Awaiting Public Project Summary

The genome is the complete set of genetic material in each of the cells of our body, inherited from our parents. Sometimes, changes (mutations) happen that cause disease. If someone has a disease, it’s now possible and affordable to read their genome to see if it might be caused by a mutation. If it has, scientists can use that information to understand the disease better, and perhaps one day treat or cure it. The UK's Department of Health (DH) set up its own company called Genomics England (GeL) to sequence the genomes of consenting families or individuals who suffer from rare genetic diseases and cancers. GeL has £100m from DH England to sequence 100,000 genomes. The MRC wants to work with the Devolved Governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to help to develop in genome sequencing too, and to contribute to the 100,000 genomes project through GeL. We hope to help build a UK-wide partnership that can deliver better and faster results for patients. This £750,000 award is the MRC’s investment in the Northern Ireland Partnership, managed by the Northern Ireland Genomic Medicine Centre (NI GeMeC). It partners funding of £2.3m from the Northern Ireland Government. Together, funds will be used to sequence 1,300 genomes of people with rare diseases (and often also their families).

IES Jaime Ferrán Clúa is a state centre of Vocational Education and Training in Madrid, providing courses in the area of Health field for more than 20 years.This project has reinforced our internationalization strategy started in 2015-16 with the Erasmus+ programme as a strong commitment of our centre which represents a backbone for opening up to Europe. Planning and performing several projects have allowed us to receive a valuable experience and agility in the management of european projects, as well as the cooperation of new partners in other european countries.To carry out our European Development Plan by means of this project, four Nursing Auxiliary Care students were granted with mobilities to Ireland and one to Germany to carry out traineeships at a workplace. This unique opportunity was valuable to them throughout their lives which aimmed at enhancing their skills and technical, cultural, linguistic and personal competences to be more competitive and contribute to be employed.Also, three teachers were granted for a job shadowing mobility in an important hospital and also in a VET school in United Kingdom. It allowed them to improve their teaching methods, the level of key competences and skills, with particular regard to their relevance for the labour market and and strengthen the cooperation between the world of education and the world of work. They also improved their language competences. Besides, a german expert shared with our school cumunity her knowledge and experience regarding to labour market.By means of this project we strengthened the realtionship with our european partners started in the 2016 Erasmus+ proposal and we have increased the cooperation between institutions with new partners abroad.The impact of this project has been the improvement of the quality of the qualification of the students in our centre who have increased their employability. This has been the best tool to boost new students to participate in Erasmus+ programme and has fed into new European Projects.The cooperation with prestigious institutions abroad has brought added value to our Health Department and has brought an international dimensión to the Education of our non-mobile students.

Traditional pharmaceutical drugs are small molecules that treat the symptoms of a disease. Biopharmaceuticals are larger molecules, for example, peptides and proteins, which target the underlying mechanisms and pathways of a disease that are not accessible with traditional drugs. Recently, there have been rapid and revolutionary developments in this field of biotechnology. Therapeutic peptides and proteins are expected to be used increasingly as vaccines and as treatments for cancer, high blood pressure, pain, blood clots and many other illnesses. However, one of the major challenges to successful clinical use of these so-called "biotech" molecules is their efficient delivery to the site of action. The body breaks these medicines down when they are swallowed and they are generally not well-absorbed into the blood. As a result, they have to be given frequently by injection, which is painful and means that these drugs are usually only administered in hospital. Long-acting formulations of small molecules, increasingly to the fore in treating HIV and TB, must also be injected. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly increased the need for self-administration of injectables at home, away from healthcare settings, where transmission can have dire consequences. Complexities of storage, distribution and administration, needle phobia and the difficulty of domestic disposal of potentially-contaminated sharps all contribute to an urgent need for alternative delivery modes for injectable drugs/vaccines. Similarly, development of blood-free diagnostic systems is a major priority. We have developed a novel type of transdermal patch that by-passes the skin's barrier layer, which is called the stratum corneum. The patch surface has many tiny needles that pierce the stratum corneum without causing any pain - The sensation is said to feel like a cat's tongue. These needles either dissolve quickly, leaving tiny holes in the stratum corneum, through which medicines can enter the body, or swell, turning into a jelly-like material that keeps the holes open and allows continuous drug delivery. Our unique technology could potentially revolutionise the delivery of peptides and proteins, as well as that of long-acting small molecules that cannot currently be delivered across the skin. Notably, we have also found that our swellable microneedles can extract fluid from the skin. This permits us to monitor the levels of medicines and markers of disease without actually taking blood samples. In the UK, the NHS stands to benefit from reduced costs due to shorter hospital stays and reduced occurrence of inappropriate dosing. Ultimately, health-related-quality-of-life will be enhanced through improved disease control, rapid detection of disease and dangerously high or low levels of medicines, facile monitoring of compliance with prescribed dosing and detection of illicit substances in addicts or vehicle drivers. Preterm neonates will derive great benefit from the marked increase in monitoring frequency permitted, as will elderly patients being treated with multiple medicines. At-home treatment/diagnosis, keeping people away from healthcare settings, will also help reduce spread of COVID-19 to vulnerable in-patients and healthcare workers. We have attracted considerable interest and funding from industry to investigate our technologies for a range of applications. However, to facilitate the commercialisation process and maximise value to the UK, it is now essential to develop methods for rationalised skin application of the microneedles such that they are always applied to every patient in the same way every time and that their efficacy is guaranteed. We will also study, for the first time under industry-standard conditions, repeat application of our microneedles to mimic normal use and to demonstrate safety. Ultimately, commercialisation of the technology will be the primary route by which UK industry, the NHS and patients will derive benefits