College of Medicine, Swansea University - BEACON...

College of Medicine, Swansea University10th Anniversary: 2004-2014History in the making

www.medicine.swansea.ac.uk

01Vision

02Highlights

06Rising to the challenge

07From vision to reality

0910 years of success

10Learning and teaching

18Research

30Enterprise and innovation

36Making an impact

38Towards 2020

40Get in touch

Contents

Front cover image based on an original idea by Leifa Jennings.Research as Art 2013Undergraduate award: ’Cobalt, Celeste, Cyan and Me‘ Leifa Jennings (College of Medicine)

“This photo shows a rail of blue theatre scrubs, ready to be worn. It is a visual representation of how it feels to be a medical student entering the operating theatre for the first time.

Everyone else has a role to play and a place to be, but as a student you stand there, bright red ‘Student’ lanyardaround your neck, feeling like you definitely don’t fit in.

My research project on theatre etiquette aims to create apiece of work to inform new students of the unwritten rulesof the operating theatre, hopefully allowing them to feelmore confident the first time they enter the operating theatreenvironment.“

First published in 2014 by College of Medicine, Swansea UniversitySwanseaSA2 8PPWales

© College of Medicine, Swansea University.

ISBN 978-0-9929905-0-3

Copywriter: Jane Fraser – www.janefraserwriter.comPhotographers: www.philboorman.co.uk andwww.philipgriffithsphotography.comPrinted by: Zenith Media

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted inany form or by any means, electrical, mechanical orotherwise, without the prior permission in writing of Collegeof Medicine, or the copyright owner(s), or as expresslypermitted by law. Enquiries concerning reproduction outsidethe scope of the above should be sent to the MarketingTeam, College of Medicine, Grove Building, SwanseaUniversity, Swansea, SA28PP

The authors’ moral rights have been asserted.

All images are © College of Medicine unless statedotherwise.


01 Vision

We train tomorrow’s doctorsand life scientists in anenvironment offering aninterdisciplinary approach totranslational medicine, frombasic science to healthcaredelivery, and an innovativeapproach to building theknowledge economy.


02 Highlights

The long and the short of it

The College of Medicine has come a long way in a shorttime and is now acknowledged as one of the fastestgrowing medical schools in the UK. The journey startedwith small incremental steps. Momentum gathered. It is now in full stride.

1980sIn the 1980s EPSRC sites its UK NationalMass Spectrometry Service Centre atSwansea University

2004In 2004 the Clinical School develops into a School of Medicine

2006In 2006 The Blue C Supercomputer isgiven a permanent home at SwanseaUniversity

1960sSwansea Universitybecomes one of thefirst Institutions in the UK to offer BScGenetics degrees.

1970sGenetics andBiochemistrydepartmentsdevelop at SwanseaUniversity.

1980sEPSRC sites its UKNational MassSpectrometryService Centre atSwansea University,boosting an existingcentre of excellence.

1990sSwansea Universityfounds aPostgraduateMedical School.

2001Swansea Universityestablishes a ClinicalSchool under theleadership ofProfessor JulianHopkin.

2003The original conceptfor the Institute of LifeScience (ILS) iscaptured on a napkinin a New York diner.

2004The Clinical Schooldevelops into aSchool of Medicine,welcoming the firstcohort of GraduateEntry Programme(GEP) students.

2005 Building work on ILS begins with agroundbreakingceremony featuringlocal school children.

2006 The Blue CSupercomputer isgiven a permanenthome at SwanseaUniversity as part of a high profilecollaboration withIBM.

ILSILS1 opens its doors for business in 2007

2008The School of Medicine enjoys spectacularresults as part of the Research AssessmentExercise (RAE2008)

1st Medical student Nathan West is selectedas the first student to receive the MullanyPrize for Excellence

The Ibadan SwanseaPartnership winssecond prize in theTropical Health andEducation Trust (THET)Health Linkscompetition.

Professor GarethMorgan takes overleadership of theSchool of Medicine.

The School ofMedicine hosts its first Christmas Ball forstaff and students.

2009Medical studentNathan West isselected as the firststudent to receive theMullany Prize forExcellence.

Swansea and BroMorgannwg NHSTrusts combine andare granted UniversityHospital status tobecome Abertawe BroMorgannwg UniversityHealth Board.

Swansea Universitypartners with the NHSto secure significantfunding for a secondphase of the ILS.

2007ILS1 opens its doorsfor business with theBoots Centre forInnovation (BCI) as its flagship tenant.

American Astronautof Welsh descent,Dafydd RhysWilliams, presents toschool children andscientists at ILS.

The School ofMedicine partnerswith the School ofMedicine in theGambia to establishthe Swansea-Gambialink with support fromthe Tropical Healthand Education Trust(THET).

2008Prime MinisterGordon Brown visitsILS during his term of office.

First Minister forWales, Rt Hon RhodriMorgan, describesILS as the ’jewel inthe crown of Wales’.

The School ofMedicine enjoysspectacular results aspart of the ResearchAssessment Exercise(RAE2008).

Highlights

£21mThe centre for NanoHealth is developed, a joint initiative worth £21 million

100%Graduate Entry Medicine students achieve100% pass rate in 2010

£17.3mConstruction work begins on the DataScience building to house the £9.3 millionFarr Institute of Health Informatics Researchand the £8 million Administrative DataResearch Centre Wales


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2009The Schools ofMedicine andEngineeringcollaborate todevelop the Centrefor NanoHealth, ajoint initiative worth£21 million.

The first cohort ofstudents beginsstudying on theGraduate EntryMedicine (GEM)programme entirelyat SwanseaUniversity.

The HaemostasisBiomedical ResearchUnit is opened atMorriston Hospital’semergencydepartment.

Edwina Hart AMOBE officiallylaunches ILS2.

2010BEACON projectbegins, acollaborationbetweenAberystwyth, Bangorand SwanseaUniversitiesdedicated toharnessing thepower of plants inmedicine, scienceand manufacturing.

ILS launches theAffiliate MembershipScheme to encouragelife science andhealthcare companiesto access theexpertise and state-of-the-art facilities.

ILS establishes E-Health IndustriesInnovation (EHi2)Centre with grantsworth nearly half amillion pounds.

Graduate EntryMedicine studentsachieve 100% passrate.

2011Rector of Medicineand Health, ProfessorJulian Hopkin, isawarded a CBE inthe New Year’sHonour List forServices to Medicine.

The School ofMedicine becomesthe College ofMedicine.

ILS2 and the Centrefor NanoHealth openfor business.

State-of-the-art MRIequipment arrivesfrom Siemens.

Health MinisterMark Drakefordvisits ILS andlaunches ‘Help is atHand’, a supportpublication forpeople bereavedthrough suicide.

First ministerCarwyn Jonesofficially opens theCentre forImprovement inPopulation Healththrough E-recordsResearch (CIPHER),a multinationalpartnership toimprove populationhealth andwellbeing throughhealth informaticsresearch.

Biochemistryteaching isenhanced with new teachinglaboratories.

Construction workbegins on the DataScience building tohouse the £9.3million Farr Instituteof Health InformaticsResearch and the£8 millionAdministrative DataResearch CentreWales.

2014 MRC bioinformaticscentre is won incollaboration withWarwick University,becoming theCollege’s fourthresearch councilcentre in two years.

The GMC addsSwansea Universityto the list ofinstitutions able toaward PrimaryMedicalQualifications(PMQs).

The College ofMedicine celebratesits 10th Anniversary.

The College ofMedicine winsAthena SWANbronze award forcommitment toadvancing women’scareers in sciencesubjects.

BEACON winsRegioStars awardfor sustainablegrowth.

First cohort of GEMstudents graduatesfrom SwanseaUniversity.

2012The Joint ClinicalResearch Facility(JCRF) is launchedin collaborationwith ABMU HealthBoard’s ClinicalResearch Unit(CRU).

Genetics andbiochemistryprogrammes arerecognised for high graduateemployment rateswith over 80% ofgraduates inemployment orfurther study within6 months.

Professor KeithLloyd is appointedDean and Head ofthe College ofMedicine.

2013EPSRC NationalMass SpectrometryFacility replaces theservice centre toprovide acomprehensivemass spectrometryservice foruniversity researchgroups throughoutthe UK.


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Rising to the challenge

Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard B. Davies applaudsthe College of Medicine’s distinctive approach and rapid growth, and its contribution to positioningSwansea University for the 21st century.

Swansea’s efforts to establish a medicalschool date back at least to the 1960s.However, Swansea lost out then when the new schools went to Universities inEngland, and lost out again in a furtherround of new medical schools in the1990s.

All changed in 1999 with devolution. With fresh thinking in Wales came a freshopportunity, and the arguments by theUniversity and clinicians in the regionbegan to receive a sympathetic hearing.Importantly, the population in the regioncould begin to look forward to the healthand wider benefits associated with livingclose to a medical school. In 2001, theWelsh Government, with the support of theWelsh Assembly, established a medicalschool at Swansea.

Step-by-step, the College of Medicine tookshape. Key early decisions have proved tobe crucial: it was not to mimic othermedical schools elsewhere in the UK, but tofocus on graduate entry, adopt a distinctivemulti-disciplinary approach to research,and commit uniquely in the UK to effectivecollaboration with industry.

Those decisions have enabled the Collegeto develop world-leading strengths andbuild up its recognition with remarkablespeed, initially attracting substantial WelshGovernment and European Investment Fundsupport for the Institute of Life Science and,recently, large MRC and ESRC funds for thepurpose-designed Data Science building.This will open in 2015 and will house the £5 million Farr Institute of HealthInformatics Research, the £4.3millionCentre for the Improvement of PopulationHealth through E-records Research(CIPHER) and the new £8 millionAdministrative Data Research Centre(ARDC) Wales.

The big challenges of today do not respectthe artificial boundaries between traditionaldisciplines. Swansea’s Institute of LifeScience has eliminated several disciplinaryboundaries to foster world-class researchthat delivers high-technology solutions to major healthcare challenges incollaboration with industry and the NHS.

The growth in research income achievedby the College of Medicine is impressive,particularly the high proportion ofprestigious research council income whichin 2013-14 accounted for 62% of the£14.5 million secured by the College.

The results of the Research AssessmentExercise 2008 (RAE2008) demonstratedunequivocally that Swansea University isfast achieving its ambition to be a world-class, research-led University. Since then,progress has accelerated even faster andMedicine is very much a part of thatsuccess. Already Swansea is fourth in theUK for the amount of collaborative researchwith industry. Our industrial links will be

further strengthened within our ambitiousScience and Innovation campusdevelopment and Singleton campusdevelopments, many led by the College of Medicine.

The College of Medicine’s approachreflects the distinctive Swansea strengthsthat are particularly relevant for a 21stCentury University: multidisciplinaryresearch, collaboration with industry andan international perspective. We areconfident at Swansea that we have the staffcommitment and ambition to maintain ourimpressive momentum and spectaculargrowth, and that the College of Medicinehas a big role to play in that success.

