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Research Group

Digital Health

Professor Age Chapman examines some proteomics data analytics

Our researchers are examining and developing information and communication technologies to help address the health problems and challenges faced by patients.

Part of the Institute for Life Sciences

About

With a rising population across the globe, many societies are struggling to meet healthcare demand.   Digital health care interventions are key to tackling this issue and help to enhance the efficiency, delivery and security of services to patients, and supporting care in the community. 

But with so many new digital technologies available and the immediate access to massive data sets how can we harness this information to ensure it makes a real difference to society?  And how do we overcome the challenges of privacy and personal data protection? 

Southampton scientists across medicine and electronics and computer science are combining machine learning,  genome sequencing and other computational methods to develop new digital health interventions to help healthcare professionals and patients to manage illness and promote health and wellbeing.   This includes both hardware and software solutions including using Internet of Things smart devices, wearable devices and monitoring sensors.    

Our teams are also using digital health technologies to analyse already available data sets to establish trends of behaviour and decision patterns with the aim of predicting future healthcare needs as well as examining the role data protection plays in this ever-expanding research field. 

People, projects and publications

People

Dr Jeremy Blaydes

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Transcriptional responses to pathways: roles in the causes and treatment of cancer Intra-cellular stress-response pathways are activated in response to potentially deleterious conditions in the cell’s environment. In single celled organisms these pathways are generally involved in ensuring the survival and replication of the individual cell. In complex multi-cellular organisms such as man, they are critical in maintaining the normal function of each organ in the body, and the survival of the organism as a whole. Stress-response pathways play a key role in the patho-physiology and treatment of many diseases, including cancer.At almost every stage of the development of a tumour, cells are exposed to some form of stress. Examples include exposure to toxic compounds or radiation, loss of contact with other cells or the extra-cellular matrix, lack of oxygen (hypoxia), acidic pH, the activation of oncogenes, induction of cellular senescence, oxidative damage or depletion of essential metabolites. In some circumstances, the activation of a stress-response pathway will actually help the tumour cell to survive and proliferate. In other situations the response is cell cycle arrest or programmed cell death (apoptosis), providing a barrier to further tumour development that the tumour may ultimately circumvent through the acquisition of a mutation in one of the genes within the stress-response pathway. The p53 tumour suppressor protein is a key component of one such stress-response pathway, and virtually all cancers loose functionality of the p53-stress response pathway. Many current and prospective treatments for cancer work by either inhibiting, or re-activating stress response pathways.Our work focuses on the role of regulators of gene transcription in the response of cancer cells to stress. We have a long-standing interest in the p53 protein, a stress-activated transcriptional activator. We have also developed interests in other pathways which regulate gene transcription and cancer cell proliferation in response to stress and changes in cell metabolism. We aim to determine the role of these pathways in the development of cancer, and establish the potential for targeting components of the pathways for cancer therapy.Our group is based in the purpose-built Somers Cancer Research Building. Modern, well equipped laboratories provide us with an excellent research environment, and the opportunity to interact with researchers working on related areas of cancer biology.
  • Some Example Projects: Regulation of HDM2 and HDMX proteins The HDM2 oncoprotein is the major negative regulator of p53 function in the cell. In the late 1990s work from a number of groups, including Blaydes et al , demonstrated that HDM2 could be targeted in cancer cells to re-activate the p53 stress-response pathway. Subsequently, small molecule inhibitors of HDM2 have been developed that show great promise in pre-clinical trials. We have undertaken a series of projects examining how HDM2, and its paralogue HDMX is regulated in cancer cells (see Phillips et al, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2006a, 2006b and Phelps et al 2005, 2003). A particular interest of our work has been how HDM2 and HDMX protein synthesis is controlled in response to cell-signalling pathways in different cell types, and how this affects p53 function in these cells.
  • Role of CtBP transcriptional repressors in cancer cell proliferation and survival In common with p53, CtBP1 and CtBP2 proteins were discovered through their physical association with a viral oncoprotein. We have shown that CtBPs also interact with HDM2 protein, and can consequently regulate p53 function (Mirnezami et al, 2003). The main function of CtBPs is as transcriptional co-repressors. They are involved in a range of cellular processes, depending upon the transcriptional repressor that recruits them to DNA, and they suppress the transcription of genes that cause apoptosis (reviewed in Bergman et al, 2006a). CtBP activity is modified by UV radiation and glycolytic metabolism, suggesting that CtBPs regulate cell survival in response to cellular stress. From 2004 The Breast Cancer Campaign has funded work in our laboratory to study the role of CtBPs in breast cancer. Our studies have progressed from studies of the basic mechanisms whereby CtBPs control breast cancer proliferation and survival (Birts et al 2011 and Bergman et al 2009, 2006a) to their impact on the response to current chemotherapies (Birts et al 2010) to the demonstration that CtBPs are themselves a therapeutically tractable potential molecular target for cancer therapy (Birts et al 2013). Our group was named Breast Cancer Campaign “Team of the Year 2011” on the basis of this work.
Connect with Jeremy

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 2381205170

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Professor Jeremy Frey

Professor of Physical Chemistry

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jeremy

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 23 8059 3209

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Professor Jeremy Webb

Professor of Microbiology

Research interests

  • Microbial biofilms and their control
  • Adaptive biology and evolution of microorganisms
  • Biofilm-associated infection

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jeremy

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 23 8059 4390

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Miss Jessica Boxall

CORE eCRF Data Analyst

Research interests

  • Public Health
  • Nutrition
  • Food Security
Connect with Jessica

Email: [email protected]

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Professor Jessica Teeling

Prof of Experimental Neuroimmunology

Research interests

  • Neuroimmunology
  • Systemic inflammation
  • Oral microbiome

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jessica

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 2381206103

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Professor Jo Slater-Jefferies PhD, MBA, CMgr, MCMI

CEO-National Biofilms Innovation Centre
Connect with Jo

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 23 8059 4445

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Professor Joanna Sofaer

Professor of Archaeology

Research interests

  • The role of cultural and community assets in health and wellbeing
  • The relationship between heritage and wellbeing
  • The social value of archaeology 

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Joanna

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 23 8059 6867

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Professor Joanne Turney

Professor of Fashion and Textiles

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Joanne

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 23 8059 6907

Professor Joerg Wiedenmann

Professor of Biological Oceanography

Research interests

  • Coral Reef Biology and Ecology
  • Coral Bleaching
  • Nutrient biology of coral reefs

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Joerg

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 23 8059 6497

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Dr Joern Werner

Reader in Structural Biology
Connect with Joern

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 23 8059 2484

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True interdisciplinary research, in which collaborators share the challenges and strengths of different domains is more than just applying one domain’s techniques to another area’s problems. Interdisciplinary research opens up new and exciting research opportunities in both domains by changing the shape of the problem and highlighting why existing approaches are not fit for use.
Professor Age Chapman
Professor of Computer Science

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