Director of the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), Professor Keith Godfrey, has been named as one of 34 newly appointed NIHR senior investigators in the UK. On 1 April each year, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) selects a limited number of senior investigators, informed by the advice of an international expert panel. Senior investigators are NIHR’s preeminent researchers and represent the country’s most outstanding leaders of clinical research. They join the exclusive NIHR College, a prestigious body with networking opportunities and a programme of events. As a new senior investigator in the field of nutrition & dietetics, Professor Godfrey will receive an award of £15,000 each year to fund his research, and can also apply for additional NIHR funding to support the wider work of our nutrition and lifestyle focussed NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. As director of the NIHR Southampton BRC in Nutrition, Professor Godfrey’s research focuses on early development, defining measures to improve the early growth and development of children, thereby improving their lifelong health. Southampton Professors Andrew Lotery and Professor John Primrose were also named senior investigators, in the fields of ophthalmology (for the second time) and of surgery respectively. The three of them join Professor Ratko Djukanovic and Professor Cyrus Cooper in holding this prestigious award.

A new technology, using water treated with high-frequency sound waves, could help fight debilitating lung infections in conditions like cystic fibrosis. The importance of keeping teeth and gums healthy through good oral hygiene is important to us all, but especially so to those with chronic respiratory conditions like cystic fibrosis, as oral bacteria can spread to the lungs and airways, causing infections and often leading to serious complications. Tooth plaque is a form of biofilm, or protective layer created by populations of bacteria that makes their removal extremely difficult. To better tackle infections form oral bacteria, researchers at the NIHR Southampton Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit (BRU) conducted a study, published in the Journal of Dental Research, investigating a new way to keep teeth clean and remove plaque. The researchers tested a new technology, known as ultrasonically activated water, to clean plaque from artificial teeth made out of etched glass. High-frequency sound waves, above the limits of human hearing, were used to create a cloud of bubbles in freely flowing water that was directed at the artificial teeth coated in plaque. The teeth were then examined under the microscope to assess how much plaque had been removed. This ultrasonically activated water stream was found to be much better at cleaning the artificial teeth than just a normal flow of water, with 99.9% removal of the plaque after just ten seconds. It was able to remove plaque biofilms produced by three types of tooth decay-causing bacteria. This research has demonstrated that ultrasonically activated water could be an extremely effective new tool in the fight against tooth decay, helping to improve oral hygiene.

Southampton researchers have used a new 3D x-ray imaging technique for the first time to better understand idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), an incurable lung disease affecting 5,000 more people each year. A team from the NIHR Southampton Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit (BRU) have used powerful scanning equipment at Southampton’s µ-VIS Centre for Computed Tomography, originally designed for analysing engineering parts such as jet turbine blades, to create 3D images of diseased lung. The study, published in JCI Insight, is the first time this technique has been used to analyse IPF lung samples in three dimensions, providing new insights into how such scarring lung diseases develop, and has the potential to transform how the disease is diagnosed. Scarred lungs Each year over 5,000 new cases of IPF are diagnosed in the UK, with a life expectancy of only three to five years. The condition causes inflammation and scarring of the lungs, which makes it increasingly difficult to breathe. The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, used the technique micro CT to scan inside lung biopsy samples from IPF patients, and also involved researchers at the Royal Brompton Hospital, National Jewish Health in Colorado, and University College Dublin. New insights Micro CT rotates 360 degrees whilst taking thousands of 2D images, which are then used to build detailed 3D images. When applied to IPF lung tissue, this enables the researchers to get a whole new perspective on how the disease develops. It was previously thought that the disease progressed as a ‘wave’, but the team discovered that it spreads out from multiple individual sites of scarring. They are now studying how this technique can help doctors improve the way we diagnose such diseases more accurately, to ensure every patient will receive the correct treatment.