I wish the College of Medicine well in its next phase of development and in itsambitious plans for further expansion of learning and teaching, research and innovation.

Professor Richard B. DaviesVice-Chancellor, Swansea University


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From vision to reality

Professor Julian Hopkin, founding Head of SwanseaClinical School (2001-2004) and School of Medicine(2004-2008) sits in Café Glas, ILS1, and discusses howthe College of Medicine arrived at where it is today.

What was your vision for the College ofMedicine at Swansea University?It was 1999 and I’d returned from Oxfordto Swansea with the aim of just doingmedical research when talk of thepossibility of a new medical school aroseagain in the Swansea Hospitals – there’dbeen a failed bid to UK Government in the1960s and later the establishment of apostgraduate medical school led by JohnWilliams. The 1999 vision was for anexciting and strategically sound medicalschool that placed innovation at the heartof our proposal to the, by then, devolvedWelsh Assembly Government: innovationthat would apply to the excellence ofmedical teaching and medical research.We envisaged the creation of a secondmedical school for Wales that trulycomplemented rather than duplicated theestablished Cardiff Medical School model.We also saw the benefits of healthycompetition as well as cooperationbetween the two Schools in Wales’ two major cities.

Was there a need as well as a desire fora second medical school for Wales?Absolutely. At that time, the UK had

become fully aware that it was under-doctored by international standards andnew Schools were being established inEngland as a result of the findings. Waleswas lagging behind in both training newdoctors and in recruiting doctors to work in Wales. There was additional and much-needed opportunity outside the capital fora fresh approach in medical teaching andresearch.

What benefits did you see for Swanseaand south west Wales generally?Wales’ second centre in Swansea would in turn foster both recruitment and retentioninto the NHS of the west and through that –and research – would drive medicaladvances of international importance,advancing medicine at large whilst at the same time being rooted in its localcommunity, which was integral to ourvision.

You had the vision, so what about theprocess – how did you make it happen?We had to ensure that there was a vibrantand committed support for the projectacross Swansea NHS and University – weanticipated there would be challenges.And there were! But, at the outset we had96% of the consultant workforce onside,voting for the development, and recordingthat they would be ready to provide clinicalteaching. The support was boosted byProfessor Robin Williams (Vice-Chancellorof the University at that time) and Dr PatSteane (Medical Director) and Mr. DavidWilliams (Chief Executive Swansea NHSTrust) declaring their full backing. With thisstrong local team in place we were able tospearhead our mission and therefore ableto develop our vision. We assembled andconsidered very early practical plans which

formed the basis of us putting the case toAssembly politicians and other interestedparties in order to build a growing base ofsupport for the venture. I have to say herethat Andrew Davies and Dai Lloyd put ourcase boldly and, in so doing, cruciallysecured support for the embryonic plans at a formal Welsh Assembly debate.

What were the many challenges you mention?Initially, there were Civil Service strategicdoubts: they held the belief that theconcentration of medical, academic peopleand resources in the capital, Cardiff, wouldproduce ‘critical mass’ with better resultsfor medical training and especially medicalresearch. There was also concern fromCardiff Medical School itself, fearing thatresources would be siphoned away fromthem. And then there was the simple caseof economics – that both capital andrevenue can be hard to come by.

So how did you overcome thesechallenges?Many of the strategic doubts voiced by theCivil Service were neutered when AndrewDavies and Dai Lloyd fought our corner at the Assembly. But then came all thedetailed planning of the School to berigorously developed in voluminousbusiness plans that would require finalformal support. And here, I’ll reiterate, theelements of cooperation and competitionwe saw working across the two centres, a‘diversity model’ if you like, which we feltwould offer more productivity. We also putforward an incremental, small step modelfor Swansea rather than a single giantstride approach, which would allow us toprove ourselves by performing brilliantly inall areas and demonstrating that brilliance


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in our results: success driving momentum so that the next phase in our developmentcould be secured. It was proven successthat was to be the practical cornerstone of the advance of the School. There weresome tough times, but outrageous ambitionand team spirit were key right from the start.

What pedigree did Swansea have atthat time to drive the agenda forwardand endorse its case?Swansea had a substantial hospitalcomplex with high standards of practice;the physical infrastructure was in place. In addition to a comprehensive range ofgeneral hospitals services it also hadspecialist units – cardiac, renal, burns,neonates, etc. It was also blessed with astrong set of local general practices and a University with diverse departments andstrengths: there was already a School ofNursing here and a very powerful Schoolof Engineering that were committed to the local vision of a new medical schoolbuilding on the research base of theexisting postgraduate medical school. InSwansea we also had a University whosecampus abutted onto one of the majorNHS sites (Singleton), which promisedgreat facilitation of working together inteaching and, vitally, in research. This wasa model of excellence and innovationbetween NHS and the University that localWelsh Assembly politicians stronglyendorsed and which led to its approval.

Do you remember how you felt whenthe first phase of the Clinical Schoolcame to be in 2001?I’ll never forget the moment when I receivedthe phone call from Andrew Davies – I wasat home and he told me that the WelshAssembly Government had supported ourapplication and innovative model to growthe School in phases and to work incooperation with Cardiff. It all started with34 Senior Clinical Tutors who wereappointed from among the Consultant Staffto lead the medical student teaching in thefirst phase of the Clinical School whichlasted from 2001-2004. They produced atruly brilliant performance with rave formalfeed back from the students and impressedpoliticians and civil servants. It all wentfrom there…

And what about 2004, a significantmilestone, I’m sure?Momentum had been gathering towards2004, which marked the transition from aClinical School to the School of Medicinewith its distinctive Graduate Entry medicalconcept – and with the first glimmers of theInstitute of Life Science concept. It’s worthemphasising here that business plans areone thing but performance is another:from the word go, the School excelled atattracting and appointing staff at all grades

from all around the world – medical,scientific, technical, administrative – andit’s those people who are responsible forthe outstanding success of the School –now a College – in teaching, research andinnovation – and have made the robustentity it is in 2014. And again innovationin medical training: while the UK wasstrongly focused on School-Entry medicaltraining, we daredto be different,following the USAand Germanapproach byattracting GraduateEntry students withtheir distinct anddiverse backgroundsand maturity whichhas enriched thetalent and potentialof the medicalworkforce in terms of medical care andresearch. We were able to offer a highlyinnovative medical degree programme withthorough integration of medical care andmedical science from day one.

The rise of the School (College) has beencontinuous and I know it will continue inthat vein. The founders of the SwanseaSchool knew that the now great andwonderful Harvard Medical School hadstarted in 49 Marlborough Street, Boston in 1810 and just went on to grow!

What do you see as your proudestmoments in the College’s story to date?Obviously the establishment of theSwansea Clinical School in 2001 and thenthe School of Medicine in 2004 (later to berenamed the ‘College’). The Institute of LifeScience with building 1 in 2007 andbuilding 2 in 2012. In 2008 there was ahighly successful Research Assessment UKExercise Result when 87% of our researchoutputs were classed as world-leading orinternationally excellent and, of course, thewinning of MRC/RSCR Research Centres inHealth Informatics and Data, the support ofEPSRC for the Mass Spectrometry Centre.I’m proud of our people: the fantastic pass

and distinction rates for the Graduate EntryProgramme. Out of our first 2 cohorts, aSwansea student won the all-Wales bestmedical student award in both 2008 and2009 final examinations. And then ofcourse, there was Prime Minister GordonBrown’s visit in 2008: he was, quite rightly,duly impressed and sent a warm letter offulsome congratulations.

It’s been quite a journey and I know it’sonly just begun. How would you likeyour involvement to be remembered?Simply as the founding boss whom I hopefolk found ambitious for medicine inSwansea and Wales, determined and fairminded. But it wasn’t just about me.

What else do you think significant as towhere Swansea stands so successfullypoised in 2014?Team spirit, and again team spirit. Andkeeping focus on the little matter that themedical education and medical researchand development of today makes the greatdoctors and powerful medicine oftomorrow.

And the future?Bright, very bright. Successive Heads mustsustain outrageous ambition and teamspirit. Current Head, Keith Lloyd, is doingjust that.

“I’d like to be remembered simply as the founding boss whom I hope folk foundambitious for medicine in Swansea andWales, determined and fair minded. But it wasn’t just about me.”Professor Julian Hopkin CBECollege of Medicine, Swansea University


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Ten years. Ten snapshots. Togetherthey tell the story of the incrediblejourney the College of Medicine has made in the last decade, andsignpost where that journey mightlead in the future.

Learning and teaching2014 is a doubly special year for medical education at Swansea. Septembersees the 10th anniversary of the first students who started on the Swansea-Cardiff 4 year Graduate Entry Programme (GEP) in Medicine.

July 2014 also sees the first cohort of medical students to have spent all four years of their course at Swansea University qualifying as doctors. Their completion of Swansea’s Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) Programme is a triumph for staff and students alike.

But learning and teaching within the College of Medicine is much more. It is the successful coming together of its integral parts: a highly-regardedundergraduate programme in Genetics, Medical Genetics, Medical Biochemistry and a world-class Postgraduate facility comprising taught Masters and Researchdegrees in areas significant to the advancement of medicine on a global scale.

10 College of Medicine, Swansea University10th Anniversary: 2004-2014History in the making

25/2/14Recognition – The General MedicalCouncil (GMC) adds SwanseaUniversity to the list of academicinstitutions with the right to awardPrimary Medical Qualificationsindependent of any other institution

100%+Fast growth – Number of Undergraduatestudents across 3 years is 197 in 2013-2014 compared with 94 in 2007-2008cohort

140Numbers count – From 3 Postgraduatestudents between 2001-2003 there arenow 140 Postgraduate students engagedin Taught Masters and ResearchProgrammes in 2014


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At the heart of the triumph and celebrationof 2014 are ambition, innovation andabove all, proven excellence in learningand teaching. Whether part of theGraduate Entry Medicine (GEM),Undergraduate or Postgraduateprogrammes, all the students who qualify in the College of Medicine know that theywill be equipped to be tomorrow’s doctorsand life scientists in the communities theywill serve: across Wales; across the UK;across the world. With them they will carry the prestige of one of the UK’s fastest growing medical schools.

Firm foundationsThe story of successful learning andteaching at today’s College of Medicine isnot a new one. The ethos of providing thebest learning and teaching was alreadyfirmly established on campus, andrecognised nationally and internationally,before the beginnings of the College ofMedicine. Previously based in the Schoolof Biological Sciences, Swansea Universityhad offered BSC Genetics degrees sincethe 1960s, one of the first Institutions in the UK to do so. Swansea University alsoboasted a highly regarded School ofNursing (which celebrates its 25thanniversary this year) and a globallyacclaimed School of Engineering. Therewas also a research based postgraduatemedical school. All this provided a firmfoundation on which the embryonicCollege of Medicine could build, maintainand improve on the quality provision oflearning and teaching which lays at thecore of the success it enjoys today.

