Public engagement is an important part of our research at i-sense, in order to disseminate our findings with a wide, diverse and inclusive audience and also to develop our network and engage future researchers into the field. Let’s take a closer look at some of the varied areas of public engagement that we have been involved in over the past few months.
Zyme Biosciences, a team led by Dr Marta Broto Aviles who is an i-sense postdoc in Prof Molly Stevens group at Imperial College London, have made the finals of WE Innovate 2021. The scheme is led by the Imperial Enterprise Lab and provides a platform to showcase the incredible progress being made in women’s entrepreneurship at Imperial – with winning teams receiving a part of a 30K prize fund for their ideas.
Pioneering technology developed by UCL and Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) researchers could transform the ability to accurately interpret HIV test results, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
Academics from the London Centre for Nanotechnology at UCL and AHRI used deep learning (artificial intelligence/AI) algorithms to improve health workers’ ability to diagnose HIV using lateral flow tests in rural South Africa.
New research from the i-sense group at UCL, published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics, addresses the urgent need for more accurate rapid diagnostics for COVID-19 by developing an isothermal test that simultaneously detects two gene targets.
World-renowned sexual health experts are behind a new NHS digital revolution for people with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) using a new automated online consultation giving patients 24-hour access to medical care.
A team of scientists, led by Glasgow Caledonian University Prof of HIV and Sexual Health, and i-sense member, Prof Claudia Estcourt, have launched an ambitious five-year research project to develop a new NHS digital platform to improve care for people with STIs.
Researchers within i-sense have developed a new public health data visualisation dashboard for COVID-19. Developing the dashboard has highlighted issues regarding the quality, consistency and availability of reliable data needed to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts.
Antibiotic resistence is a growing global concern and major threat to human health.
The standard method used to detect resistance in bacteria, known as phenotypic antibiotic sensitivity testing, monitors bacterial growth over about 12 – 24 hours and is therefore a slow process. New rapid methods for antibiotic sensitivity testing are urgently needed to improve antibiotic stewardship.
A Nature Medicine review, led by researchers in the EPSRC funded i-sense project, looks at how digital technologies have been mobilised for a global public health response to COVID-19 and the associated concerns with privacy and efficacy in an evolving digital world.
Lead author and Director of i-sense EPSRC IRC at UCL, Prof Rachel McKendry said: “Our review shows that digital technologies have an important role in a comprehensive response to the pandemic, alongside conventional measures.”