Alan Stewart gave a talk entitled “Understanding mineral formation in the eye – hope for sufferers of age-related macular degeneration” at a Cafe Scientifique Event held at the Filmhouse Cafe, Edinburgh on 13th February. The talk was open to the public free of charge and was well attended. The presented work is supported by funding from Fight for Sight. Alan would like to extend his thanks to Jo Eva from Fight for Sight for the invitation to speak and to Ulrike and Simon, the local Cafe Scientific organisers in Edinburgh.

On the 1^st of February Alan Stewart and Gavin Robertson represented the Metal Ions in Medicine Group at the British Heart Foundation Scotland’s Annual Reception, which took place in the Scottish Parliament Bulding in Edinburgh. The event, attended by fundraisers, researchers and politicians, highlighted the great work of the BHF in funding cutting-edge reserach, informing policy and promoting public awareness of its activities. It was followed by a private dinner hosted by BHF Chief Executive, Simon Gillespie that both Alan and Gavin attended.

Dr Stewart recently attended a workshop in Israel on the topic of Zinc & Diabetes. The meeting which took place on 28-30th November brought together over 20 principal investigators from both the UK and Israel. The workshop led to interesting discussions relating to the roles that deficiency and mishandling of zinc play in the disease. Dr Stewart would especially like to thank Prof Arie Moran (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel) and Dr Imre Lengyel (Queen’s University Belfast) for putting together such an interesting programme and the Academic Study Group for funding.

Congratulations to “Dr” Dagmara Wiatrek on passing her PhD viva exam today!

Congratulations to Amélie Sobczak from the Stewart lab who won a £200 poster prize at the Zinc-UK/ZincNet conference, which took place at the Centre for Experimental Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast this week. (21st-22nd Nov). Amélie, a BHF-funded PhD student, presented a poster entitled “Regulation of coagulation by zinc: characterisation of zinc-dependent heparin neutralisation by fibrinogen and histidine-rich-glycoprotein”. Dr Siavash Khazaipoul also presented a poster at the meeting, his focussed on how “Free Fatty Acids Alter Plasma Zinc Speciation via an Allosteric Switch on Serum Albumin: Implications for Zinc Bioavailability”. The conference was the first joint meeting of the UK and European zinc biology networks. The Stewart lab would like to thank the organisers, particularly Dr Imre Lengyel for making this meeting a huge success.

Representatives from the British Heart Foundation were in St Andrews on the 11th November to find out more about the research that they fund and to see first-hand the world-class research facilities that exist within the School of Medicine and BSRC. Dr Alan Stewart and Dr Sam Pitt as well as other researchers from the Metal Ions in Medicine Group (Dr Siavash Khazaipoul, Amelie Sobczak and Gavin Robertson) presented updates on their work. In addition, Prof David Harrison (Director of Research for the School of Medicine) and Prof Jim Naismith (Director of the BSRC) provided the charity with an overview of the cutting edge biomedical research being carried out within the University.

The University of Virginia has today issued a press release entitled “Here’s How Your Body Transports Zinc to Protect Your Health“. This relates to the Stewart lab’s collaborative work with Prof. Wladek Minor (University of Virginia), Dr Maksymilian Chruszcz (University of South Carolina) and Dr Claudia Blindauer (University of Warwick), whereby the first X-ray crystal structures of human and equine serum albumins bound to zinc are presented. Serum albumin is the major carrier of zinc in the blood and is required for the effective systemic distribution of this essential nutrient.The new findings are published in the open-access journal, Chemical Science. Full text of the article is available here.

Fight for Sight have posted a 2 minute video on their website – highlighting an ongoing study in the Stewart lab that examines the contribution of hydroxyapatite in the formation of sub-retinal pigment epithelial deposits. These deposits are a hallmark of age-related maciular degeneration, a common cause of blindness in older individuals. The video which features Dr Stewart and Dr Imre Lengyel (from the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) was filmed during a recent visit to the charity.

The article and a link to the video can be found here: http://www.fightforsight.org.uk/news-and-views/articles/science-blog/overview-drs-imre-lengyel-and-alan-stewart-on-amd/

Dr Alan Stewart visited Fight for Sight yesterday, together with Dr Imre Lengyel (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) to update the charity on the recent progress made on their Fight for Sight project grant.

They were excited to meet the FFS team who extended a warm welcome and gave insight into the great work that the charity does. In addition to fundraising and funding new research, the charity is committed to raising awareness of issues surrounding visual impairment and informing on new developments in the field. Drs Stewart and Lengyel are especially grateful to Dolores Conroy, Fight for Sight’s Director of Research, for the invitation to attend.