Thinking bigAttracting and retaining the best staff andstudents has been a critical element in the

story of the Collegefrom day one. Thetone was alwaysdeliberately boldand ambitious: this was a Collegethat was goingsomewhere andonly the cream of world classexpertise wouldsuffice. Bigambitions neededbig thinking.

Prestigious teachingexperts were sought out across the worldand recruited sometimes en masse (sixjoined in one day in 2001) attracted by the vision of the Swansea model, whichrealised that a Medical School could notbe built without major players in the fieldsof research and teaching nor withoutinnovation as a key driver.

Students across all three areas of learningand teaching have been, and continue tobe, recruited through a stringent selectionprocess comprising UCAS application,open day, interview and assessment. Thebest of the best philosophy applies heretoo, so that in 2014 only 25% of thosewho initially apply will be consideredeligible to take part in the ‘SwanseaExperience’.

Making it happenIt takes great people to turn concepts intotangibles and there have been manypeople tasked with just that during theCollege of Medicine’s short, but dynamic,history of learning and teaching to date.This history has not been without its

challenges – fortunately more of the lessertype than those of greater magnitude – andall have been overcome through a spirit of“pragmatic acceptance of setbacks bystudents and a collaborative culture ofpositive thinking and hard work by staffmembers.” One person of many moredeserves acknowledgement: Professor RhysWilliams, who is said to have enabled“medicine to be brought to life” atSwansea and who successive cohorts onthe GEP/GEM Programmes will rememberas the “human face” of their medicaleducation. He has handed on that role toProfessor Judy McKimm and her team.

Learning and teaching for tomorrowThe three features which follow aim toencapsulate the essence, development and successes of the unique ‘SwanseaExperience’ of learning and teaching and illustrate where these successes are leading.

“The staff members who walked into thePurnell Lecture Theatre on that first day – 8th September 2004 – of the first year of our GEP course are unlikely ever to forgetthe feeling of seeing for the first time theseyoung people as a group. We got to knowthem well as we did each cohort of studentsfrom then on.”Professor Rhys WilliamsFormerly Chair of Learning and Teaching, College of Medicine, Swansea University


Learning and teaching

Tomorrow’s life scientists

2014 sees Swansea University’s Biochemistry and Genetics Undergraduate programmes firmlyembedded within the College of Medicine. But the roots reach back over forty-five years to the1960s when the University was one of the first UKinstitutions to offer students BSc degrees in Genetics.

When Swansea did notbecome Wales’ secondmedical school in 1966 the University’s long and

respected tradition in Biochemistry,Chemistry and Genetics continued toflourish. Biochemistry was closely involvedwith the Chemistry Department prior totransfer in the late 1980s to the School of Biological Sciences into which Geneticswas also integrated. When the bid re-emerged in 1999, this tradition was criticalin giving leverage to the articulation of thenew vision.

It made sense: there is a substantial linkbetween Genetics and Medicine and it was a natural step that linked the peopleinstrumental in helping to birth the SwanseaClinical School in 2001. In Medicine therewas Professor Julian Hopkin and in Geneticsthere was Professor James Parry who bothrealised the positive and mutual benefits oftheir separate disciplines forming part ofthe envisaged model for the School.

The fit between medical and molecularscience that was so strategically effective at the inception of the School, and integralto its aims and ambitions, resulted in theGenetics Programme being incorporatedwithin the School (now College) ofMedicine in 2007, with Biochemistryfollowing in 2010. With the new transferscame a considerable overhaul ofmanagement and structures, with theformation of a joint Board of Studieschaired by a single Programme Director –initially Professor David Skibinski andcurrently, Professor Paul Dyson.

By 2014, that fit has already beensuccessfully proven, with Undergraduates

benefiting from the cross-fertilisationachieved through shared learning andteaching and research expertise availablewithin the College. Many teachers on theUndergraduate Programmes are part of the wider research environment and manyteachers are medical professionals, oftenworking as doctors in local hospitals.Positioned together, the two sciences have been strengthened and are jointlycontributing to theprestige of theCollege as a whole.

With the transfer to the College ofMedicine there has been anaccompanyingincrease in status ofthe Undergraduate Programmes. The rateof growth has been rapid: during 2007-2008 there were 94 students in total acrossthe 3 years. Fast forward to 2013-2014and there are 197 – a 100%+ increaseand Programmes are almost fullysubscribed.

The Undergraduate Programmes are tuned into the increasing demands ofstudents as consumers of education, andsince transfer was completed in 2010 havebeen proactively evolving the nature andscope of the degrees offered (currently atotal of 5 single and joint honours BScDegrees) ensuring that Swansea maintainscompetitive edge and maximisesemployment opportunities for its Graduates.

Increasing employability success is asource of pride: in 2007 only 67% ofGraduates taught in the Biological Scienceswere employed in work or in further study.

2007-2008 saw that figure soar to over80% where it has remained year on yearsince.

The Undergraduate Programmes also takepride in the fact that they are seeding the‘home grown’ and globally significantresearch that is so in evidence at ILS. Anongoing cycle of learning and teaching isdeveloping at the College: Undergraduate

– Postgraduate – PhD – Staff; retaining thatknowledge base in a local clever economyfor the benefit of the wider world of LifeScience.

And the future? Such strong performance in such short a time looks set to continue on an upward trajectory. About to launch is an innovative one year MSc bolt-on tothe BSc that will place greater emphasis on research and add even more value totomorrow’s life scientists.

“We are turning them into professionalscientists. I am proud to say, I taught them.”Professor Paul Dyson,Undergraduate Programme Director,College of Medicine, Swansea University

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Dr George Johnson,Senior LecturerCollege of Medicine, Swansea University

George is a an award-winningresearcher in the College ofMedicine who combines teachingand research, ensuring thattomorrow’s life scientists arelearning from the best of today.

Academics like George who keep their fingers on the pulse of research teach students thelatest methods and findings andcoordinate placements in world-leading organisations such asGlaxoSmithKline (GSK) so students

can hone their skills in businesssettings. Evidenced by thespectacular employability rate, this hands-on experience makesthem some of the most sought after graduates in the UK.

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14 Learning and teaching

Tomorrow’s doctors

25th February 2014 will always be remembered asthe day Swansea University’s medical school joinedthe General Medical Council’s (GMC) prestigious listof UK medical schools entitled to award UK PrimaryMedical Qualifications (PMQs) independent of anyother institution.

This GMC validation is testament tothe vision and ambition of all thosewho campaigned for Wales’ secondmedical school ahead of it opening

its doors to the first cohort of thirty-sixgraduates in 2004. This acknowledgementto ‘stand alone’ is also an endorsement of the successive leaders who have beencharged with Graduate Entry Medicine’sstewardship in its ten short years and amarker of the responsibility to follow in the years to come.

Back in 2004 the Graduate EntryProgramme (GEP) was funded by theWelsh Assembly Government as part of a joint collaboration between Swanseaand Cardiff Universities, which meant thatstudents on the Programme spent the firsttwo years at Swansea followed by theirfinal two years at Cardiff. From itsinception in 2004, Swansea had beenstriving to be able to ‘go it alone’ andsince 2007 the College of Medicine had worked partnership with WelshGovernment, the Wales Deanery, localHealth Boards, hospitals, communityorganisations, students and the GMC todevelop the distinctive GEM Programme,which it was able to offer from 2009.

Swansea’s GEM programme is unique inWales and one of a small group of similarprogrammes of medical study in the UK. It is an innovative, accelerated medicaldegree open to high-achieving graduateswith demonstrable first and upper seconddegrees in the arts, sciences or humanities.Competition is tough and only seventy,selected from initial applications of overeight hundred, will have the opportunity tobenefit from the ‘Swansea Experience’.

GEM enables Swansea to play its part inthe under-doctoring issue in Wales by bothincreasing recruitment and increasingretention of doctors, which will in turnimprove the health and wellbeing of thecommunities they will serve. It has alreadystarted to deliver with 59% of this year’scohort who will graduate with a MB BCh in July committed to foundation doctoringin Wales.

The GMC visitingteam highlighted someof the programme’sunique featuresincluding the Ruraland Remote Health in Medical Education(RRHIME) and thevalue placed on theWelsh language and culture which is embedded in theprogramme.

2014 is a year to celebrate and also to acknowledge that there have beenchallenges along the way. Challenges that have been overcome with the sameethos of determination, team spirit and the pursuit of excellence that is at the coreof GEM’s success. Following the bitterdisappointment – both for students and staff– of the 2011 GMC Review, the curriculumhas been recast, building on and adaptingits inherent strengths so that it has nowbeen deemed ‘fit to go’. It is proof of the “yes we can…and we did,” mind set of Professor Judy McKimm and herpredecessor, Professor Rhys Williams who have enabled the GEM Programme to come of age.

GMC’s Tomorrow’s Doctors (2009) outlinesthe requirements of a doctor under threethemes: doctor as scientist and scholar;doctor as practitioner; and doctor asprofessional. Those doctors who leaveGEM in 2014 will know that they have had the best of the best to equip them to be tomorrow’s doctors. For them, theirlifelong journey is just beginning.

So too for GEM. The programme willmature with the years and with continuedoutward facing thinking will continue toattract and retain the best. Small student:teacher ratios and a context that viewsboth learners and teachers as professionalcolleagues is a potent mix and combinedwith GMC’s recent validation has boostedSwansea University’s upward trajectoryand its ambition to be one of the world’stop universities.

“In common with best medical practiceinternationally and in line with Tomorrow’sDoctors, the Swansea GEM programmeincorporates… a high level of patientinvolvement and a large number of self-selected clinical and research experiences to develop lifelong learning.”Professor Judy McKimmDean of Medical Education, College of Medicine, Swansea University


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Graduate Entry MedicineStudentsCollege of Medicine, Swansea University

Gaining one of the seventy placeson the GEM programme is anachievement in itself, butbecoming one of the seventydoctors of tomorrow is somethingelse.

The GEM curriculum features a unique balance of learningweeks, clinical apprenticeships,specialty attachments, clinicalassistantships, electives andshadowing. Unlike conventionalmedical degree courses, theinnovative GEM curriculum is

intentionally not structured in a traditional ‘body systems’approach. Instead, it is designedto reflect the way in whichclinicians actually approachpatients, investigating particularproblems and conditions from all possible angles. This givesSwansea graduates the upperhand when it comes toapproaching the uncertainties and uniqueness of their futurepractice and prepares them to be tomorrow’s doctors.

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16 Learning and teaching

Growing talent

The rapid rate of growth in the number ofPostgraduates choosing to progress their studiesat Swansea is commensurate with the College’sstatus as ‘UK’s fastest growing Medical School’. It is affirmation of the demand for its distinctiveapproach to learning and teaching at the heartof its vision.

In 2014, within the College of Medicinethere are 140 candidates engaged inhighly valued and respectedPostgraduate and Continuing Education

or in supervised Postgraduate Degreesaligned to the research-active groups in the College. In the years 2001-2004 there were just 3.

The Postgraduate thread of learning and teaching is now able to offer 4Postgraduate Research Degrees: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD); Doctor of Medicine(MD); Master of Philosophy (MPhil); andthe latest addition – a significant milestonefor the Programme – Masters by Research(MRes.) introduced in 2013.

