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About 15% of the population have health problems due to arthritis and other associated conditions. The most common type of arthritis is osteoarthritis. The main reason why people with osteoarthritis go to see a doctor is pain. Pain is also the main reason why people with osteoarthritis lose their mobility. However the type of treatments available for people with osteoarthritis are very limited. Our research group has carried out studies that have shown that pain from osteoarthritis has an emotional effect on the brain that affects how pain is felt. This emotional effect could make a big difference to how patients respond to treatment or surgery. By reducing the effects of these emotions we could reduce how unpleasant the pain feels. This could also help to keep more people mobile. Our research aims to investigate how emotions such as anxiety and distress which affects how we feel pain, are altered by the natural painkillers made by the brain (opiates). We would like to approach people with osteoarthritis and ask them to take part in our study. Specifically, we would like to test a variety of people with different levels of anxiety and distress. We will make use of techniques that can produce images of the brain to measure the naturally occurring brain opiates, and how they affect how we expect (anticipate) and feel (give attention to) pain. These studies will help us explain how different people experience pain and why they respond differently to treatments. In the long term, they will also help us understand how the brains own painkillers work, and how we can improve on existing treatments for pain from osteoarthritis and also develop new therapies.

There is increasing demand for woundcare materials due to the UK's aging population. Driven by the treatment of chronic wounds in the elderly, UK woundcare resources are predicted to cost ca. £2.4 billion in 2019; of this, wound dressings etc are predicted to cost approx. £460 million in 2019. There is a clear need for improved outcome and cost-savings on woundcare materials, and new processes for manufacturing advanced wound care materials could cut the high cost of associated nursing and hospital resources. This project aims to develop a range of chemical synthesis methods that allow the high-throughput functionalisation of the biomaterials used in cell culture scaffolds and wound dressings. This project is placed at the intersection between advanced functional materials and biotechnology, and will produce an enabling technology that will add value to commercially important polysaccharide materials. The manufacture of these advanced functional materials will use the application of "one-pot" non-toxic yet highly specific chemistry to link bioactive molecules and cells to biomaterials. This methodology will be used to build a library of functionalised polysaccharide materials, with a focus on hydrogels for healing problematic and chronic wounds. After modification by these new high-throughput chemical synthesis methods, the modified biomaterials will be characterised by using a number of spectroscopic techniques, such as Raman, solid state NMR and fluorescence spectroscopies, then screened for their ability to accelerate the healing of chronic wounds. At the end of the project, they will fabricated into manufactured products in conjunction with the industrial partner, ConvaTec UK.

The palate (the roof of the mouth) develops from two distinct parts that fuse together during development of the baby. Currently, we do not completely understand what controls these events, but we do know that the common and distressing birth defect cleft palate results when fusion of the two halves of the palate fails to occur. Patients with cleft palate experience difficulties with eating and speaking, which can be corrected to some degree by long-term surgery, dental treatment, and speech therapy; it is therefore essential that we have more information on how genes work together during normal development and how these are affected in cleft palate. The aim of this project is to study the way in which two genes, designated p63 and IRF6, function together during development of the palate. So far, we have discovered that p63 switches on the function of IRF6 and that this, in turn, causes the levels of p63 to drop just before fusion of the two halves of the palate. In our initial studies, we will determine whether or not cleft palate results when p63 is maintained at an artificially high level in the palate of developing mice. Subsequently, we will obtain a more complete picture of the ways in which the palate develops by discovering the target genes controlled by p63 and IRF6. In the short-term, this research will help us to understand the processes that underlie normal development of the palate and how these are disrupted in cleft palate. In the longer term, this information may help us to provide improved genetic diagnosis and counselling to patients and their families who are affected by this distressing condition.

This proposed research explores the adaptation and reconceptualisation of Shakespeare in contemporary Iranian theatre between 2000 and 2020. Overall, Iranian Shakespearean reworkings pursue three main approaches: (1) the plays that challenge important political issues such as the establishment of dictatorship in modern history of Iran, the Hamlet and Macbeth adaptations in particular; (2) the plays that engage in reflecting on Iran's sociocultural problems such as gender inequality and theatre censorship; and (3) the reworkings that spark philosophical-aesthetic discussions aiming at practicing an experimental stage against perception and meaning in the mainstream theatre. By using cultural materialist dissident reading and adaptation studies, as well as sociopolitical criticism, this proposed research analyzes adaptation politics, the scope of dissidence, and the way Iranian adapters have utilised Shakespeare in productive and engaging ways to reflect on sociocultural, political and philosophical issues in present-day Iran. Contemporary Iranian historical events such as civil uprisings since 2000s are deciding factors in the emergence of social, political and alternative interpretations and adaptations of Shakespeare in playwriting practice and theatre production in Iran. Significantly, this project seeks to introduce and examine Iranian political playwriting and the prominent yet little-known Iranian playwrights to global academic audiences. Although there is a body of scholarship on Shakespeare and the Arab world (e.g. Al-Shetawi, Hennessey and Litvin), there is minimal scholarship on Shakespearean adaptations in Iran, especially since the 2000s. To this end, my proposed project aims to make a significant contribution to Global Shakespeare Studies by investigating and evaluating the reception, influence, and political use of Shakespeare in the context of contemporary Iran. It also advances adaptation theory by extending its theorization and application to the mutual interplay between the Western canon and literatures of so-called Third World countries, including Iran. Working with this theoretical framework, my proposed doctoral thesis will raise and attempt to answer the following research questions: 1. What possibilities has Shakespearean adaptation offered for political intervention in the Iranian context? 2. In what way has the post-Revolutionary context inspired Iranian playwrights to engage in adaptation and appropriation playwriting? 3. What possibilities have rewritings of Shakespeare by Iranian playwrights offered for contemporary spectacle? 4. What are the impacts of theatre censorship on Iranian drama? In what way have Iranian adaptations addressed this issue through adaptations?