Materials for Research in Forensic Science

Dr Stefano Vanin, University of Huddersfield

Wednesday 19th October 2011

Bones, soils, personal objects and fragments of insects found at the crime scene or old burials are materials that can tell us about the last minutes of a person’s life and about the events that happened after their death.  Archaeologists, Anthropologists, Entomologists and Geologists possess the Rosetta Stones to help us translate and decipher this information in order to discover what happened to saints, soldiers, kings and artists' “models”, sometimes centuries ago or, in more recent cases, just a few days ago.

In this lecture Dr Stefano Vanin will show that we can make use of insects and other evidence to investigate recent forensic cases and cold cases, such as discovering what happened to young soldiers during the First and Second World Wars, and very cold cases concerning saints, Egyptian priests and a particularly well known VIP.

Dr Vanin will show how, in our DNA Age, the use of the natural sciences can provide important and fundamental information in order to reach the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.

Prof Roger Barlow, University of Huddersfield

Wednesday 9th November 2011

What is the difference between your right hand and your left? Between clockwise and anticlockwise? Between the North and the South pole? Puzzled scientists, since the days of Kant, assumed  each was the opposite of the other, with no absolute way of telling the difference. But then it turned out that the weak nuclear force, carried by the W particle, does just that.

The W can also – uniquely – distinguish between particles and antiparticles. One of the big puzzles of science is why the universe is dominated by matter: electrons and protons rather than positrons and antiprotons. Logically it should be an equal mixture of matter and antimatter – and quite uninhabitable.

In 1964, to everyone’s surprise, a small matter/antimatter difference appeared in the behaviour of K mesons. Little progress was made until the early twenty-first century, when with the BaBar experiment we found similar differences in  B mesons. Thorough study has shown how these differences can all be understood through the interactions of W particles with quarks – but that this cannot explain how the big bang produced our matter-dominated universe.

Perhaps the answer lies in the interactions between Ws and neutrinos. This will be very challenging to establish, but we are planning the future DAEdALUS experiment  to do this, using multiple particle accelerators.   

This is Prof Barlow's Inaugural Professorial Lecture at the University of Huddersfield.

New advances in Chemical and Particle Therapies

Prof Laurence Patterson, University of Bradford and Prof Robert Edgecock, University of Huddersfield

Wednesday 14th December 2011

This lecture is in conjunction with the Society of Chemical Industry.

Treating Cancer: New Advances in Chemical and Particle Therapies

Approximately one in every three people in the UK will suffer from cancer at some point during their life. That’s a quarter of a million new cases per year. Despite many recent advances in treatment, cancer is still responsible for 25% of all deaths in the country and 40% of deaths of those under 40. This public lecture will focus upon new developments in treating cancer.

Stopping cancer in its tracks: what’s new in molecular and targeted therapies to prevent tumour dissemination

Professor Laurence Patterson, Director
and Professor of Drug Discovery, The Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, University of Bradford.

There are more than 100 cancer types and current treatment is based on defining their organ of tumour origin, even though only 25 percent of those patients may respond. The paradigm for new cancer drug discovery is to target specific molecular characteristics that are drivers of the biology of the tumour regardless of where it occurs in the body. In the future, effective molecular and cytotoxic treatments must tackle the defining hallmark of a malignant cancer, that is, the ability to invade and metastasize from its site of origin. Progress in the development of molecular and targeted therapies to prevent cancer dissemination will be discussed.

Innovation in Particle Beam Therapy

Professor Rob Edgecock, Professor of Accelerator Physics, University of Huddersfield and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

Modern cancer therapy is not just about treating cancer, as there are many ways of killing cancerous cells, it is also about minimising collateral damage, the destruction of healthy cells, as this can lead to both short term and long term side effects, some of which can be severe and have a significant impact on the quality of life of the patient. As the treatment can largely be concentrated in the region of the tumour, radiotherapy is good at both treating the cancer and minimising the collateral damage. A better understanding of how the therapy works has brought continuous improvements over the years. Nevertheless, it is clear that it is still possible to do better. This lecture will give an introduction to radiotherapy, explaining the current methods used to minimise damage to healthy cells. It will describe recent developments in this cancer treatment that will soon, hopefully,
be available in the UK and how activities in
the University of Huddersfield may lead to further improvements.

The Public Lectures will be preceded by the Society for Chemical Industry (SCI) student poster competition on "New Advances in Chemical and Particle Therapies for Treating Cancer" and the presentation of the annual SCI "Science for Society" and "Chemistry for Industry" Awards.

Prof Susan Kilcoyne, University of Huddersfield

Wednesday 18th January 2012

Iron is the most common element on the planet, it is also a requirement for life and is found in most plants, animals and human beings.

In humans, iron is essential for cell growth and is an essential component of proteins involved in oxygen transport. A deficiency of iron limits oxygen delivery to cells, resulting in fatigue, poor work performance, and decreased immunity (anaemia). While most people have heard of anaemia few are aware that too much iron is also undesirable. Excess iron stimulates the activity of free radicals. Free radicals are often associated with chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, where they inflame and damage coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle, and in extreme cases can cause death.
So how does the body cope with something that is both necessary for life and a potential killer?

Fortunately nature has a way of coping with such situations. Iron storage is carefully regulated, the iron atoms are immediately bound to proteins and the toxic “free” iron ions do not exist within the body. This allows the cells to use the benefits of iron, but also limit its ability to do harm.

In this lecture we will look at the role of iron and iron proteins in human, animal and plant life. We will show how, using techniques borrowed from physics (Mossbauer spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, neutron scattering and magnetometry), it is possible to obtain detailed information on how iron is taken up from the environment, how it is stored by living things,
and what happens when these processes go wrong.

This is Professor Kilcoyne's Inaugural Professorial Lecture at the University of Huddersfield.

A Return to the Public Sector

Prof Colin Bamford, University of Huddersfield

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Rail fares have recently increased above inflation and bus fares continue to rise, yet many customers remain frustrated and disappointed over the quality of service that is being provided. The so-called public transport business is now in the hands of a small number of powerful and, in most cases, very profitable private companies. Given their importance in a world of rising fuel prices and endless road traffic congestion, is there still a case for there being more control over how these essential services are being provided?

This lecture will also consider, by way of contrast, how the market for air transport services has developed as a consequence of privatisation and deregulation. It will also discuss the arguments that are put forward for the recent controversial increase in Air Passenger Duty and the new EU-driven Emissions Trading Scheme which has just become applied to air transport.

For Pharmaceutical Testing

Dr Laura Waters, University of Huddersfield

Wednesday 14 March 2012

A full synopsis of this lecture will be published here when it becomes available