Under its Postgraduate Taught Masters and Continuing Education Programme, the opportunities continue to expand: allare linked to the College’s professional and research expertise and focus ongaining transferable employability skills as well as specialist knowledge.

Year on year, the PostgraduateProgrammes are growing talent: talentenriched by the experience of study itselfand in turn, enriching the advance ofmedical science. Postgraduates are drawnfrom across the globe, the UK, fromindustry, and from other programmes in the College of Medicine: many of thosewho graduate through GEM or theUndergraduate Programme are feedinginto Postgraduate study and in so doingprogressing the knowledge pipeline andhelping retain ‘home grown’ expertise.

Nurturing all the expertise at present(2013-) is Dr Tom Wilkinson, Chair ofHigher Degrees who succeeded Professor

John Baxter, Professor Gareth Jenkins andProfessor John White, each retrospectivelykeeping the Chair warm for the subsequentsitter. Though the stewardship haschanged, the focus on increasingPostgraduate numbers and at the sametime ensuring high levels of service aremaintained is paramount. Student surveysare now all important and Blackboardintranet allows the Programmes to monitorsatisfaction. Vital markers too are statisticsfrom external monitoring benchmark bodiessuch as the Research ExcellenceFramework (REF).

The learning andteaching nurturingapproach embodiedin the PhDprogramme can be summed up in ‘Tom’s method’ –a close mentoring of apprentice bymaster thatprogresses over the duration of the course from I (the master demonstrating) to We (master and apprentice workingtogether on research in the laboratory) to You (master gradually ‘letting go’ of the apprentice who thus becomes a new master).

The Postgraduate Programmes are coming of age. To reach the point they are attoday, a strong strategy and strongstructures have needed to be in place. The restructuring of the PostgraduateResearch Degrees 2011-2012 has resultedin the “best balance of people and ensureseverybody’s on the same page.” But there are smaller changes in place too:increasing pastoral support for students,

with the Chair meeting all students at theend of every year to chat about progressand gaining valuable feedback; four official joint-appraisal meetings betweenPostgraduates and their Supervisors; the useof Skype and the fusion of the internet intothe design of projects; platforms for studentsto have their voice in quarterly ’Tea withTom’ sessions. And in the ethos of theinterdisciplinary nature of learning andteaching and research at the College, opendiscussions at monthly meetings operating in a culture of collective decision making.Since 2007 there have been physical

structures too that have been the catalysts in attracting and developing progressionfrom Undergraduate to Postgraduate to PhD:world class innovation and research at workin the laboratories and facilities of theInstitute of Life Science (ILS1 and ILS2). With the new Data Science building ontrack to open in 2015 and ILS3 beckoningin 2020, things can only go from strength to strength and give more space fordeveloping knowledge to flourish.

“Postgraduate Day in May has now become Postgraduate Week. I’m really proud that thenumber of Postgrads is too big to presentsnapshots of its research on 1 day.”Dr Tom WilkinsonChair of Higher Degrees, College of Medicine, Swansea University


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Leanne Stannard, CASE PhD StudentshipCollege of Medicine, Swansea University

Leanne is studying towards a PhD at the College of Medicineafter being awarded a CASEstudentship funded bymultinational companyAstraZeneca and the BBSRC. She graduated from the College in 2013 with a first class honoursin Medical Genetics.

Her growing talent was evidentafter successfully securing a UK-wide recruited and hotly contestedplacement with global healthcare

company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)where she excelled by helping to improve human health riskassessment.

The College of Medicine’s ethos is that research and industryopportunities are made availableto undergraduate students as wellas postgraduates, allowing themto grow into scientists of globalstanding.

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ResearchIn 2014 the College of Medicine is recognised across the globe for the impactof its Research. This is credit to those whose early vision for the new Collegerealised that Research excellence was integral to the model that would paydividends and grow profile quickly.

Today, Research is firmly embedded within the College of Medicine at itsInstitute of Life Science (ILS). But its story is shaped by a strong tradition and a track record of success in Genetics and Biochemistry, which have been based at Swansea University since the 1960s.


£25m +Upward trajectory – from £1 milliongrant income in 2004 to £25 million in 2014

87%Recognised excellence – over 87% ofresearch judged as world-class or ofinternational importance in RAE2008

>140Strength in depth – over 140 top flightResearchers working across 4 researchthemes of global significance in 3 state-of-the-art buildings


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The status and impetus for growth affordedby Swansea becoming a fully fledgedMedical School in 2004 is nothing short ofstartling. Nowhere is this more in evidencethan in the field of Research, one of thethree pillars that together, in just a decade,have enabled the College of Medicine tosay, ‘Look at us!’

Perfect strategyOf course the raison d’être of theembryonic College of Medicine in 2004was to teach doctors, without that it wouldhave been nothing. But the early strategists,particularly, Professor Julian Hopkin,recognised that this on its own was notenough: the College had to build aninternational reputation for Research.

His strategy was to “get the best qualitypeople and get them fast”. At that timethere were no dedicated buildings forResearch, no state-of-the-art facilities toentice world-wide expertise, no history, but nevertheless they came from the outset,excited by the opportunity of the Swanseavision conveyed with dynamism anddetermination by Julian. They came fromthe UK; from Germany; and from furtherafield, USA and New Zealand. Many whohad started out in Swansea ‘came home’.This was a bold strategy which made a big statement about intention. It was thebeginning of a virtuous circle and a spiralof confidence based on the pedigree ofthese initial staff that would, in turn, attractyet more acknowledged experts in theirrespective fields.

Room to growWith more people came the need for morespace; more space meant capacity formore people and 2007 saw the triumph of

the Institute of LifeScience (ILS1). Itsopen-plan andshared core facilitiesof laboratories andoffices embodiedthe collaborativeethos that wascentral to Researchat the College of Medicine. It allowed for ‘clusters of difference’ and a cross-fertilisation of ideas between differentareas of Research and betweenacademics, PhD Students and enterpriseand innovation at the heart of the conceptof ILS.

The ILS1 WOW factor, combined with theresearch expertise that was already inplace, plus the excellence highlighted inthe 2008 Research Assessment Exercise(RAE) now re-named the ResearchExcellence Framework (REF) drove asecond substantial wave of recruitment of calibre, as did ILS2 in 2011 and thelaunch of the Joint Clinical Research Facility(JCRF) in 2012. Success then quicklyfollowed success with a flurry of researchcouncil funded centres: mass spectroscopy,health informatics and bioinformatics.Translational research at Swansea wasbeing seen to make a “real difference inthe real world”; but perhaps it could makean even greater difference.

Strength in depthUp until 2012 research in the wholeCollege was led by 35 Professors andconsisted of over 130 Research Groups.There was general agreement that theResearch was being spread too thinly andthat strength in depth across less breadthwas the way forward. It was therefore

decided to reorganise the existing structureinto units of critical mass under four broadthemes that had been identified as givingthe ‘flavour’ of Research expertise at the College of Medicine: Patient andPopulation Health and Informatics (PPHI);Biomarkers and Genes; Microbes andImmunity; and Devices with Data Sciencecentral to all.

Bright spotsIn 2014, these four themes remain broadand will be further refined to highlight aseries of ‘bright spots’. Research will bringthese ‘bright spots’ into sharp focus tomaintain the upward trajectory that hasseen grant income rise exponentially froma base of £1million in 2004 to £25millionin 2014 and by 2015 will see the DataScience building open its doors to tworesearch centres, cementing the positioningof Research at the College of Medicine asworld-class.

The features which follow aim to givesnapshots of the four major ResearchThemes that have been identified atSwansea together with the cross-cuttingtheme of Data Science. The features lookback at the development of each area ofResearch and look forward to where thoseparticular areas might lead in the future.

“We don’t produce clones. I’m really proud of my students – they’re unique and theyhave a unique research environment.”Professor Gareth JenkinsDirector of Research,College of Medicine, Swansea University


20 Research

Discovery and delivery

In 2014 Researchers working within the broad themeof Biomarkers and Genes at the College of Medicineare acknowledged as world leaders in the discoveryof novel genetic, immunological and molecularbiomarkers and in the delivery of their practicalapplications in drug development and treatments.

Genetics at Swansea has a longand distinguished history. Itsorigins can be traced back tothe late 1960s and early 1970s

when its founding fathers, Professor JohnBeardmore and Professor David Skibinski,returned from Cambridge and began theirpioneering research contributions in thefields of genetic toxicology and DNArepair mechanisms, population andevolutionary genetics and in the genetics of microbes and cell organelles.

Soon after Swansea opened its doors toGraduate Entry Medicine in 2004, thedepartments of Genetics and Biochemistrywere brought together under the College ofMedicine. Rooted in the respected traditionof those early days, Biomarkers and Geneshas since evolved as one of the four majorresearch themes identified by the Collegeof Medicine as ‘bright spots’.

The establishment of the fledgling MedicalSchool and the impressive researchstanding of early visionaries ProfessorJulian Hopkin and Professor Rhys Williamswas a “powerful pull” in attractingresearch talent to Swansea. One suchtalent was Mike Gravenor, now ProfessorMike Gravenor, Theme Lead for Biomarkersand Genes, who took up a Lectureship onreturning to his “home town” from Oxfordin 2004. He, like many others who cameat that time, could not resist the challengeof Professor Julian Hopkin’s words: “Come here and help us set up somethingexciting.”

Today, within Biomarkers and Genes, thereare ten Professors each with “a story totell”. Some of the most noteworthy of thelast decade being: how their research has

influenced the care of rare neurologicaldisorders; how their studies of geneticmutations have affected the studies ofsafety of toxins at low dose; the 2013EPSRC UK National Mass SpectrometryFacility; pushing the boundaries of research in Diabetic Nephropathy andRetinopathy; and of course, the advancesin Nanotoxicology, now a rising star within Biomarkers and Genes.

There have been significant milestones too in that time that have driven success:unquestionably ILS1 in 2007 and ILS2 in 2011, and before, in 2006, the IBM R&Dcollaboration and theBlue C Supercomputer(the largest in the UK at the time and aremarkable coup for the College). Dedicatedto Life Sciences for‘mathematical biology’,Blue C has been used in projects includingnumerically intensive analysis of viralgenomes, epidemiological modelling, largeclinical data bases and analysis of thegenetics of disease susceptibility.

The spin-offs from this cannot beunderestimated: within the College, theenablement of the Informatics and DataScience Base (prior to PPHI) by ProfessorDavid Ford and Professor Ronan Lyons andthe facility to carry out cutting-edgeresearch into the evolution of viruses (thepaper which was published in 2006became the 3rd highest cited paper out of 12,000). Externally, the ‘kit’ and itsoutputs became the blueprint for the £44 million High Performance Computing

(HPC) Wales, an innovative collaborationwhich today gives innovators andresearchers in Wales access to world-class,secure and easy to use HPC technology.

