University of Ulster nutrition experts say that one in ten people in Northern Ireland, depending on their genes, could significantly lower their blood pressure and, in turn, their risk of heart disease and stroke by increasing their intake of vitamin B2, which is found in dairy products.

The advice from researchers at the Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health (NICHE) on the Coleraine campus, follows their important discovery that vitamin B2 – also known as riboflavin – reduces high blood pressure which is often linked to a particular genetic factor found in 10% of the population.

High blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke and heart disease which, together, are responsible for about one-third of all deaths in Northern Ireland.

The research was conducted in conjunction with staff at Antrim and Altnagelvin Hospitals and Trinity College Dublin. The findings have been published in the world’s leading nutrition journal, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The research was funded by the Northern Ireland Department for Employment and Learning and in part by a research grant from the Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke Association.

The research was conducted by NICHE research associate Dr Carol Wilson as part of her PhD studies.  NICHE is the human health nutrition unit of Ulster’s top-performing Biomedical Sciences Research Institute (BMSRI). In the most recent national assessment of research excellence, the BMSRI’s work established Ulster as one of the UK’s top two universities in biomedical sciences.

Dr Wilson outlined her findings in Derry~Londonderry today at the 4th Annual Translational Medicine Conference (TMED4) organised by C-TRIC, the pioneering translational medicine facility based in the grounds of the Altnagelvin Hospital campus.

Her research followed on from previous studies by a fellow NICHE researcher,, Dr Geraldine Horigan, who will also speak conference, about the possible implications of the riboflavin finding for future management of hypertension.

The conference, which continues on Friday, has a range of high profile speakers representing many aspects of the rapidly expanding translational medicine sector in the United States, Europe and Asia.

It is being attended by some 150 clinicians, academics and business people whose speciality is speedy “bench to bedside” conversion of healthcare research into practical usage.  The University of Ulster is among C-TRIC’s principal stakeholders.

Dr Wilson said: “These findings are so exciting because they focus on novel non-drug treatment for high blood pressure, targeted at individuals with a particular genetic factor. The blood pressure lowering response described in this research paper is hugely relevant in terms of its clinical implications.”

Vitamin B2 is a micronutrient that is a key to good health and energy. In Western societies, milk and other dairy products account for more than 50 per cent of our riboflavin intake, along with some fortified products such as breakfast cereals and other foods.

“In the genetically at-risk group, vitamin B2 was able to lower blood pressure to within recommended target values while having no adverse effects on individuals who didn’t have the gene,” Dr Wilson explained. “The response occurred irrespective of any blood pressure lowering drugs being taken by the study participants.”

“The extent of blood pressure reduction translates into a 30% predicted reduction in the risk of stroke death in the at-risk group. It would take about 10 kilos of weight loss to achieve the blood pressuring lowering that was reported in our findings.”

Principal investigator Dr Mary Ward, a Senior Lecturer in Human Nutrition at Ulster, said: “This is an excellent example of personalised nutrition, i.e. nutrition advice tailored to an individual based on their genetic characteristics.

“A major strength of the research is that the lowering in blood pressure we found in this genetic group was as good as that generally achieved with drugs, yet it occurred in response to levels of vitamin B2 close to what a good diet could provide.”

Co-investigator Professor Helene McNulty, who is Professor of Nutritional Science, added: “We are very excited by these results. Vitamin B2 is found in rich supply in milk and dairy foods but adults often don’t eat adequate amounts of these in their diet.

“Increasing vitamin B2 intakes through improved diet, fortified foods or supplements could lower blood pressure in the 10% of the population with the relevant genetic factor without causing harm to those who do not have it.”
ENDS

Photo Caption: Dr Carol Wilson, of the University of Ulster’s Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health, who spoke about her research findings at the 4th Annual Translational Medicine Conference (TMED4) organised by C-TRIC, the pioneering translational medicine facility based in Derry~Londonderry.

Over 160 international delegates including clinicians, academics and businesses attended in 2011 from USA, UK, Ireland, Mainland Europe and Asia and the conference continues to grow in stature each year.

