out these studies but it is much more practical to use a source that is just a few miles away as it makes transporting our samples much easier. It is great to be the first group to use the new IR line at Diamond. It is important to identify the characteristics of a cancerous cell to the best possible resolution to ensure that the IR microscopy method we work with could be transferred on a smaller scale for the use in hospitals, and Diamond is helping us to do this. This area of research is relatively new but it has huge potential. I still see many patients we cannot cure and that drives the research. We have to do something about that.”

B22 is part of the second phase of construction at Diamond which is due to be complete in 2012. The further six Phase II beamlines that are scheduled to be added over the next two years will bring the total of operational beamlines at Diamond to 22, covering a wide range of science; from biology and medicine, to the physical and chemical sciences, through to the environmental and engineering.

For more information or high-res images contact: Sarah Bucknall at Diamond: 0044 (0) 1235 778639 / 07920 296957 / sarah.bucknall@diamond.ac.uk

Students get into the Christmas spirit at Keele

Students and police community support officers spread the Christmas spirit this week when they organised a special Christmas party for the residents of Keele village.

Around 22 villagers attended the party at Keele Village Hall, enjoying a buffet and a glass of mulled wine provided by the Sneyd Arms. Guests were also presented with a Christmas card, a Keele china mug and were also entered into a free prize draw.

Reverend Stuart Ansell from St John’s Church read out a Christmas tale and members of Keele Philharmonic Choir added to the Christmas spirit when they sang a number of Christmas carols. Children from St John’s School Choir also gave a festive concert which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Becky Wardell, project leader of the university’s volunteering society VE @ Keele, said: “We would like to extend thanks to everyone involved in making this event such a success, including the Keele Key Fund for providing the essential funding which enabled this event to go ahead. Feedback has been really positive and it is hoped that VE @ Keele can work with students to ensure a village Christmas party becomes an annual community event.”

New Vice-Chancellor appointed at Keele University

Keele University today announced that Professor Nick Foskett, currently Dean of the Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Southampton, will take up the appointment of Vice-Chancellor at Keele on 1 August 2010. 

Professor Nick Foskett

Professor Foskett is a Professor of Education, with an international research profile in Higher Education Policy. He will succeed Professor Dame Janet Finch, DBE, who is retiring as Vice-Chancellor of the University next July, after 15 years service. 

Born in Burslem, Professor Foskett’s family lived for several generations in Burslem and Wolstanton, working in the pottery industry.  Professor Foskett lived in Stockton Brook until he was 18, attending Greenways Primary School in Stockton Brook, then Wolstanton Grammar School (now Wolstanton High School) in Newcastle-under-Lyme, then read Geography at Keble College, Oxford. 

A keen sports fan, his career has taken him away from North Staffordshire but he has retained a keen interest in the fortunes of Port Vale and Stoke City.

Professor Foskett, aged 54, began his career as a geography teacher in secondary schools and further education before moving into higher education, firstly as a senior university administrator and then in academic posts, teaching and undertaking internationally recognized research in education. He has held senior posts in schools and in HE, has worked as a consultant to government and to a wide range of educational institutions both in the UK and internationally.

He moved to the University of Southampton as a Lecturer in Education in 1989 and was promoted to Professor of Education in 2000. He held senior leadership roles as Head of Initial Teacher Training, then Head of the School of Education at Southampton before becoming Dean of the Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences in 2005.

Professor Foskett said: “I am delighted to be taking on the role of Vice-Chancellor at Keele in succession to Professor Dame Janet Finch.  The next few years will be challenging for all universities but Keele is well placed to have a strong profile in the higher education world and in its local community.  I also look forward to returning to North Staffordshire where my family has its roots.”

Following the announcement earlier this year that Professor Dame Janet Finch was to retire on 31 July 2010, the University has conducted a selection process to appoint a successor.  Led by the Chair of the University Council, Ian Dudson, the selection panel considered a wide range of candidates to succeed Professor Dame Janet.

Keele’s Pro-Chancellor Mr Dudson said: “I was delighted that the University was able to attract a very strong field of candidates for this key appointment and that Nick Foskett emerged from an extensive selection process as the unanimous choice to be our next Vice-Chancellor. The whole Higher Education sector is expecting difficult financial times as public expenditure is reduced following the recession, but Nick Foskett has shown us that he has the vision and leadership skills to build on the outstanding work of our current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Janet Finch. I am sure he will also want to play a strong and visionary role within North Staffordshire as he returns to his roots.  I look forward to working with Professor Foskett when he joins us in August next year.”

Professor Dame Janet Finch said: “I am delighted that Professor Nick Foskett has been chosen to succeed me as Vice-Chancellor next year.  His strong background in Higher Education management and policy, partnerships and international agendas makes him an ideal choice to lead Keele through its next phase and to make a strong personal impact in the region where he was born.”

Professor Don Nutbeam, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton,
said: “I congratulate both the University of Keele and Nick Foskett himself on this appointment. Nick’s energy, leadership and experience, together with his outstanding academic background in education, will make him an excellent Vice-Chancellor.”