This collaboration is central to the Collegeof Medicine’s research ethos: inter-disciplinary collaboration with the otherResearch themes and interaction withindustry and spin-out companies so thatmarket needs are fully integrated intoresearch. Central too is the dynamism of the department that is “creating its

own story as it goes along” with theflexibility to enquire, explore, discover and deliver.

The next ten years will see Biomarkers andGenes build on the successes of the lastdecade by expanding its clinical andbusiness interfaces and attracting morefunding to take its research forward. Thefacilities of ILS and the talent of its peoplegives the opportunity to do so as they standshoulder to shoulder with the NHS andEnterprise and Innovation.

“It was a really big deal and a coup for theCollege – both exciting and terrifying. I had the keys to drive this (IBM Blue CSupercomputer).”Professor Mike GravenorTheme Lead Biomarkers and Genes,College of Medicine, Swansea University


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Dr Shareen Doak,ReaderCollege of Medicine, Swansea University

Shareen's research sits within theCollege of Medicine’s Biomarkersand Genes Theme. She hasestablished a research programmein nano-genotoxicology looking at how DNA can be damaged by very small or “nano” particlesthat potentially lead to cancer. She also leads prostate cancerresearch at the College,investigating the molecular basis of progression to invasive,aggressive disease, with anultimate aim of discovering aprognostic biomarker panel to

better deliver treatment andpatient outcomes.

An award-winning scientist andUK and EUROTOX RegisteredToxicologist, Shareen’s expertise is recognised across the globe.She sits on the UK GovernmentCommittee on Mutagenicity and the International GeneticToxicology Technical Committeeand is an external expert for theEU Scientific Committee onConsumer Safety.

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22 Research

Speed and scale

In 2014, Patient and Population Health and Informatics(PPHI) is a multidisciplinary research centre with aworld-class reputation. It has evolved from pioneeringwork carried out at Swansea University in the 1990sto make explosive impacts internationally in the fieldof Health Informatics.

PPHI is one of the four major researchthemes identified in the restructuringof research at the College in 2012and now consolidated within the ILS.

It is currently directed by Theme Lead,Professor Helen Snooks (2012-) itsprecursor being led by Professor JohnWilliams who set the scene and played amajor part in today’s story through the earlywork of vision and value undertaken at thePostgraduate Medical School (-2001) andSwansea Clinical School (2001-2004).

Vision and value remains at the heart ofPPHI’s remit: to produce and disseminatehigh quality and internationally relevantresearch that will be deemed to be “worthdoing” to both policy makers who planand deliver health services and to patientswho use those services.

Year on year, PPHI’s growing reputation asa global leader in research using electronicdata is being recognised in the form ofprestigious awards and the capture ofmillions of pounds in grant funding.Instrumental in this recognition is theinnovation and entrepreneurship ofProfessor David Ford and Professor RonanLyons and their “solid research rooted inpublic health”.

The essential component underpinning theground-breaking research at PPHI is itsSecure Anonymised Information Linkage(SAIL) system that securely brings togetherthe widest possible array of routinelycollected patient data for research,development and evaluation, using crypticcodes for anonymity. From its inception in2006, SAIL is now engaged in a range ofhigh-profile externally funded researchstudies, leading or collaborating with

research groups within Wales, the widerUK and across the world.

The growing success of the Centres withinPPHI is “phenomenal”. It is home to: theCentre of Health Information Research andEvALuation (CHIRAL); the Centre for theImprovement of Population Health througheRecords Research (CIPHER) one of anetwork of only four world-class HealtheResearch Centres of Excellence funded bythe Medical Research Council (MRC); an £8 million Centre of Administrative DataResearch and Evaluation; and one of thefour major centres thattogether form the MRC’s£20 million funded UKhealth informaticsresearch group, the Farr Institute.

This latest award notonly cements theCollege of Medicine’sreputation for world-class research but will enable PPHI tocapitalise on its expertise in safely sharing,combining and analysing diverse data setsacross new boundaries, ‘leadingdiscoveries’ and validating researchfindings at a speed and scale notpreviously possible. It will also be acatalyst for investment to the UK throughcollaborations with IT and pharmaceuticalcompanies and build on its already strongcollaborations among UK and InternationalResearchers.

Speed and scale is not only pertinent to theresearch possibilities, but to the growth ofthe infrastructure in which that researchoperates: the people and the place. In2014 PPHI supports 200+ jobs in

comparison with just 20 in 2004. TheInformatics Team has grown steadily to over 100 since the inception of ‘big data’projects such as SAIL and CIPHER and is“well set” to continue at the forefront ofresearch as the structures that make forsuccess are in place: informatics; clinicaltrials unit; and research themes. And thenthere’s ILS itself, a physical testament ofpossibility, growing hand in hand withresearch: ILS1 (2007); ILS2 (2011); the new Data Science building due forcompletion in 2015; and the vision for ILS3 in 2020.

Going forward, the need for change is notseen: PPHI is on a solid footing and makinga considerable contribution to the College of Medicine. It is on the right trajectory toattract and build capacity at all levels totake Swansea to the world and attract yetmore money and more people of the highestcalibre to Swansea. Professor Helen Snooksstates it simply: “Do what we do; and domore of it!”

“It’s all about impact… about researchresults that are not just locally applicable,but internationally applicable.”Professor Helen SnooksTheme Lead PPHI, College of Medicine, Swansea University


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Dr Ann John,Associate ProfessorCollege of Medicine, Swansea University

Ann is a clinician, researcher andeducator. Her researches into thecauses, effects and prevention ofcommon mental disorders, suicideand self harm fall within thePatient and Population Health andInformatics Theme at the Collegeof Medicine.

As Chair of the Public HealthWales National Advisory Groupto Welsh Government on Suicideand Self Harm Prevention, Ann ledthe group that developed a Wales

and Welsh version of ‘Help is at Hand’, a valued resource forpeople bereaved by suicide orother sudden traumatic death.

Ann is an honorary consultant inpublic health medicine for PublicHealth Wales. She shares herextensive experience with studentson the Graduate Entry Medicineprogramme as co-lead of theMedicine, Health and Societystrand.

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24 Research

Exploring and exploiting

Today, Microbiology is regarded as a discipline thatwarrants major investment. Throughout the lastdecade, the College of Medicine has recognised this,attracting some of the most prestigious players inthe field and securing significant funding to positionit as a world-wide centre of excellence.

Microbes and Immunity is one ofthe four broad Research themeswithin the College of Medicine.It was strategically identified in

2012 as a ‘bright spot’ that would bring its remit into sharp focus, building on itsacknowledged strength and depth inexploring mechanisms of infection, hostimmunity and antimicrobial resistance, andexploiting microbes for the treatment andprevention of disease across the world.

Although the Research currently undertakenunder the Microbes and Immunity theme is science of the moment, its roots stretchback over forty years to the Department ofBiological Sciences at Swansea Universityat the end of the 1960s, and later to theDepartment of Genetics in the late 1970sand early 1980s.

Some of its most eminent researchers cantrace their roots back to these early days:Professor Steven Kelly studied for both hisBSc and PhD in yeast genetics in the ‘newlyfounded’ Genetics Department at Swanseain 1983. He has come full circle, returningto Swansea in 2004 to act as Chair ofResearch during the period of earlyestablishment of the School of Medicine,courted by Professor Julian Hopkin’smedical vision and Andrew Davies’political vision. So too, Professor inMicrobial Genetics and Molecular Biology,Diane Kelly, who has for more than 20years been working within the cytochromeP450 (CYP) field in relation to biodiversityand biomechnology. Now working withinthe state-of-the-art laboratory facilities ofILS, her work started in the neighbouringMargam Building back in 1982.

Together, the professional partnership of

the Professors Kelly is at the heart of aninnovative Welsh Government EU-fundedresearch partnership – BEACON,Biorefining Centre of Excellence. TheBEACON Project is a collaborationbetween the Universities of Swansea,Bangor and Aberystwyth dedicated todeveloping industrial products from plantsand to reduce reliance of fossil-basedresources. On 4th April 2014 their‘ground-breaking research and innovation’scooped the prestigious EuropeanCommission’s top award for innovativeregional development at the RegioStarsAwards.

Another coup for theCollege was that ofProfessor MartinSheldon, now ThemeLead for Microbes andImmunity who, in 2006was awarded a threeyear Biotechnology andBiological Sciences Research Council(BBSRC) Research Development Fellowshipto ‘invest in world-class bioscience researchand training on behalf of the UK Public’and to develop a full-time research career.In 2008 he moved from London to a newChair at the Institute of Life Science. Hiswork and that of his team concentrates on host-pathogen interactions and howmicrobes are sensed by the innate immunesystem, work that has seen him take thecalibre of Swansea’s research to the worldthrough a host of keynote presentations inUSA, Canada, New Zealand and Japan.In July 2013, Professor Sheldon wasawarded Fellowship of the Royal Collegeof Veterinary Surgeons (FRCVS) formeritorious contributions to understandingthe mechanisms of infection and immunity

in the female genital tract. He is the firstSwansea University academic to receivethis award and is testament to theoutstanding and significant research that is being undertaken at the College ofMedicine.

Microbes and Immunity is on an upwardtrajectory and is positioned to capitalise on under-research and under-funding byattracting ‘rising stars’ in the sphere andcontinuing to attract revenue streams fromthe EU and Research capitalisation from the USA to build a platform to lever UK

investment. This is amply demonstrated bythe research council funding success of DrsSam Sheppard and Cathy Thornton and bythe recruitment of Professor Tom Humphrey.Microbes and Immunity is going forwardinto the next decade in an environment‘open to scientific opportunity’ and with an ‘outward facing’ spirit that will impactpositively on health, wealth and wellbeingacross the world.

“We can achieve things here – it’s part of thedeal. We can be up there in the top 5 UKacademic environments.”Professor Steven Kelly,Chair of Microbial Genetics and Molecular Biology,College of Medicine, Swansea University


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Dr Samuel Sheppard,Associate ProfessorCollege of Medicine, Swansea University

Sam’s world-class reputation inbacterial genomics and evolutionhas won awards on an individualand financial scale. A WellcomeTrust Research CareerDevelopment Fellow, his workwithin the College of Medicine’sMicrobes and Immunity theme hasled to the award of £8.5 millionfrom the Medical ResearchCouncil to analyse the geneticdata of bacteria that cause foodpoisoning, such as MRSA, E-coliand campylobacter, in

collaboration with WarwickUniversity.

Within this MRC Consortium forMedical Microbial Bioinformatics,Sam will lead activity that seeks to further explore the geneticcodes of the millions of strains of bacteria and exploit thisavalanche of data to translate it into real health benefits.

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26 Research

Invention and innovation

The Devices theme is closely linked with the Collegeof Medicine’s Enterprise and Innovation initiative.The theme actively links its expertise in biomedicalresearch to industry with the aim of improvinghuman health and the development of knowledgeeconomies globally.

The Innovation Agenda had beenbrewing in the UK throughout the1980s: the first class research andtechnology that was at work in its

universities was undisputed. What wasdisputed however, was the poor dynamicsof turning the knowledge of invention intocommercially viable products that wouldextract and exploit inherent latent value.