Building on the themes explored at last year’s conference, TMED4 will focus on key opportunities and challenges in translational medicine, exploring how organisations can reduce R&D costs and development timelines. Also, twodistinct disease areas will be singled out for special attention, inflammatory processes and cardiovascular disease.

The conference targets technologists, scientists, academics, clinicians, researchers and bioindustry R&D managers with the aim of encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and communication to inform research, to stimulate innovation and clinical interventions.

There will be a strong focus this year on the use of digital technologies to manage and treat disease. Key speakers will include Rick Lee, CEO of Healthrageous, based inBoston.

Healthrageous were launched in 2010 by Partners HealthCare and the Center for Connected Health. The company has secured $6 million in startup funding to commercialize personalized health technology solution comprising of apps, social networking tools and devices aimed at achieving behavioural change.

Rick says ‘According to the World Health Organization, more than half of all chronic disease costs are instigated by lifestyle choices and unhealthy—but correctable—habits; most notably, poor nutrition, high fat diets, unbridled portion control, tobacco use, alcohol abuse, insufficient sleep, and sedentary lifestyles.

Healthrageous is a leading provider of mobile and multi-device next-gen health solutions that change behaviour on a sustained, measurable basis.’

The conference will also showcase local technology companies including Intelesens, who develop non-invasive vital signs monitoring technology.

Barry Henderson, Business Development Manager at C-TRIC explains ‘With a strong research base at the University of Ulster’s Magee Campus in both intelligent systems and design, Digital Derry’s work in promoting entrepreneurship in digital media and C-TRIC based at the Altnagelvin Hospital campus, the city is ideally positioned tocapitalize on regional and international opportunities in digital and connected health.’

Mark Nagurski from Digital Derry added: “We’re delighted to see such a strong digital component being added to what is already a tremendous event. Companies likeHealthrageous are a great example of how digital media content – from apps to social tools – is making its way into all kinds of areas and demonstrates the wealth of opportunities that exist for ambitious entrepreneurs in this space.”

For further information on speakers and registration for this year’s TMED4 Conference visit http://www.c-tric.com/tmed4

Image L-R: Dr Susan Whoriskey (Moderna Therapeutics), Prof Maurice O’Kane (C-TRIC) and Trung Do (Partners HealthCare)

Key leaders in the life and health science sector from Boston will once again take stage at the 4th Annual Translational Medicine Conference (TMED4) on 10-11th May in Derry/Londonderry to share how their region has become a global hub for innovation in the life and health sciences.

Trung Do, Executive Director of Business Development at Partners HealthCare will share with delegates his organisation’s success in stimulating healthcare innovations from a healthcare providers perspective.

Trung explains ‘Partners HealthCare is a global leader in quality patient care, medical education and biomedical research. In the year 2009-2010 we had an operating revenue of $7.6 billion, an academic research revenue of $1.3 billion, 72 US patents issued and 444 new inventions. We build our research base locally and collaborate internationally with organisations such as C-TRIC who can also demonstrate excellence in science, technology and innovation.’

Dr Susan Whoriskey, Senior Vice President at Moderna Therapeutics , former Entrepreneur in Residence (Life Sciences) at MIT and Principal, Founder at Whoriskey Associates will describe Boston’s life and health science ecosystem from the entrepreneur and investor perspectives. Susan says ‘The innovation ecosystem is optimised in Boston to encourage entrepreneurship and start up activity in the life and health sciences. I look forward to sharing my knowledge of the Boston model for healthcare innovation with delegates at the 4th Annual Translational Medicine Conference.

Also speaking will be Rick Lee, CEO of Healthrageous, a behavioral change company launched by Partners HealthCare and the Center for Connected Health based in Boston. Rick will elaborate on the company’s technology-enabled solution that is scalable and highly individualized.

