5 June 2025

The inaugural round of the KHP Centre for Translational Medicine (CTM) Research Partnership Catalyst Awards have been awarded. 

This scheme offers two-year funding of one day a week of protected research to postdoctoral consultant or senior practitioner health professionals at one of the King’s Health Partners (KHP) Trusts. These awards are designed to provide a part-time route for research experienced health professionals to increase their research activity and enable the formation of strong research partnerships across and beyond KHP.

Patient representatives and clinical academics across all four partners have been involved at every stage of decision-making on funding awards. 
Twenty Applicants were shortlisted and invited to interview (17 doctors, one clinical scientist, one physiotherapist, and one medical physicist). 

The following seven doctors, one physiotherapist and one medical physicist were awarded the first Research Partnership Catalyst Award 

  • James Cook, The Effect of a Standardised Exercise Programme no Pathophysiology And Symptoms in Young People with Sickle Cell Disease: A Pilot Study;
  • Suzanne McIlroy, The feasibility of a rehabilitation programme to improve walking in older people undergoing surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis with neurogenic claudication;
  • Marina Bakaric, Ultrasound-based thermometry for real-time monitoring of focused ultrasound targeted drug delivery for paediatric brain tumour treatment;
  • Peter Cho, Prospective multi-centre observational cohort study of impact of chronic cough in progressive pulmonary fibrosis;
  • Dean Huang, Developing Super-Resolution Ultrasound (SRUS) for Early Detection and Diagnosis of Indeterminate Small Testicular Masses;
  • Linda Ferrari, The use of elastography to evaluate pelvic floor disorders, correlation with symptoms’ severity and prediction of success for different treatment options;
  • Jeremy Johnson, Investigating the relationship between aorto-vascular disease and dementia (AVAD);
  • John Brewin, Alpha globin deletions, cerebral blood flow dynamics and the effects on stroke and neurocognition in children with sickle cell anaemia – novel insights and novel screening tools;
  • Hannah Maple, Reducing Psychological Stress and improving physical recovery in Living Kidney Donors.

Prof Claire Harrison, Deputy Chief Medical Officer - Research, Data and Analytics and Professor of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, said:

"The KHP Centre for Translational Medicine Catalyst Awards are a vital opportunity for individuals across different health professions to advance their research and foster impactful partnerships across disciplines and organisations. It was great to see how much interest this first round generated and the breadth of awards is inspiring. We look forward to seeing the results from these projects and to future rounds of funding and opportunities."

The Centre for Translational Medicine brings together the organisations of King’s Health Partners and generous funding from the Guy's and St Thomas' Charity to work in partnership to improve the health of people locally, nationally, and globally. This is through accelerating research and innovation that improves the detection, prevention, and treatment of disease. 

The Centre for Translational Medicine aims to: 

  • address the major health burdens for local, national and global communities – and to challenge existing health inequalities;  
  • combine our outstanding clinical and scientific expertise to deliver excellent outcomes for patients;   
  • develop the next generation of clinical-academic leaders, skilled in delivering impactful translational biomedical research.   

Across four funding schemes in its first year - KHP Centre for Translational Medicine invested more than £8.5m in translational medicine. 

Find out more about the work of the KHP Centre for Translational Medicine.