Fast forward to 2007 when Prime MinisterGordon Brown announced the formation ofthe Department of Innovation, Universitiesand Skills. His reasoning: “Countries willincreasingly derive their competitive edgefrom the speed at which they are able toinnovate… and create new products andmarkets.”

But the College of Medicine was alreadyahead of the game. Enterprise andInnovation, which today lies at the heart ofthe commercialisation of medical deviceswithin ILS, was also embedded as onepillar of the unique three pillar model thatresulted in Swansea’s successful bid to beWales’ newest Medical School in 2004.2014, as well as marking the end of thefirst decade of GEM at Swansea, is alsothe 10th anniversary of the formal bid forfunding that would see the concept of ILSrealised just 3 years later in 2007 andwhich is integral to the story of Devices to date.

Professor Marc Clement, now Theme Leadfor Devices, is a key actor in this story. In2003, as Professor of Engineering with aninterest in medical devices, he knew that afacility that enabled ideas to be developedinto novel medical devices and diagnostics,and that supported bio-entrepreneurship totake those devices from laboratory bench

to bedside, would benefit the knowledgeeconomy in Wales and beyond.

The rest as they say is history. The lastdecade has been about building: buildingon the track record of the globallyacclaimed College of Engineering,acknowledging the strength for multi-disciplinary research leading to thecreation of the £22 million Centre forNanohealth (CNH) in 2011; buildingbridges between Research and the world of business and commerce throughspecialised projects where the manychallenges of theMedicalEntrepreneur arerecognised andsupported; buildingthe continuinginfrastructure of ILSthat gives the vitallandscape for ideasand enterprise togrow; and buildingon the speed ofroute to marketwhich is critical to gaining competitive edge.

The story of Devices at the College ofMedicine is one based on proactivity andan embracing of the skills agenda. Itssuccesses are many and include a widerange of spin-outs that owe their existenceto the unique facilitation of ideas to marketoffered at Swansea: Chromogenex(medical lasers) employing 140 people;Calon Cardio (LVADs) currently employing25 but likely to increase with potentialglobal market of millions envisaged by2020; Cellnovo (insulin pumps) employing60 people; and Sony, who diversified into

medical device manufacturing, taking upincubation space at ILS in 2007, nowemploying 320 people in Bridgend andwinners of the Factory of the Year Award(BFA) in 2013. And of course there is the Research itself: landmark papers onCyDen’s consumer light therapy productpublished in the Lancet confirmed itsResearch as world class as did its firstsubmission to the Research AssessmentExercise (RAE) 2008 where 87% of theCollege of Medicine’s Research wasjudged of international quality or above.

Devices is a growing and dynamic contextencompassing medical and consumermarkets. As such, it has come into evensharper focus as one of the four majorthemes identified within the College ofMedicine in 2012. The economic impacts it has achieved in the last decade paint a ‘pretty picture’ and with its aim tocapitalise of the increasing investments in the field of Regenerative Medicine, itlooks set to become even prettier.

“Traditionally in the UK we’ve been great at invention, but not so hot on theinnovation… new products are alwaysimportant and if we’re going to survive the21st century, we’ve got to be innovative.”Professor Marc ClementTheme Lead Devices, College of Medicine, Swansea University


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Dr Ilyas Khan,LecturerCollege of Medicine, Swansea University

Ilyas’s interests are in regenerativemedicine, the science of growingtissues in the laboratory with theaim of safely implanting themwhen the body cannot heal itself.Funded by Arthritis Research UKand Orthopaedic Research UK, his innovative work in the biologyof articular cartilage maturationhas shown the progress ofosteoarthritis can potentially bestopped and even reversed.

Using a specific combination of growth factors, cartilage can become stiffer as well as grow back.

This internationally renownedexpertise in the field of cartilageregeneration and arthritis is nowbeing translated to new directionsin nose and ear reconstruction.

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28 Research

Data to decisions

The College of Medicine is currently recognised asone of the world’s leading centres in the field ofData Science, which undoubtedly is the topic of themoment. But the story of Data Science at Swanseagoes back a long way.

Health Informatics at SwanseaUniversity has a highly respectedhistory. During the 1990s,Professor John Williams led

Clinical Informatics at the School ofPostgraduate Studies and was Director ofthe Royal College of Physician’s HealthInformatics Unit Information Laboratory(iLAB) launched in 2004. iLab was a‘revolutionary service’ that enabledClinicians to improve the services theyprovided by monitoring and analysingdata collected from patients who usedthose services.

Ten years have passed but the principlesinherent in iLAB have been central tosubsequent developments in Data Science:routine collection of health data; securityand control; preservation of patientanonymity and confidentiality. Now DataScience is firmly embedded within theCollege of Medicine as a cornerstone ofboth its Research arm (it cuts across all fourmajor research themes) and as a driver ofa number of its very successful Enterpriseand Innovation activities such as ehi2,HealthCloud and Lifescience Exchange. Its impact on the rate of growth and profileof the College is immense, as is its impacton the health, wealth and wellbeing of thepopulation at large.

Two experts that have been driving itssuccess through the last decade areProfessor David Ford (Chair of HealthInformatics 2012-) and Professor RonanLyons (Chair of Public Health 2005-).Together they attracted the major funding to the College in the form of a NationalInstitute for Social Care and HealthResearch (NISCHR) long-term Centre grantwhich created the Health Information

Research Unit in 2006. This produced theSecure Anonymised Information Linkage(SAIL) databank, the most extensive privacyprotecting system for health records’research in the UK to date.

Today SAIL underpins more than 100funded research projects with a valueexceeding £61 million. This initial successled to: the first Medical Research Council(MRC) funded centre (one of only two inWales) in 2012; the Centre forImprovement inPopulation Healththrough E-recordsResearch (CIPHER) ledby Professor Lyons in2012; and the firstEconomic and SocialResearch Council(ESRC) £8 millionfunded centre, the AdministrativeData Research Centre Wales, led byProfessor Ford in 2013.

In the last year, further capital investmentby: the UK Department of Business,Innovation and Skills through the MRC, as part of the creation of the prestigiousFarr Institute of Health InformaticsResearch; the ERC; the Department ofEconomy, Science and Transport; andWelsh Government, has led to the creationof the 2,900 square metre Data Sciencebuilding (completion due 2015) to housethis rapidly growing enterprise.

Forging strong partnerships is integral tosuccess of Data Science research andenterprise: Ronan, as a Public HealthPhysician and David, as a Computer andInformatics Scientist are proof that together,

we’re better. And then there are robustcollaborations with the NHS and multiplepublic sector organisations and charities,designed to support the modern approachto academic research utilising data alreadycollected for the provision of care andservices. These relationships provide usefulintelligence to inform the planning andimprovement of services and a platform inwhich the technology sector can innovatein collaboration with academic and NHSpartners.

At the moment, Data Science is the hottopic as is the College of Medicine and atthe forefront of world research. But thereare competitors hot on its heels, makingmajor investments in this field. Swanseaneeds to maintain its competitive edge; and by increasing the efficiency of itscollaborations between academia, theNHS and technology industries, integratingthe work of health and bio-informaticiansand partnering with major internationalinitiatives, it can.

“We’d like to be remembered through ourresearch and innovation that makes apositive impact on people’s lives.”Professor David Ford, Chair of Health Informatics Professor Ronan Lyons, Chair of Public Health College of Medicine, Swansea University


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Professor Ronan Lyons,Chair of Public Health andProfessor David Ford,Chair of HealthInformaticsCollege of Medicine, Swansea University

Ronan and David are the drivingforce behind the College ofMedicine’s success in DataScience, the cross-cuttingtechnology that binds the fourResearch Themes. Between them,they lead and direct the College’sPublic Health and HealthInformatics research andinnovation, including a vastcollection of projects, initiativesand centres such as CIPHER,ADRC Wales, Farr Institute,DECIPHer UK, HIRU, ehi2.

Ronan has also been involved in numerous large scaleobservational, interventional andpolicy relevant research studiesusing linked health while David has brought in research grants and consultancy contracts valuingover £35 million in recent years.

Together, these two pioneers are ideally placed to harnessacademia, industry and the NHS to drive the College’s Data Scienceagenda.

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Enterprise and innovationToday, a framed napkin hangs proudly on a wall within the Institute of LifeScience. Along with the wine stains is a sketch, hand drawn in ink whichsignifies the moment on 3rd November 2003 when a concept long in gestation suddenly became real.

What took form on that napkin was a sketch of a model that showed how a facility might be created to stimulate growth for the embryonic College of Medicine in Swansea and differentiate it from other medical schools in the UK.

At the heart of that model was the ethos of Enterprise and Innovation and the vision for ILS.

2014 marks a decade since that model became a formal bid for funding, the results of which are nothing short of spectacular.


15,000m2Space to grow – three purpose-builtresearch, innovation and incubationfacilities

£100m +Investing in innovation – £100 million +attracted in the last decade

39Economic impact – 39 new companies created


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In 2003 momentum was gathering towardsthe then Swansea Clinical School openingits doors for the first time to Graduate EntryMedicine in 2004. The key actors who hadbeen driving that momentum since the go-ahead had been given in 2001 had beeninvited to speculate, and were aiming toraise capital funds to build on the positivetrack record that the Clinical School hadachieved in just two short years.

Then The political context in Wales at that timewas very supportive. It was the era of theWelsh Development Agency (WDA) andthe key actors involved in the vision for theCollege of Medicine: Mike King (RegionalDirector of the WDA); Peter Townsend (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Swansea University);Founding Head of Swansea ClinicalSchool, Professor Julian Hopkin; andProfessor Marc Clement (then Professor of Engineering) were on a funding missionin New York.

As all funding for future growth would bedrawn from outside, it was critical thatpeople bought into the concept of whatwould be created at the College ofMedicine. And that concept became theunique model that was set in ink on anapkin in a diner in New York thatNovember day.

Daring to be differentOf course the rasion d’être of the Collegeof Medicine was to educate tomorrow’sdoctors and life scientists: without that itwould not be. But, the model created forSwansea dared to be different, and set it apart. The learning and teaching ofdoctors and life scientists would not occurin isolation, but would operate within an

inter-disciplinarycontext of researchand enterprise andinnovation that wasoutward facing andengaged the widercommunity: withinWales; the rest ofthe UK; and acrossthe world.

The rationaleThis unique model would have hugepotential for not only the growth of theCollege but for delivering sustainablebenefits to the knowledge economy inWales by linking scientific and medicaladvancement to both wealth creation andhuman health through improved preventionand treatment of disease.

Delivering the knowledge economyIn 2007 the concept of Enterprise andInnovation took on physical form as the£52 million Institute of Life Science (ILS) 1building, the largest single investment bythe Welsh Government on any UniversityCampus. It was delivered on time andbudget and was the beginning of a newepoch when innovators, inventors andbusiness entrepreneurs came together inpurpose-built facilities enabling ideas to betaken from the lab to the patient. Growingbusiness had become the business of theCollege of Medicine and ILS1 created 207high tech jobs, safeguarded 233 jobs andcreated 22 new companies.