Rick says ‘According to the World Health Organization, more than half of all chronic disease costs are instigated by lifestyle choices and unhealthy—but correctable—habits; most notably, poor nutrition, high fat diets, unbridled portion control, tobacco use, alcohol abuse, insufficient sleep, and sedentary lifestyles. Healthrageous is a leading provider of mobile and multi-device next-gen health solutions that change behaviour on a sustained, measurable basis.’

Prof Maurice O’Kane, Chief Executive, C-TRIC & Director R&D, Western Health and Social Care Trust said ‘This year’s conference will focus on two distinct disease areas of inflammatory processes and cardiovascular disease, however as always, we will focus on key opportunities and challenges in translational medicine, exploring how organisations can reduce both costs and development timelines involved in translating novel ideas from the lab bench to point of care.

There is a great deal of interest in TMED4 with delegates registering from across UK and Ireland. TMED4 represents an excellent opportunity to build collaborative linkages in research and innovation with the global life and health science sector.’

For further information on this year’s TMED4 Conference visit http://www.c-tric.com/tmed4

Diabetes has become a worldwide epidemic. The greatest fear for a diabetic is a hypoglycaemic event so they tend to keep blood glucose levels artificially high which leads to long term side effects such as retina, kidney and feet damage.

Where the diabetic does not have frequent human contact (living alone or partner away from home), a hypoglycaemic event can go untreated and the sufferer fall into a coma which can be fatal (although this is a rare occurrence the fear of this outcome is very real to diabetics). The highest risk is present overnight while sleeping. An alarm would give the diabetic and loved ones greater peace of mind and a better quality of life.

This web-based software will be mainly focusing on; clinical accidents and incidents, problems management, changes management. The registration / subscription for this application will at organizational level. A user can register and create account for his clinic; he will be the admin or owner of the group. This group owner can add more users to his account, and can assign admin rights to any one of them. For registering sub-users, the group owner will have to purchase those many user licenses.

Clinical incidents can cover anything related to diagnosis, treatment and outcome for the patient. Sometimes they may be referred to as an adverse event, medication incident, critical incident – the generic term is Clinical Incident. Clinical Incidents happen on a daily basis and most of them cause little or no harm however, you should report all events including those with a potential to cause harm.

DIGITEASE is a research team formed to address issues around care and treatment of patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA).  Ongoing work incorporates the development of an intelligent computing system which consists of a wearable glove measurement tool and a 3D interface. The computing system is designed to enable more accurate measurement of movement in the human hand than current techniques.

The system will provide:

• Increased accuracy of movement for analysis by consultants, eliminating the need for manual measurement or dependence on patient’s memory.
• Reduced valuable time spent by all medical staff assessing patients and taking measurements; leading to increased time to care/talk with patients and increased potential for increased efficiency savings in the NHS.
• Less stressful for patient as measurements are recorded at home during everyday living, less intrusive.
• Monitor/evaluate exercise done by patient between visits, potentially reducing rate of progression RA.
• Up to 50% of RA patients lose jobs within 5 years of diagnosis.  If exercise can be increased through less intrusive monitoring (by remotely recording movement and exercises undertaken) this could lead to more RA patients being economically active for longer than 5 years.
• Annual medical cost of RA patient estimated at £3,600 in 1992.  It is feasible to suggest that this would be nearer £4,000 per annum by 2011.  If RA patient can continue to be economically active for longer as a result of better monitoring then they are helping to offset economic burden on NHS and are greatly improving their own self-confidence and self-worth during a very difficult period of their lives.

The collaborative approach will focus on the development of a simple personalised test that should enable life-changing drug treatment to be tailored to the needs of individual suffers of the chronic inflammatory disease.

Fifty percent of this funding has been awarded through the UK-wide Technology Strategy Board and the Medical Research Council, and will be matched by funding from Randox. The initiative will help to place Randox, the University of Ulster and C-TRIC in front-line in developments in personalised medicine.

Welcoming the funding, Health Minister Mr Edwin Poots MLA, said: “This funding will develop the world’s first test to quickly identify the most appropriate treatment for individual rheumatoid arthritis patients. There is no test anywhere else in the world that allows us to identify patients who will respond to treatment and this puts us right at the forefront of research in this area.”