First stunning images captured by VISTA Telescope

A new UK-designed telescope that can map the sky much faster and deeper than any other infrared telescope has made its first release of stunning images.

VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) is the world’s largest telescope dedicated to mapping the sky in infrared light and will reveal a completely new view of the southern sky.  The spectacular images of the Flame Nebula, the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Fornax Galaxy Cluster show that VISTA, based at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, is working extremely well.

Amongst other things, VISTA’s surveys will help our understanding of the nature and distribution and origin of known types of stars and galaxies, map the 3-D structure of our galaxy, and help determine the relation between the 3-D structure of the Universe and the mysterious ‘dark energy’ and ‘dark matter’. Samples of objects will also be followed up in detail with further observations by other telescopes and instruments such as the nearby Very Large Telescope (VLT). Keele University in Staffordshire is one of 18 UK universities in the VISTA consortium.

The Minister of State for Science and Innovation Lord Drayson, said, “This outstanding example of UK kit is revealing our universe’s deepest secrets. I eagerly await more images from VISTA, which builds on our reputation as a world-leading centre for astronomy.”

The first released image shows the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), a spectacular star-forming cloud of gas and dust in the familiar constellation of Orion (the Hunter) and its surroundings. In visible light the core of the object is hidden behind thick clouds of dust, but the VISTA image, taken at infrared wavelengths, can penetrate the murk and reveal the cluster of hot young stars hidden within. The wide field of view of the VISTA camera also captures the glow of NGC 2023 and the ghostly form of the famous Horsehead Nebula.

The second image is a mosaic of two VISTA views towards the centre of our Milky Way galaxy in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer). Vast numbers of stars are revealed – this single picture shows about one million stars – and the majority are normally hidden behind thick dust clouds and only become visible at infrared wavelengths.

For the final image, VISTA has stared far beyond our galaxy to take a family photograph of a cluster of galaxies in the constellation of Fornax (the Chemical Furnace). The wide field allows many galaxies to be captured in a single image including the striking barred-spiral NGC 1365 and the big elliptical galaxy NGC 1399.

VISTA was conceived and developed by a consortium of 18 Universities in the UK led by Queen Mary University of London and is an in-kind contribution to ESO as part of the UK’s accession agreement.  The telescope design and construction were project managed by STFC’s UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UKATC).  VISTA was formally handed over to ESO at a ceremony at ESO’s Headquarters in Garching, Germany, attended by representatives of Queen Mary, University of London and STFC on 10 December 2009 and will now be operated by ESO..

“VISTA is a unique addition to ESO’s observatory on Cerro Paranal.  It will play a pioneering role in surveying the southern sky at infrared wavelengths and will find many interesting targets for study by the future European Extremely Large Telescope,” says Professor Tim de Zeeuw, ESO Director General.

Professor Keith Mason, Chief Executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, said, “This innovative telescope, designed by the UK, will give us unparalleled observing of the southern skies and will help to reveal some of the deepest secrets of the Universe like the nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy.”

Professor John Womersley, Director of Science Programmes at STFC, added, “The handover of VISTA marks a major milestone for UK astronomy, strengthens our relationship with ESO and enhances our capabilities in an area of science where the UK has a particular strength.”

Observing at wavelengths longer than those visible with the human eye allows VISTA to study a wide range of objects, including stars hidden by interstellar dust, very cool stars that are hard to detect in visible light and the most distant galaxies where the light is stretched beyond the visible into the infrared by the expansion of the Universe. To avoid swamping the faint infrared radiation coming from space, the VISTA camera has to be cooled to -200 degrees Celsius and is sealed with the largest infrared-transparent window ever made. The camera was designed and built by a consortium including the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, the UK ATC and the University of Durham.

Kim Ward, the camera manager from STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said, “At the heart of VISTA is a 3-tonne camera containing 16 special detectors sensitive to infrared light with a combined total of 67 million pixels.”

Professor Ian Robson, Head of the STFC UK ATC, added, “We’re immensely proud of what we’ve achieved in providing the astronomical community with the VISTA telescope. The exceptional quality of the scientific data is a tribute to all the scientists and engineers who were involved in this exciting and challenging project.”

Because VISTA is a large telescope that also has a large field of view it can both detect faint sources and also cover wide areas of sky quickly. Each VISTA image captures an area of sky about ten times as large as the full Moon and it will be able to detect and catalogue objects over the whole southern sky with a sensitivity that is forty times greater than achieved with earlier infrared sky surveys such as the highly successful Two Micron All-Sky Survey. This jump in observational power, comparable to the step in sensitivity from the unaided eye to Galileo’s first telescope, will reveal vast numbers of new objects and allow the creation of far more complete inventories of rare and exotic objects in the southern sky.

Professor Jim Emerson, leader of the VISTA consortium from Queen Mary University London (QMUL), is looking forward to a rich harvest of science from the new telescope, “History has shown us that the most exciting things that come out of projects like VISTA are what you least expect – and I’m very excited to see what these will be!”

View some of the images