The first phase of ILS was seen as a blueprint for further development which resultedin ILS2 coming on stream less than 4 yearslater in 2011, creating 300 high tech jobsand 17 new enterprises through its

business engagement with clients in avariety of organisations: Pharmaceuticals;Medical devices; Wound management;Nanotechnology; Telehealth; Informatics;and Medical Processes.

ILS is the fruition of a successful andongoing partnership between the Collegeof Medicine, Welsh Government, the NHSthrough ABMU Health Board, IBM andmany other business partners. TheEnterprise and Innovation at the core of the College of Medicine has succeeded inattracting all its own funding from the EU,originally through Objective 1 funding andsubsequently Convergence Funding, match funded by Industry.

Today and tomorrow In 2014 Enterprise and Innovation beats atthe heart of the agenda at the College ofMedicine. It is the life-blood of the College,flowing into all aspects of its world-classresearch and learning and teaching andmaking a powerful economic impactthroughout Wales. In 2015, the 3rd majorfacility – the multimillion pound DataScience building will open for business.

The following features exemplify how the spirit of Enterprise and Innovation is delivering the knowledge economy today and for tomorrow.

“I am proud to be playing a part in theCollege of Medicine – its establishment is thebiggest single event in the story of SwanseaUniversity over the last few decades.”Professor Marc Clement Executive Chairmam, ILSCollege of Medicine, Swansea University


32 Enterprise and innovation

Shaping the future

The Institute of Life Science is the embodiment ofthe research and enterprise and innovation pillars ofCollege of Medicine. Its rapidly expanding physicalpresence in the landscape is a translation of how it is shaping the future for the benefit of the health andwealth of the people of Wales.

In 2008, the Rt. Hon. Rhodri Morgan,then First Minister for Wales, heralded ILS as ‘The Jewel in the Crown of Wales’:the first phase towards a vision where

medical science could be advancedthrough multi- and interdisciplinary researchfor the benefit of human health and wherethose benefits could be linked to theeconomy by encouraging interaction with other organisations in a spirit of open innovation.

The design and construction of the firstmulti-million state-of-the-art buildingreflected the spirit of openness andambition of the fast-growing College of Medicine: six storeys of high-techlaboratories and support space thatbecame home to over 200 professionalspecialists in medical research, businessincubation and technology transfer. Itenabled the permanent housing of the Blue C Supercomputer, dedicated to lifescience research, through an effectivecollaboration with computer giant IBM; it attracted even more Researchers ofinternational calibre to Swansea andoffered a new space to those who hadbeen excited by Professor Julian Hopkin to be part of the College’s mission.

ILS delivered from the start and encouragedthe development of a life science andhealthcare cluster in the southwest Walesregion. In 2007 it provided the perfectenvironment for the Boots Centre forInnovation and, from this first anchortenant, continued to attract a growingnumber of client organisations. In 2007,the building also won the LargeCommercial Schemes category in theSwansea ‘Built in Quality’ Awards. Thisaward for the sustainability and quality of

the fabric of the building also symbolisedthe work that was going on inside.

The immediate success of ILS1 meant that it outgrew its physical space and neededroom to flex its muscles. Hot on its heelscame the second phase of developmentwith the opening of ILS2 by First Minister for Wales, Carwyn Jones, in 2011. Hissignature is to be found on the wall thereand it marked another significant milestonein the short history of the College ofMedicine and theopening of a newchapter in its story.

ILS2 is a £28 millionaward-winningexpansion that, aswell as providing arange of fully-operational businessincubation units,houses ILS’s othergreatest assets: thenew Joint ClinicalResearch Facilitypartnering with the NHS; a SiemensHealthcare Imaging Suite; an up-to-the-minute base for Patient and PopulationHealth and Informatics research; and the£22 million Centre for NanoHealth, thefirst facility of its kind in Europe for thedevelopment of cutting-edge nano-technologies.

ILS reflects collaboration on campusbetween the Colleges of Medicine,Engineering and Science and in the widercontext between: Swansea University;Welsh Government; Abertawe BroMorgannwg University (ABMU) HealthBoard (it is sited on land transferred to

the College of Medicine that physicallyconnects the University and SingletonHospital); and many other privatebusinesses and organisations.

Much has been realised in the seven years since the pioneering concept of ILS opened for business in 2007: ILSSwansea contributing significantly to, and capitalising on, what is recognised as one of the most fertile sources oftechnology transfer in the world.

But ILS is work in progress and there is stillmuch more to be done as it moves towardsthe opening of the Data Science building in 2015 and achieving its vision for ILS3 in 2020. By continuing to embrace theskills agenda, build on the impacts ofphases 1 and 2, accommodate evengreater commercial facilities, and furtherdefine its innovation model to attract andgrow companies, that future is certain.

“I am immensely proud of what our colleagueshave achieved in the years since the firstphase of ILS was opened. Subsequent phaseswill provide additional capacity to address vitalresearch agendas in medicine and also help toexpand Swansea University’s role in economicregeneration.”Professor Richard B. Davies,Vice-Chancellor, Swansea University


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Dr SabarnaMukhopadhyay, FounderOwner Director and CEOSymlConnect Ltd, based at theInstitute of Life Science

“Our vision is to enable secure,safe and seamless communicationof health record informationbetween existing systems andpeople beyond geographical ororganisational boundaries, bysharing relevant information ondemand from appropriate users to achieve informed, joined-up,collaborative decision making in a cost-effective way.”

Being based at the ILS has madethe life science cluster and NHS in

south west Wales more accessible.In 2014, SymlConnect becameone of just five innovativecompanies to win the BetsiCadwaladr University HealthBoard SBRI project, funded byWelsh Government and theTechnology Strategy Board, todevelop and introduce new andinnovative ideas to help improvepatient care.

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34 Enterprise and innovation

At the heart of the matter

Based in the College of Medicine’s cutting edgeInstitute of Life Science, Calon Cardio-TechnologyLtd is developing the next generation of affordable,implantable micro blood pumps for the treatment ofchronic heart failure.

The success story of Calon Cardio-Technology is one of many suchstories happening at ILS. It is anendorsement of ILS’s marketing

tags proudly etched on its two buildings:Leading Discoveries and Together, we’rebetter. It is an exemplar of the College ofMedicine delivering on the Enterprise andInnovation agenda at its heart throughoutthe last decade.

Rewind to 2005. It was at a DowningStreet reception that Professor MarcClement, then Professor of Engineering atSwansea University and an entrepreneur inthe field of Medical Devices came togetherfor the first time with Professor StephenWestaby, Cardiac Surgeon. They weretasked with this demand by Sir NigelCrisp: “We need better and affordablepumps.”

The ‘we’ refers to the UK and the ‘pumps’refer to what are commonly known asventricular assist devices (VADs) used toeffectively manage chronic heart failure, a disease that affects around 20 millionglobally. In 2005 there were fullyimplanted assistive pumps available; but they were mostly from the USA andthough proven to be clinically effective,these early generation pumps wereextremely expensive, very large, andrequired highly invasive and lengthysurgery.

This area of research and development had both great need (only 1% of those withchronic heart failure had their needs met –usually with heart transplant); and greateconomic potential (99% didn’t have theirneeds met!). This initial meeting betweenProfessors Westaby and Clement was the

catalyst for Calon Cardio; for it was therethat they had the vision to develop aninnovative UK heart pump through aninnovative technology that would addressthe problems inherent in the US models.

Professor Clement was a man on a missioncentral to the ILS concept at the College ofMedicine. By initiating this project inSwansea, asustainable venturewould be createdthat could advancemedical sciencethrough researchand innovation forthe benefit of theknowledge economyand wealth creationin Wales, and would positively impacthuman health worldwide.

Key people were sought and broughttogether to make it happen. Along withProfessor Marc Clement, co-founder andnow Chairman of Calon Cardio andProfessor Stephen Westaby, co-founder, athird element in the original company wasDr Graham Foster, now Chief TechnologyOfficer at Calon Cardio but then workingin the automotive industry after leavingSwansea’s globally-acknowledged Collegeof Engineering. He had what it took toconceive, design and, importantly, take tomarket the innovative device that CalonCardio would become renowned for.

But the other major player in this story isundoubtedly ILS itself. Under one roof, itfacilitated all the necessary medical deviceentrepreneurship dynamics and ‘knowhow’ that went far beyond scientificresearch and technology: finance;

intellectual property and pipeline; themarket; operations; and clinical safety,efficacy and claims.

ILS offered a unique combination of officeand wet lab facilities and conferencerooms: a start-up company like CalonCardio would have found it prohibitivelyexpensive to purpose-build similar facilities.

ILS operated in an open culture thatallowed for the productive exchange ofideas and gave people the “freedom to get on with it with no road blocks”.

The rest as they say is history. By 2007Calon Cardio was founded, seed-funded,had patents filed and had achieved PoP. By 2011 Dr Foster had met the goals set for the design of the Calon MiniVADand achieved excellent laboratory dataresulting in being voted UK Trade andInvestment ‘best breakthrough technology’and receiving Medi Wales ‘Judges’ Award’for innovation.

Calon Cardio is history in the making andILS continues to provide the perfect homefor it to thrive and develop. Calon Cardiocurrently employs twenty five highly skilledpeople and with completion of the clinicalprogramme due in 2015, and a globalmarket beckoning, ILS3 in 2020 willperhaps provide yet more room to grow.

“Next year we’re initiating clinical trials.We have the potential to see global sales of £100 million + by 2020.”Dr Graham FosterChief Technology Officer,Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd.


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Dr Graham Foster,Chief Technology OfficerCalon Cardio-Technology Ltd,based at the Institute of LifeScience

“The location and the quality of the ILS facility are first class,providing access to theengineering, design, analytical,electronic and medical skills werequire to be successful andadditionally provide sufficientspace for Calon to expand as and when we require it.”

Calon Cardio-Technology hasgone from strength to strength atthe ILS from securing £1 millionfrom the Technology Strategy

Board (TSB) in early 2010 togaining backing by the venturecapital organisations LongbowCapital and Finance Wales in2012 and winning a further£1.66 million TSB BiomedicalCatalyst Award in 2013.

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Making an impact

Dean and Head of College, Professor Keith Lloyd,looks at how Swansea’s medical school is deliveringon its vision statement to make a difference to health and wellbeing and to produce tomorrow’s doctorsand life scientists.

In 2012 Welsh Government published its“Science for Wales” strategy the overallgoal of which is “to build a strong anddynamic science base that supports the

economic and national development ofWales”. The strategy then goes on to spellout how Wales needs to increase its shareof the most prestigious research incomefrom research councils from 3.3% in2009/10 to 5%. Well, the College ofMedicine has been growing its researchincome year on year. Best of all, last year(2012/13) it secured £14.5 million ofgrant income – second only to the Collegeof Engineering in terms of grant captureacross Swansea University. Moreimportantly, 62% of that income came from research councils.