Speaking at a ceremony at the Randox facility at Crumlin, Co Antrim, the Minister added: “Put simply, it means patients will have access to the correct treatment much earlier, we make better use of drugs and it will boost the local economy.”

Professor Tony Bjourson Director of Biomedical Sciences Research Institute said:  “This is a personalised medicine project that really is a fantastic example of the benefits for all concerned when University of Ulster biomedical scientists and a highly innovative company such as Randox work together.

“This interaction between academics, clinicians, industry and, of course, patients, working in partnership, demonstrates how basic science discoveries made at the laboratory bench can be translated into clinical products that have real tangible impact for patients, the economy and society in general.”

The partners are working on development of a simple blood test to match “responder” patients to new advanced “biologic” drugs, costing up to per £10,000 per patient per year. By also indentifying “non-responders”, the test will mean an end to futile periods of therapy for the sizeable proportion of patients who at present undergo the costly drug treatment without deriving any benefit from it.

Dr Cathy McGeough, a Research Associate in Stratified Medicine at Ulster’s School of Biomedical Science, who spoke about the impact of rheumatic arthritis on both patients and the economy, said 20,000 people in Northern Ireland are affected by it.

The condition costs the NHS an estimated £560 million annually. Around 580,000 adults in England currently have the disease with a further 26,000 new cases diagnosed each year. The estimated cost to the economy of sick leave and work-related disability for people with rheumatoid arthritis is £1.8 billion a year.

About 10% of sufferers do not respond to standard drug treatments for rheumatoid arthritis. They are then eligible for expensive biologic drugs such as antibodies to TNFa (Tumour Necrosis Factor-alpha). They combat the effects of joint inflammation by copying the effects of substances naturally made by the body’s immune system.

This treatment is effective in about two-thirds of those who receive it but the remaining one-third or more fail to benefit from it. Current application of the drugs in a trial and error fashion, without any advance indication of which patients may be most receptive to them, results in time consuming inconvenience for “non responders” and a waste of valuable resources.

Clinical studies will be conducted in co-operation with volunteer patients at C-TRIC which is based at the Altnagelvin Hospital campus and the Belfast Trust.

Dr Martin Crockard, Project manager at Randox, said the company was delighted to be working with Professor Bjourson and his team at Ulster on the development of a groundbreaking test that aimed to improve care for rheumatoid arthritis patients.

He added: “Involvement of key rheumatologists is a major boost and will provide critical evaluation to ensure the test is fit for purpose. The funding announced today will accelerate development of this test, create jobs at both centres of excellence and further enhance industrial, academic and clinical partnerships.”

Dr Philip Gardiner, Consultant Rheumatologist at the Western Health and Social Care Trust, who is one of the consultants involved in the project, said: “The biologic drugs available to us make it possible to effectively treat people whose lives have been devastated by severe inflammatory arthritis and restore a good quality of life.

“However, these drugs are expensive and the risk of side effects makes it a difficult choice for many patients. Some patients are unresponsive to treatment and we urgently need to find a way of choosing the right treatment for the right patient. This research study is designed to show if the biomarker test developed by Randox will enable doctors to get the treatment right first time.”

Dr Maurice O’Kane, Chief Executive at C-TRIC, said: “C-TRIC has been specifically designed to foster greater collaboration between industry, academia and clinicians to further the development of cutting edge healthcare technologies. We strongly welcome C-TRIC’s involvement in this initiative and we hope it will further enhance our profile in the area of personalised medicine’

This initiative will be among many R&D projects that will be showcased at C-TRIC’s upcoming 4th Annual Translational Medicine Conference on 10-11 May which will focus on  ‘Inflammatory Processes and Cardiovascular Disease’
Pic Caption: (L -R), Dr Martin Crockard (Randox Laboratories), Dr Philip Gardiner (Consultant Rheumatologist, Western Health and Social Care Trust), Dr Cathy McGeough (University of Ulster)

Nova Biomedical, headquartered in Waltham Massachussetts, is a world leader in the development and manufacturing of state-of-the-art medical devices, diagnostic equipment and specifically in vitro diagnostics. Nova Biomedical is widely known as the world leader in whole blood critical care technology to hospitals.

