DPAG is among the departments receiving funding from the University's research response fund to undertake COVID-19 research. As part of this effort, the Swietach lab has been studying oxygen transport in the blood of COVID-19 patients. The first results of this study are now published in the British Journal of Haematology and could pave the way for new guidelines for treating the virus.
The destruction of red blood cells known as hemolysis in the newborn baby is very dangerous, but existing clinical methods are not sufficient for rapid diagnosis and can lead to delays early-life care. A new Swietach Group paper has identified a biomarker that could significantly speed up the process.
Researchers at the University of Oxford led by DPAG's Professor Peter Robbins are working with clinical collaborators from NHS hospitals to carry out a new clinical drug trial aimed at treating COVID-19, funded by LifeArc. It will test a drug that could raise oxygen levels in the blood in COVID-19 patients in order to improve their chances of recovery. Raising oxygen levels is important in COVID-19, because many patients with the disease die when oxygen levels in their arterial blood fall to levels that are too low to support life.
DPAG scientists develop single-cell oxygen saturation imaging to study oxygen handling by red blood cells. New physiological techniques that measure the blood's oxygen saturation are particularly important in light of the current pandemic, as COVID-19 patients present an abnormally low concentration of oxygen in the blood.
Thousands of genes are involved in the regulation of our day-to-day metabolism and relatively little is understood about their function. One key protein, an ABC Transporter called ABCC5, has recently been predicted to be a susceptibility gene for Type 2 diabetes. In a new study selected as Editor's Choice in Obesity, Associate Professor Heidi de Wet has confirmed ABCC5's role in energy metabolism and identified the mechanism behind its metabolic impact for the first time.
Preparing media for tissue culture, but not sure how to get it to the right pH? Worried about pH changes during your incubations? DPAG Group publishes recommendations for best practice in controlling and managing pH under culture conditions.
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