The College is on track to do somethingsimilar again this year. Now the challengeis to maintain it. That achievement is theresponse to a story told recently by aprofessor who worked in Swansea but leftfor another university in the early 2000safter he was told by the then head of aresearch council that if he wanted to keephis grants he would have to leave Swanseaas there was no chance of him hanging onto those grants if he stayed.

Times change. Indeed over the last fiveyears the College has become host toseveral research council centres conductingcutting edge research spanning basiclaboratory science to population healthand informatics.

Learning and teaching success is helpingdeliver tomorrow’s doctors and lifescientists. Graduate employability forgeneticists and biochemists is among thebest in the country. Trainee doctors have

the opportunity to learn to be researchers and soon will be able to learn to beentrepreneurs as well. The numbers ofdoctoral students is increasing year on year as are the master’s programmes.

In terms of business and innovation thecollege has delivered ILS1 and ILS2. These projects have created many jobs,companies and spin-outs and deliveredpremiumaccommodation for scientists andbusiness partners on time and withinbudget. The Data Science building is under construction and next, more ILS.

But really what the vision is all about ismaking a difference to human health andwellbeing. Here are some examples of how the College is doing that.

Reducing the burden of emergencyhospital attendancesCalls to emergency health services haveincreased substantially and the traditional‘lights and siren’ ambulance response andtransport to hospital is no longersustainable. Professor Helen Snooks andcolleagues have undertaken a majorresearch programme to identify andevaluate alternatives to ambulancedispatch and onward transport.Collaborations with the NHS to reduce theburden of emergency hospital attendancesfor patients, carers and health providers byimproving out-of-hospital care has resultedin Professor Snooks winning the 2014AgeUK Award for Outstanding Impact inPublic Policy and Services at a recentUniversity awards ceremony.

Over several years, Professor Snooks’ team has worked to identify safe and cost-effective alternatives to ambulance dispatchand onward transport to hospital. Theapproach is founded upon collaborationand engagement – with policy makers, the NHS and patients as full partners –helping to prioritise and shape all aspectsof the research. The team formed the UK

wide 999 Emergency Services Research(EMS) Forum and TRUST research groups –both of which build capacity across traumaand unscheduled care research, help setresearch priorities and promote evidencebased care. The impact on emergency careis profound. In England, for example,emergency calls not leading to hospitaltransport rose from 480,000 in 2001(10%) to 4.1 million in 2013 (45%) withsavings from avoided ambulance journeysof £60 million (source: Health and SocialCare Information Centre).

Identifying drugs that harm our DNAProfessor Gareth Jenkins was a runner upat the same awards ceremony in the GEHealthcare Award for Outstanding Impactin Health and Wellbeing for his group’swork on how the concept of “DNAdamage thresholds benefits patients andthe pharmaceutical industry”. Their workshowed that before we know if drugs aresafe we need to know if they have thepotential to damage our DNA. Thisgenotoxicity is important for cancerdevelopment. The group’s big step forward

“In 2012-2013 the College earned £14.5 millionof grant income. The truly amazing thing is that62% of it came from research councils.”


37

was to be first to show that drugs andchemicals have genotxicity thresholds. The real world test came in 2007/8 when an HIV drug was accidentallycontaminated with a genotoxin. The groupwas able to offer reassurance to the25,000 HIV infected people treated with that drug, that they were not at risk.The group’s work led to changes in internationalregulations relatingto low-levelgenotoxincontamination.

Understandingchildhood epilepsyOver time ProfessorMark Rees’s group has methodically hunteddown four of the five genes that predisposechildren to a life threatening childhoodcondition called hyperekplexia, anddeveloped the fifth. In creating the leadingglobal centre providing genetic diagnosisand clinical support for hyperekplexia, he has made a difference to the lives ofchildren with hthe condition and theirfamilies by providing a valued public-sectorservice to an international network ofneurological centres.

Developing anti-fungal agents toimprove food and human healthProfessor Steven Kelly has developedbiological materials and software tools that provide a comprehensive screeningplatform to identify selective anti-fungalagents active against human or plantpathogens. These biological techniques arenow being tailored to the needs of threeinternational companies to use in theirresearch to discover antifungal agents.

Better patient recordsFinally Professor John Williams showedwide variations in quality of hospitalrecords and led the development ofevidence-based standards for those recordsthat received wide endorsement fromprofessional and statutory bodies. Hisgroup’s research has helped changeinstitutional and organisational norms

through evidence-based lobbying. Thiswork has also helped pave the way for the College’s current success in healthinformatics now being matched bybioinformatics.

In conclusionWhat is special and unique aboutSwansea’s College of Medicine, is how far it has come in a few short years.

Specifically: • the learning and teaching on offer• the ILS and its approach to business, jobcreation and the knowledge economy

• eHealth, informatics and bioinformatics• emergent strengths in regenerativemedicine and geno-toxicology

And above all it is the all the people whowork here and have worked here thatmake it something truly unique and worthcelebrating!

£14.5mIn 2012/13 £14.5 million of grant incomewas secured

62%62% of total grant income in 2012/13came from research councils

“Learning and teaching success is helpingdeliver tomorrow’s doctors and life scientists.Graduate employability for geneticists andbiochemists is among the best in the country.”


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Towards 2020

Professor Keith Lloyd, current Dean and Head of theCollege of Medicine, is sitting in the conference areaof his office in the Institute of Life Science (ILS2) ashe reflects on how far the College has come in thelast ten years and discusses where it sees itselfpositioned 10 years down the line.

Could you tell the story of your personalinvolvement with the College? How didyou come to be heading up thisrelatively new but fast growinginstitution?I think what’s important to say from theoutset is that I just happen to be here at thispoint (2014) looking after the shirt if youlike, taking stewardship of the position tomaintain ambition and focus for as long asI’m in role. As for how I came to be here, it was in 2012 when the opportunity cameup and was too big to miss. I succeededProfessor Gareth Morgan as Head ofCollege in October 2012. I already had ahistory with the College as one of severalProfessors appointed in 2004 thanks toJulian. The vision was there from thebeginning and it was too good anopportunity to miss so much so that I left the Welsh Government where I’d beenheading up NHS and Social CareResearch in Wales to become once againpart of the story here at Swansea.

From an outside perspective that seemslike a big career shift, why were youcertain it was the right move for you?People. The right people. Julian’s ambition

and philosophy. He took people with him:“If we can believe in it, we can achieve it –but only if we work together,” he used tosay. This is what I was attracted to – aswere countless others – and it is this ethosthat has driven the College to achieve thesuccess it is enjoying today and will drivethe agenda for the next ten years.

Did you have a free reign as regards remit?I was attracted by the clear mandate I wasoffered to develop a clear strategic visionfor Swansea’s medical school. Researchexcellence had been central to the modelof establishing the College of Medicinesince the beginning. This was clever. Julianand Gareth realised that to put Swanseaon the medical map, we had to attract thebest researchers and build from there. Wehad been told by the Medical ResearchCouncil and others that to grow further weneeded to focus on what we do best.Hence the four major research themes thatare spearheading success and growingprofile, already positioning Swansea andits Life Scientists as leaders of significantresearch that will advance medicine on aglobal scale.

Could you be a little more specificabout successes to date?Well, where to start? The success inResearch couldn’t have happened withoutthe infrastructure – the buildings, thefacilities, the people – a unique and potentmix. We’ve gone from zero to the 2ndhighest earning college in SwanseaUniversity in just 10 years. In the samevein, we’re the only College on theSingleton campus to create new buildingsnamely ILS1 in 2007; ILS2 in 2011; andthe new Data Science building, which will

be completed in 2015. And we are alreadythinking about the buildings after that.

The first research council centre in theCollege of Medicine was the EPSRC UKNational Mass Spectroscopy Facility. Then came a series of big data and health informatics successes. Next up arebioinformatics, regenerative medicine andnano-toxicology The momentum is building.

And your proudest moments so far?From a College perspective the GeneralMedicine Council (GMC) recognition thisyear of Swansea as a university that canaward primary medical qualifications has tostand out. As does winning the Farr Institute.There’s a whole bunch of other stuff, butpride is nothing compared to building forthe future – a bit like planting trees that youwill leave to mature for others to enjoy.

So exactly how will you keep momentumgoing?It will not just be me. I am privileged tohave with me a very ambitious and strongteam with the commitment and vision tokeep the momentum going. In ten years the College of Medicine has gone from,‘Who?’ ‘Where?’ to ‘Yes, Swansea – theydo this, they do that’. We have shakenpeople’s perceptions and achievedrecognition: visitors are surprised at whatthey find here – the science, the setting and,above all, the people.

What is so special about Swansea’sCollege of Medicine that will bode wellfor the future?It’s the strength of the science, the learningand teaching, and the interfaces withindustry and the NHS.


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Are you confident about that future?Absolutely. We have to believe in ourselvesnow that other people are beginning torecognise and believe in us too. We arebuilding a virtuous circle – attractingbigger grants, more students, morecompanies – and providing a platform togo further. We’ve only been here ten yearsyet we know that our ambition to be in thetop quartile of Medical Schools in the UKwithin the next decade is already withinreach.

We are strategically well positioned at the College to attract talent to Swansea;people want to come. We have a uniquerelationship between the NHS, Businessand Academia, bringing together theclinical, research and innovation functionsof the College. This is critical in continuingto attract and retain the best staff inSwansea and keep our home-grown talent.

And then we have the city itself which isbusy reinventing itself, slowly transformingthe drab, post-war centre into somethingworthy of its natural assets. There havebeen challenges attracting people in thepast but perceptions are changing andwe’re on the map.

Who will be the key characters in theongoing story?To answer this I’ll go back to the beginningand our vision: to educate and traintomorrow’s doctors and innovative lifescientists in an environment offering aninterdisciplinary approach to translationalmedicine. So it will be all the people whohave made the journey so far possible, andall those who will be here in the future.

“We’ve only been here ten years yet we know thatour ambition to be in the top quartile of MedicalSchools in the UK within the next decade is alreadywithin reach.”Professor Keith LloydDean and Head of College of Medicine, Swansea University


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Get in touch

The College of Medicine offers a range ofopportunities to get involved from studying andworking with us to collaborative research and settingup as a client organisation in the Business Centre.

Contact usTo find out more visit

www.medicine.swansea.ac.uk

or get in touch

[email protected]

01792 602145

twitter.com/SwanseaMedicine

facebook.com/SwanseaMedicine

Support our growthSt David’s Medical Foundation (SDMF) isan independent charity raising funds tosupport the ground-breaking work inmedical research and education at theCollege of Medicine. It supports theadvance of the health of people in Wales and across the world.

The Foundation is grateful for all donationslarge or small from substantial donations tounderpin major research projects to regulargiving or donations in memory of a lovedone. They all make a difference to people’slives and health.

Find out more atwww.stdavidsmedicalfoundation.com

St David’s Medical Foundation is aregistered charity, number 1122688.

With thanks The College of Medicine would like toextend sincere thanks to all those involvedin creating this commemorative publication.

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