LivingBodiesObjects is an experiment in the making and understanding of interactions between bodies, technologies, objects and health, designed to test and extend the boundaries of Medical Humanities research. Working with a range of partners, it will take place in the context of multi-purpose/use laboratory spaces (both physical and virtual) that invite differing conceptions and practices of health experiences, and responses to them. The ambition of the project lies in the imaginative creation of these spaces and not in any pre-emption of the materials they might produce. The laboratories will be specifically designed to figure ideas and creativity, making spaces that provoke, facilitate and respond to the ideas and questions raised by bodies as they encounter different forms of technology. Centring on the ways in which individuals and communities collaborate to produce work within dynamic and generative locations, the laboratories will also link to more traditional laboratory activities such as equipment, testing and use. As a specific research development initiative, the project will further extend interdisciplinary health research practice at the University of Leeds, where its work will inform and further develop a research culture through the foregrounding of innovation in professional research management, career development and equality, diversity and inclusion. LivingBodiesObects is a project that asks how health research is undertaken: what are the assumptions that govern how the work proceeds?; who decides how to start, and where and when?; why are certain ideas privileged and who gains from this? Leadership and Management: we want to address the above by moving away from the usual top-down model through which research is often led and managed. Instead, we want to share the design and participation between academic researcher and our project partners, This will give us a better understanding of how health research happens. It will also be more equal for all involved and help participants in thinking about their own health experiences. Vision: our plan is to explore the above questions by setting up physical and virtual spaces in which academics and non-academics come together to share and investigate ideas and opinions on health, using new technologies in particular.

Mother's diet during pregnancy plays an essential role in early foetal development. There is no satisfactory epidemiological evidence to date investigating the relationship between maternal iron during pregnancy, and cardiovascular outcomes in the adult offspring. This project aims to assess the effect of both maternal iron status, measured by serum transferrin receptor to serum ferritin ratio, and iron intake during pregnancy, from diet and supplements, on offspring outcomes. These include blood pressure and weight in the adult offspring, and infant outcomes including birthweight. There is substantial evidence of increased cardiovascular risk with low birthweight. Therefore, the relationship between maternal iron and cardiovascular risk in the offspring will be tested to assess if it is direct or mediated by birthweight. This will be achieved using both prospective and historical cohort designs. Data from three prospective birth cohorts will be used to examine the effect of mat ernal iron intake and status on infant outcomes. Using historical cohort design, the offspring of women with a C282Y mutation, who have higher iron stores than the general population, will be recruited. Their blood pressure, body mass index and waist circumference will be measured and compared to the offspring of women with a wild type gene.

Nature of the Proposed Programme: The broad thematic programme Host Susceptibility and Disease Pathogenesis will be centred on the University of Birmingham (UoB) Medical School's Institute for Biomedical Research (IBR) and the UoB/University Hospital Birmingham (UHBFT) Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility (WTCRF; http://www.crf.bham.ac.uk/). Students will join the Medical School's existing Graduate School; over 200-strong and comprising both basic scientists and medically qualified entrants. The underlying philosophy of our programme is to provide clinical trainees with access to basic and clinical research of international standard, supported by an infrastructure that encourages easy translation between the two disciplines and minimises the distinction between them. An intake of 5 trainees per year for 5 years is proposed, commencing in 2008, with each PhD taking 3 years to completion. This ambitious programme is made possible by the School's established strategic research partnerships that effectively co-ordinate basic, clinical and community research within UoB, regional partner NHS Trusts and beyond. These partnerships underpin successes in Translational and Experimental Medicine that continue to provide significant benefit to the health and wealth of the nation. Our on-going strategic development takes a holistic view of medical education from undergraduate, to postgraduate, to career progression and lifelong learning and is centred on the need for in depth understanding of basic bioscience across the medical profession; it is wholly consistent to the Wellcome Trust's primary mission to "foster and promote research with the aim of improving human (and animal) health".