Campden BRI (United Kingdom)

On 4 June 2025, the MHRA published ‘Regulatory considerations for therapeutic use of bacteriophages in the UK’. This was in response to recommendations made by the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee Inquiry into the ‘The Antimicrobial Potential of Bacteriophages’. The MHRA Regulatory Considerations for phage therapeutic products (PTPs) outlines the relevant regulatory route and requirements to use PTPs as licensed or unlicensed medicines. While this guidance provides the necessary information, it is recognized that regulatory information can be inaccessible to academic and small- to medium-sized enterprise developers who are often unfamiliar with the language, terminology and location of such information. The MHRA, in consultation with the Innovate UK Phage Innovation Network, has therefore developed this interpretation to help PTP developers understand what the guidance is saying, and what evidence is required for regulatory assessment of a marketing authorization application. Examples have been included throughout to provide context and as an aid to understanding.

The healthcare sector contributes significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with anaesthetic gases being a notable contributor. Implementing sustainable practices in equine anaesthesia, such as low-flow anaesthesia, offers potential benefits. To audit oxygen and isoflurane usage in five equine hospitals, their associated GHG emissions, and the impact of anaesthesia training on mitigating these emissions. Multi-centre clinical audit. This audit covered two periods: study period one (1 June-30 September 2022) and study period two (1 June-30 September 2023). After period one, an anaesthesia training programme introduced low-flow techniques. Data collected retrospectively included patient signalment, anaesthetic protocol, and 5-min recordings of fresh gas flow (FGF) and vapouriser settings. GHG emissions (in carbon dioxide equivalents) and costs (in £) were calculated. Statistical analysis used a linear mixed-effects model with a significance level of p-value <0.05. A total of 414 general anaesthetics were audited. Between study period one and two, isoflurane and oxygen usage decreased by 9.6% and 17.9%, respectively, resulting in a 9.6% reduction in GHG emissions (from 14.6 to 13.2 tCO2e). A linear mixed-effects model identified five significant predictors of GHG emissions per case: study period, oxygen usage, anaesthesia duration, average isoflurane vapouriser setting, and the interaction between oxygen usage and study period. Cases in study period two were associated with lower GHG emissions, producing on average 10.4 kgCO2e less per case (p = 0.01), while each additional litre of oxygen consumed increased emissions by 0.12 kgCO2e (p < 0.001). Missing data from FGF and/or vapouriser settings and the minimal variability between hospitals could be perceived as limitations. This audit demonstrates that practising low-flow anaesthesia can effectively reduce the environmental impact of inhalant anaesthetic agents during equine anaesthesia. Wider adoption could improve sustainability, although further research and broader professional engagement are needed.

Using two new common (Phaseolus) dry bean varieties developed for UK growing conditions, the BeanMeals project explored how to pursue ‘fork to farm’ systemic innovation in the food system to transform institutional catering and home-cooking towards healthier diets with lower environmental impact, while also enhancing local and national enterprise. Action research, underpinned by a new systems thinking framework, centred on six primary schools and ten households in Leicester and Leicestershire (UK), set against a review of city-, county- and national-level school food policies. Three demand scenarios were developed, based on increasing UK average daily consumption from 8.5 g to either 17, 34 or 50 g, together with three enterprise opportunities (‘Community Enterprise’, ‘Artisanal Entrepreneurs’ and ‘Food Giants’), to satisfy these demands in different ways. The benefits and trade-offs of scaling UK beans were analysed, including assessments of overall benefits to health, benefits to the environment (which depend on the methods of land conversion and weed management used), and economic benefits (which depend on the scaling method employed).This article is part of the theme issue ‘Transforming terrestrial food systems for human and planetary health’.

The application of quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) has enabled substantial progress and impact in many areas of therapeutic discovery and development. This new technology is increasingly accepted by industry, academia, and solution providers, and is enjoying greater interest from regulators. In this chapter, we summarize key aspects regarding how effective collaboration among institutions and disciplines can support the growth of QSP and expand its application domain. We exemplify these considerations through a selection of successful cross-institutional or cross-functional collaborations, which resulted in reuse, repurposing, or extension of QSP modeling results or infrastructure, with important and novel results.

Abstract The measurement capabilities of a newly developed in‐situ rheometric device based on a single passive acoustic emission sensor and machine learning algorithms were investigated. Two surfactant structured fluids demonstrating complex non‐Newtonian rheology (Power‐law and Herschel‐Bulkley models) were examined. Furthermore, a static evaluation on the laboratory scale in comparison to dynamic processing on the pilot scale was conducted. The results indicate that the machine learning algorithms of this technology can identify, in &gt; 90 % of scenarios, the correct type of rheology or the manufacturing process step across both scales. This identification is based on solving a classification problem using quadratic support vector machine learning algorithms, which have proven to deliver the most robust predictions across a choice of 24 different algorithms tested. Additionally, a new format of in situ rheology display was introduced, referred to as RRF™ factor.

Foods vary in their elastic properties over a wide range of behaviours. In the case of mastication, textures vary from hard solid through brittle (chocolate bar) and crispy/crunchy (biscuits) to viscous and extensional flow (syrup) and finally very low viscosity fluid (water). Here we deploy an elastic description of soft solids which embraces all these behaviours to quantify the elastic behaviour of food, in particular through the use of sound. We illustrate the use of this mathematical description in the quantitative characterisation of the elastic and flow properties of food through orthodox measurement techniques and novel ultrasound methods. Measurement is complicated by human sensory capabilities that span the entire range from solid to fluid to gas in an integrated manner, during the appreciation of food. We use acoustic and rheological measurement techniques for the determination of the mechanical properties of soft solids, comparing oscillatory rheometry with acoustic parameters as exemplified by acoustic and oscillatory rheometry measurements in crystallising anhydrous milk fat (AMF). We conclude that acoustic and rheological measurements complement each other with acoustic techniques offering the possibility of inline, in process determination of mechanical and flow properties such as viscosity, rigidity, compressibility and bulk modulus.

Transformative Lehre, die Praxisakteure einbindet, bereitet Studierende lebensnah auf ihre Rolle in gesellschaftlichen Veränderungsprozessen vor. Wie die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Studierenden und Praxisakteuren von den Lehrenden erfolgreich gestaltet werden kann, zeigt der vorliegende Leitfaden auf. Er führt in die Grundlagen transformativer Lehre und die Herausforderungen der Einbeziehung von Praxisakteuren ein. Herzstück des Leitfadens bilden 13 steckbriefartig beschriebene Bausteine, die von den Lehrenden nach Bedarf zusammengestellt werden können. Die Schilderung eines idealtypischen Moduls rundet den Leitfaden ab, der auf die Lehrerfahrungen der vier Autorinnen im Rahmen des Reallabors Wissensdialog Nordschwarzwald zurückgeht.