Scientific Research Programmes
Through its annual research scholarship programme, The Urology Foundation supports urological trainees, urological surgeons and consultant urological surgeons for one, two or three years of full-time scientific basic laboratory research into the diagnosis, causes and treatment of urological diseases. This type of research is critical to moving our understanding of urological diseases forward.
All the research must be carried out in the United Kingdom or Ireland and applications are subject to rigorous review by a distinguished academic review panel (click here to link to review panel for 2010 applications) and The Foundation’s Scientific and Education Committee.
The research projects investigate all forms of urological disease including bladder and kidney related disease as well as prostate.
Successful scholars are required to supply The Foundation with a satisfactory progress report to secure the final instalment of the grant and are encouraged to submit abstracts of their work to the British Association of Urological Surgeon’s (BAUS) Annual Meeting.
To read articles or reports of some of the projects The Foundation has recently supported please click on one of the following links.
- Altaf Mangera - Tissue Engineered Prosthesis
- Sheng-Fei Oon - Biomarkers in Prostate Cancer
How to apply for a Research Scholarship
Research Scholars 2011/12
Research scholarships are awarded each year to advance understanding and research into urological conditions. This year, three grants totalling £146,161 have been awarded to Naveen Kachroo of Cambridge University, Aaron Leiblich of Oxford University and Saiful Miah (successful for second year's funding) of Sheffield University.
A total of 13 applications for funding were received by The Foundation and the standard of applications this year was again very high. Professor Kilian Mellon, TUF Board Member and Chair of the Scientific and Education Committee said:
"The prevalence of urological conditions in the population remains high and it is vital to find ways to halt progression of these diseases and to improve patient care. This type of research is critical to moving our understanding of urological diseases forward and I am delighted to announce these awards to three excellent projects from a field of first-rate applications."
Details of the successful projects are outlined below:
1. Mr Naveen Kachroo
Mr Naveen Kachroo, Uro-Oncology Group, Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, for research into "Investigation of novel biomarkers to predict early treatment relapse following radical therapy for prostate cancer."
Despite numerous studies, there are no biomarkers for prostate cancer in clinical use to identify patients who will respond poorly to radical surgery and radiotherapy.
This project will investigate biomarkers of radical treatment failure using a multiplatform and high throughput approach, underpinned by the use of tissue from targeted groups of patients.
The data is expected to identify novel molecules as predictive markers.
A grant of £46,339 has been awarded to this project.
2. Mr Aaron Leiblich
Mr Aaron Leiblich, Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Genetics, University of Oxford, for research into "Investigating the Drosophilia Accessory Gland as a Model for Prostate Development and Cancer".
Progress in understanding prostate cancer and normal prostate biology has been hampered because available models are difficult to study and limited in mimicking the prostate.
The project has found clear functional and biological parallels between the human prostate and the Drosophilia accessory gland that mark it out as an attractive candidate for modelling prostate biology and cancer.
This research represents the next step in developing testable hypotheses in mammalian prostate and prostate cancer models, and identifying new mechanisms that might be critical to the progression of prostate cancer.
A grant of £50,000 has been awarded to this project.
3. Mr Saiful Miah
Mr Saiful Miah, Academic Urology Unit, University of Sheffield, for research into "The Investigation of MicroRNA mediated Progression in Bladder Cancer".
The rate of progression to invasion and metastasis from high-grade superficial bladder cancer is around 50%.
It is hard to identify which tumours will progress and so many patients undergo cystectomy for a disease which is non-progressive, or delay definitive radical treatment in the hope of preserving their bladder.
Despite radical treatment the prognosis of high-grade invasive bladder cancer is poor; at two years the mortality rate is 50%.
This project hopes to produce predictive biomarkers that can stratify subsequent progression for superficial high-grade tumours.
Long term, it hopes to manipulate microRNAs within the bladder to induce better treatment response.
A grant of £49,822 has been awarded to this project.
