Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, United Kingdom

Description of organisation

The Department of Surgery and Cancer is highly multi-disciplinary and includes multiple internationally renowned academic and clinical foci including surgical technology development, discovery biochemistry, cancer biology and medicine, reproductive medicine, critical care and pain management. Its goals are to harmonise and develop existing research themes across the Department. Also to capitalise on world leading molecular phenotyping and metabolic profiling research capabilities to create a new healthcare paradigm based on a molecules to medicine approach. In particular we will channel exciting new technology developments into clinical practice with particular emphasis on development of personalised healthcare and patient and patient stratification strategies across all our clinical delivery programmes. There are plans to create new world leading centres of excellence in Surgical Metabonomics, Gut Health and Peri-operative and Trauma care utilising "Top-Down Systems Biology" principles which will uniquely brand the Department's research strategy and aspirations.

Previous experience

Jeremy Nicholson is Head of Department of Surgery and Cancer and Chair in Biological Chemistry. Jeremy Nicholson is author of over 450 peer-reviewed scientific papers and many other articles/patents on the development and application of novel spectroscopic and chemometric approaches to the investigation of disturbed metabolic processes. His research interests include: biological NMR spectroscopy, novel LC-MS and chemometric approaches to bioanalysis, metabolic modelling and studies leading to the understanding the molecular basis of disease and toxic processes, and extended genome/superorganism biochemistry. Jeremy Nicholson currently holds honorary professorships at 8 Universities outside the UK, and is on the editorial board of 10 international science journals including Molecular Systems Biology and is also the Consulting Editor of the Journal of Proteome Research. He is a consultant to many

pharmaceutical/healthcare companies in the UK, Europe and the USA and is a founder director of Metabometrix, an Imperial College spin-off company specializing in molecular phenotyping, clinical diagnostics and toxicological screening via metabonomics and metabolomics.

Profile of staff members

Professor Jeremy Nicholson has won many accolades and international prizes for his work, which spans over 25 years, and is the author of over 450 peer-reviewed scientific papers and many other articles/patents on the development and application of novel spectroscopic and systems biology approaches to the investigation of disturbed metabolic processes in complex organisms. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2010.

Webpage

Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London

Recent publications relevant to the project

1. Cloarec O, Dumas ME, Craig A, Barton RH, Trygg J, Hudson J, Blancher C, Gauguier D, Lindon JC, Holmes E, and Nicholson J.K. (2005). Statistical total correlation spectroscopy: an exploratory approach for latent biomarker identification from metabolic NMR data sets. Analytical Chemistry 77:1282-1289. PMID: 15732908

2. Dumas, M.E. Barton, R.H. Toye, A. Cloarec, O. Blancher, C. Rothwell, A. Fearnside, J. Tatoud, R. Blanc, V. Lindon, J.C. Mitchell, S. Holmes, E. McCarthy, M.I. Scott, J. Gauguier, D, and Nicholson, J.K. (2006) Metabolic profiling reveals a contribution of gut microbiota to fatty liver phenotype in insulin resistant mice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 103 (33) 12511-12516. PMCID: PMC1567909.

3. Beckonert, O. Keun, H. C. Ebbels, T.M.D. Bundy, J. Holmes, E. Lindon, J.C. and Nicholson, J.K. (2007) Procedures for NMR spectroscopy of urine, plasma, serum and tissue extracts for metabolic profiling and metabonomic applications. Nature, Protocols 2 (11) 2692-2703.

4. Holmes E, Loo RL, Stamler J, Bictash M, Yap IK, Chan Q, Ebbels T, De Iorio M, Brown IJ, Veselkov KA, Daviglus ML,

Kesteloot H, Ueshima H, Zhao L, Nicholson JK, Elliott P (2008) Human metabolic phenotype diversity and its association with diet and blood pressure. Nature 453 396-400. PMID: 18425110.

5. Beckonert O, Coen M, Keun HC, Wang Y, Ebbels TM, Holmes E, Lindon JC, Nicholson JK. (2010). High-resolution magic- angle-spinning NMR spectroscopy for metabolic profiling of intact tissues. Nat Protoc 5:1019-1032.