We have supported the Institute in the Park in their vital research into childhood illnesses since 2016. Our last grant of £13,773 was made in July 2024 to fund a plate washer. In total we have made grants of nearly £90,000 which have funded specialist laboratory equipment. Institute in the Park is a Partner Charity based at the Alder Hey Childrens Hospital complex in Liverpool.
Professor Paul McNamara who leads the EATC (Experimental Arthritis Treatment Centre for Children) team sent this update focusing on how our last three grants have helped their work.
“At the Institute in the Park one of the paediatric diseases we are interested in is IgA Vasculitis, which in 40% of cases leads to a condition called IgA Vasculitis nephritis where inflammation in the kidney leads to a reduction in kidney function. In 2% of cases these children require kidney replacement therapy in the form of dialysis and eventual transplantation.
To help research this disease we use a range of equipment. Most recently we have been able to purchase a plate washer. This piece of equipment allows us to wash 96 samples at once with identical conditions compared to a scientist manually washing the samples which can lead to variations in volume, force and surface area covered. This allows us to be much more precise and reproducible with our research and make even better use of precious samples from children.
Dr Joe Brown can be seen loading our new plate washer while he analyses samples from children with IgA Vasculitis to better understand the causes and hopefully help find new targets that medicine can be targeted towards.
In 2023, we purchased a new 80 degrees Celsius freezer which we use to store all of our samples while we collect enough to do our experiments. This one freezer will allow us to store 60,000 samples where they are securely stored ensuring we can make the absolute most out of the precious samples donated by sick children.
In 2022 we were able to purchase a PCR machine which allows us to analyse micro-RNA molecules which are none coding so they don’t produce proteins but help regulate the expression of genes that do produce proteins. They can either upregulate or down regulate genes which may then lead to more or less of specific proteins being made by the body. This is a new area of interest for us. Dr Joe Brown, a new post doc in the group who has just completed his PhD from the University of Liverpool investigating microRNAs in liver disease, is now transferring these skills to the Institute in the Park labs and researching paediatric kidney disease.”
Progress in research can often appear slow as most of us are wanting to see significant changes in better management of and eventually cure for these childhood diseases. It is all about “building blocks” and learning from the research. We are confident that the work at Institute in the Park will deliver.