The RWE Npower Section Award was presented to Dr Kendall by Richard Page MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, at a ceremony at the House of Commons in December. The event, organised by Science Engineering and Technology (SET) for Britain, recognises the achievements of Engineers aged 21-35.
Dr Kendall received the award for his paper Engineering ballistic needle-free drug and vaccine delivery to the skin. ™ Since joining the PowderJect Centre in the Department of Engineering Science in 1998 Dr Kendall has applied his expertise in fluid mechanics to the rapidly changing field of biomedical engineering, and in particular to the development of technology for the needle-free delivery of both conventional and DNA vaccines.
With colleagues in the Medical Engineering Unit, Dr Kendall is currently working on the development of devices that use compressed gas to accelerate microscopic particles of a drug at velocities sufficient to penetrate the skin. A multidisciplinary team is now developing this technology for use in the developing world, where over two million children die of vaccine preventable illnesses annually. Using a novel multi-photon microscopy system, Dr Kendall is exploring the biological responses induced in the skin by drug and vaccine particles.
Commenting on the award Dr Kendall said: It is an honour to receive acknowledgement for my research through this award. Engineering in the United Kingdom is very dynamic and strong and it feels marvellous to be contributing at this new boundary of engineering and biology. ™
For more information on the research conducted by the PowderJect Centre for Gene and Drug Delivery Research visit their website.
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In addition, Whitfield and McClearn offer the case of African American high blood pressure as an example of how the relative inputs of genetics and the environment to a disease state can vary across cultures. High blood pressure affects about 65 percent of African American elders between the ages of 65 and 74. When the Penn State researchers analyzed data from a recent twin study, the Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging, they found a large proportion of the individual variability in blood pressure for African American adults arose from environmental sources. Previous studies on other populations had shown that, although environment does impact blood pressure, genetic factors played a larger role in determining the individual differences in blood pressure.
In addition, they note that population differences can and do exist with respect not only between majority and minority populations but also among groups of different European origin. As an example, they describe research conducted by McClearn, Whitfield and colleagues with Swedish and Russian twins that showed that the proportion of variance for one particular condition attributable to genetic factors was greater for the Swedish than for the Russian sample. In addition, shared environmental influences were not important in the Swedish sample but accounted for nearly half of the variance in the Russian sample.
Whitfield notes that thanks to progress in genetics, the focus in medicine may return to treating each person as a unique individual. He says, "When doctors knew you and your family and your work and home environment, they were able to treat and prescribe for you based on their awareness of those unique characteristics. Advances in genetics can help return to a more individualized approach to medicine."
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