C-TRIC undertook technical testing and a diabetic patient evaluation of Nova Biomedical’s Nova Max Plus self-monitoring blood glucose meters (SMBG) which proved to be more accurate than other leading brand SMBG’s.

Inaccurate glucose readings due to hematocrit (Hct) interference, maltose interference or other factors can increase the risk of inappropriate management of diabetes. Nova Max Plus was shown to be unaffected by Hct or non-glucose sugars, and provided the least total error of the meters tested. Nova Max Plus performed best versus widely recognized International Standards Organization accuracy criteria (ISO 15197).

The study outcomes were presented recently at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).

Dr Maurice O’Kane, C-TRIC Chief Executive said “C-TRIC is specifically designed to assist bioscience industry to clinically evaluate and improve their technologies. Nova Biomedical have a strong reputation for quality and I am in no doubt that this study has enhanced their reputation”

Jeff DuBois, VP Medical & Scientific Affairs at Nova Biomedical said ‘Working in partnership with C-TRIC has proved to be a hugely effective strategy in raising awareness of our SMBG products within the European healthcare market’

Barry Henderson, Business Development Manager, C-TRIC concluded ‘We are working with a range of US based diagnostics companies to reduce the time and costs associated with European market entry. Our work with Nova Biomedical represents an excellent case study’.

The Minister said: “With an increase in demand on our health service, we need to keep one step ahead by investing in research and development and innovations and technologies.  C-TRIC specialises in reducing both the time and cost in developing innovative health technologies, medical devices and treatments.

“Not only does this benefit the patient as they can access better treatments more quickly, it also benefits the local economy.  It is well recognised that economic and health benefits will arise through collaboration between the business, academic and clinical stakeholders, particularly in areas of research and development.”

Professor Tony Bjourson, Director of the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute and C-TRIC Board Member stated that:

“Establishment of these Translational Research Groups at C-TRIC is a significant step forward.  Academic researchers, clinicians and patients have a unique opportunity to work together in the common endeavor of making sure that laboratory based research is converted into useful diagnostics and treatments to primarily help patients, but also to drive economic prosperity – that is only achieved if our discoveries are commercially developed into new diagnostics or drugs.  Biomedical Sciences achievements are already impressive – it obtained the highest possible ratings in every UK wide Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs) since 1996.  Our biomedical, nutritional and molecular biology research underpins and feeds our impressive pipeline of novel personalized medicine diagnostics and new drugs for treating degenerative diseases.  I really look forward to the appointment of a number of very high caliber research lecturers at C-TRIC and I am very grateful to ILEX for part-funding the first such appointment to the Translational Research Group.’

Professor Maurice O’Kane, (C-TRIC Chief Executive and Director of Research at the Western Trust) stated “Establishment of these Translational Research Groups signals C-TRIC’s desire to become a leading player with respect to Translational Medicine within the UK and Ireland. We will also host our 4th Annual Translational Medicine Conference in May next year which will focus on two keys areas of inflammatory processes and cardiovascular disease, showcasing the research emerging from US, Europe and our relevant Translational Research Groups.”

Professor Hugh McKenna stated “It is pleasing to see how C-TRIC has evolved in recent years. This has strengthened collaborations between clinicians and researchers in the Western Health and Social Care Trust and the University of Ulster. I have no doubt that the creation of these new Clinical Research Groups will enhance further the quality of research activities and outputs and have the desired ripple effect on improving the quality and safety of patient care”.

The Minister concluded; “I would like to congratulate C-TRIC on receiving a number of awards for their innovative economic development work and for helping companies who work with them to achieve the same.  I and my Department will do everything possible to support R&D within the current financial position.”

