Studies to improve the way we monitor and test for lead
poisoning in children and communicate data through sound have been awarded more
than £1.1 million through a new funding scheme announced today.
Northumbria is the only university in the north of England
to have had two projects selected in a new UKRI pilot scheme designed to stimulate exciting new
interdisciplinary research across nine different research councils.
The studies will be led by Professors Jane Entwistle and
Paul Vickers, both from the University’s Faculty of Engineering and
Environment, who will work with colleagues across the country to unlock new
research approaches and methods that would not emerge from established
disciplinary thinking.
Professor Entwistle, interim Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor
for Engineering and Environment, is leading a study investigating elevated
levels of toxic lead in children.
Working with researchers from the universities of Oxford,
Bristol and Warwick as well as the UK Health Security Agency, the Health and
Safety Executive, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and project partners
Synnovis and the LEAPP Alliance, they aim to create a new screening protocol to
assess levels of lead in children’s blood.
Due to its past widespread use in paint, petrol and
plumbing, lead pollution is common in our environment, being found in soil,
water, dust, food and the air. Lead poisoning can be hard to detect but
symptoms can include developmental delay and learning difficulties, with
children most at risk from its harmful effects.
The team intend to develop and test a new approach to
screening using an at-home finger-prick test to make it easier and faster to
collect blood samples. At the same time, they will ask families to provide
samples of house dust and garden soil for testing. This will enable them to
assess current levels of lead exposure that will inform and guide UK public and
environmental health policies.
They will develop and trial their methods in Leeds. If
successful, the methods developed could be used across the UK as part of a
national screening programme, as well as used to test for other pollutants and
diseases.
Professor Entwistle explained: “Exposure to legacy lead is a
hidden burden worldwide and the toxic effects of lead are overwhelmingly
observed in children because of their growing and developing brains.
“In the UK, detection in children relies on results of blood
tests ordered by physicians only when there is a high clinical suspicion of
lead poisoning. As such, most cases of elevated lead are missed in children
with no obvious symptoms. This funding will allow the development of a novel
protocol to enable widespread monitoring
of the amount of lead in blood.”
Dr Lindsay Bramwell, who will be working with Jane on the
study, added: “Lead exposure is entirely preventable. The outcomes of this
research will support the
development of policies that reduce children’s contact
with lead in the community and at home, allowing children the opportunity to
develop to their full potential.”
Paul Vickers, Professor of Sonification in Computer and Information Sciences, will lead a study with researchers from
Northumbria and Newcastle universities which will create a new hub for
sonification innovation.
Sonification is a way of communicating information through
sound. While human vision can only focus on one thing at a time, we can track
multiple sound sources at once, from any direction, and we can understand and
feel different things through sound.
After using sonification to transform computer network
traffic into nature sounds, Professor Vickers was recently able to discover a
new method of cyber-attack. He generated a soundscape that represented the
network’s real-time environment and listening to it led to the discovery of a
new cyber-attack that had penetrated network defences.
His study will bring together experts in areas such as
spatial audio, music, astronomy, culture, materials science and mathematics to
explore intangible phenomena through sound. Its aim is to break down
interdisciplinary barriers and open new ways of understanding through sound,
making the North East a world-leading hub in sonification research.
Professor Vickers explained: “Listening is not limited to
the ear – it is inter-sensory and transmodal. We can perceive non-sonic
attributes, feel noise in our bodies and we can infer information about
intangible things we cannot see by the noises they make, for example, unusual
sounds made by a car’s brakes tell us a mechanic is needed.
“Sonification lets us select data that we wish to explore or
monitor and attach sounds to it, thus bringing the intangible such as distant
galaxies, computer network traffic or the earth’s magnetosphere into our
audible experience.
“This project will explore how to bring sonification
expertise together to form an interdiscipline which has the potential to
transform sonification research by removing disciplinary boundaries.”
Almost 900 applications were made for the scheme, with only
36 selected to receive a share of £32.4 million in funding.
Professor Alison Park, Deputy Executive Chair of the
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and UKRI Cross Research Council
Responsive Mode Senior Responsible Officer said: “The perspectives of different
disciplines, working together in collaboration, are vital to solving some of
the most pressing problems we face as a society. The UKRI cross research
council responsive mode scheme is designed to break down silos and champion
research that transcends, combines and significantly spans traditional discipline
boundaries.
“The projects announced today will drive progress across
diverse fields by creating fresh approaches to research questions,
methodologies and ways of working.
“We were all excited to see the innovative and bold
approaches being adopted to tackle major issues ranging from climate change to
global healthcare and look forward to following their progress.”