C-TRIC was formed as a partnership between the University of Ulster, the Western Health & Social Care Trust (WHSCT) and Derry City Council (DCC).  The new Groups in C-TRIC are located at the Altnagelvin hospital, the second largest acute teaching hospital in Northern Ireland, which provides access to a large patient population from a diversity of disease areas.  The new C-TRIC  Research Groups will focus on the translation of clinical research and development of innovative health technologies, medical devices and therapeutics enabling the streamlining of new discoveries through a focused ‘bench to point of care’ approach. This work of the new researchers will also create commercial opportunities to develop and exploit partnerships between academic researchers, clinical practitioners and industry.  The work of C-TRIC is important for attracting global pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to the region and in the current economic downturn directly addresses the key UK Government, Invest Northern Ireland and Department of Trade & Investment (DETI policy of ensuring University research is translated and has maximum impact.

Notes to Editors:

Background Information:

Notes on Personalized Medicine: Personalised Medicine can be described as: the right treatment for the right person at the right time.  It has been identified as a priority for support by the DET Matrix panel for investment over the next 5-10 years.   People are all very different with regard to what they eat, the different stresses or environmental exposures they encounter and each persons DNA is unique to them.  These differences play a fundamental role in an individual’s health and disease and our genetic makeup can strongly influence how each of us react to different environmental exposures, risk of developing disease and specific genetic differences can also determine why a particular drug or treatment may work for one person and not another.

Currently, patient symptoms, their family history along with a relatively small number of diagnostic tests are used to diagnose illness and inform the best treatment options.  For many common illnesses, doctors may order additional diagnostic tests before diagnosing the problem and ordering a prescription drug.  In some cases however, when a person takes a prescribed drug it may or may not work, or worse still, the patient may suffer an adverse drug reaction, and may be taken off that drug and prescribed an yet another alternative.   This is not surprising as it is now recognised that 30-40% of prescribed medications do not work in the individual to which it is prescribed.  So in current medical practice there is a degree of trial and error involved.  Prescriptions are frequently based on a diagnosis informed by a relatively small amount of information compared to what is technically possible if a patients genetic information is included in the decision process – that’s the promise of personalised medicine – it has the potential to massively increase the volume of information available about an individual personally that has the potential to really significantly impact on how we prevent, diagnose and treat disease.

For financial reasons, most currently available blockbuster drugs have been developed by pharmaceutical companies based on the fact that they are effective on the largest number of people in the population.  The definition of a blockbuster drug is one that will have annual sales of $1 bn.  It is widely recognised however that many if not all drugs don’t actually suit everyone, and some people will derive no benefit or worse still suffer adverse drug reactions.  For example 2.2 million people are hospitalised and 100,000 people die each year due to adverse drug reactions in the USA, at a cost to the economy of an estimated $100 billion.  So a “one drug fits all” approach to drug development and prescription has largely been the practice to date.

The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 and advances genetic medicine since then has enabled an incremental increase in potential to screen for disease and drug response.  For some diseases a persons genetic inheritance will mean that they are very likely to develop a particular disease.  But for many diseases such as heart disease, stroke, neurodegerative disease, cancer and diabetes, while an individual may be at risk of developing a particular disease, the risks can be dramatically reduced or even completely eliminated by modification of lifestyle or diet, or by avoiding certain things in the environment.  In fact for the majority of diseases it is the combination of lifestyle, diet, environment and genetic inheritance that will determine if and when an individual develops a particular disease.

So each of our DNA sequences are unique and personal to us, and some of these differences are referred to as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPS for short.  Analysing variant SNPs at particular locations in different peoples genes can be correlated with various traits, such as ethnic group, predisposition to major disease, or drug responses.  Even which genes are turned on or off in an individual can be regulated by a process known as methylation, analogous to having a band aid covering a particular genes “on-off” switch (called a gene promoter), and our diet or amazingly the diets and lifestyles of our parents and grandparents can influence which genes are methylated and turned on or off in future generations (referred to as transgenerational epigentics).