NEWS
Aston Alumni Magazine — 2020
Schoolboy teaches French during Covid-19 A nine-year-old boy and his mother – who is the head of French in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Aston University – have been teaching youngsters French through YouTube. The channel was set up by Aleksandar Veresić-Labeau who attends St Mary's CofE Primary School, Selly Oak, in response to Covid-19 to help his classmates keep up with the language while learning from home. Aleksandar, who is the star of the videos and does most of the narration, covers a wide variety of topics in French, with the aim of using ordinary activities to practice the language and learn new phrases. Under the guidance of his mother, Dr Emmanuelle Labeau, senior lecturer in French language and linguistics at Aston University, Aleksandar has an avid following with some vidoes amassing hundreds of views.
Technical TALENT to be rewarded A new project led by a consortium of eight Midlandsbased universities and industry partners – including Aston University – is to shine a light on the expertise of their technical community by delivering a package of measures to support their career advancement and development. Midlands Innovation’s £4.99million TALENT programme is the largest ever investment into technicians in higher education, whose specialist skills often go unrecognised despite the crucial role they play in the success of universities and the growth of the UK economy. The investment is particularly timely, given the prominent role which technicians have played during the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2020, Aston technician Jiteen Ahmed wrote about a major undertaking at the University to manufacture and distribute hand-sanitiser, as well as gathering useful medications and PPE for the NHS (read more on p. 25).
‘Cell pores’ discovery gives hope to millions with brain and spinal cord injuries Scientists have discovered a new treatment to dramatically reduce swelling after brain and spinal cord injuries, offering hope to 75million victims across the world each year. The breakthrough in treating such injuries – referred to as central nervous system (CNS) edema – is thought to be hugely significant because current options are limited to putting patients in an induced coma or performing risky surgery. The new treatment, developed by scientists at Aston University in collaboration with colleagues from Harvard Medical School, the University of Birmingham, the University of Calgary, Lund University, Copenhagen University and the University of Wolverhampton, features in the latest edition of the scientific journal Cell. The researchers used an already-licensed anti-psychotic medicine – trifluoperazine (TFP) – to alter the behaviour of tiny water channel ‘pores’ in cells known as aquaporins. Testing the treatment on injured rats, they found those animals given a single dose of the drug at the trauma site recovered full movement and sensitivity in as little as two weeks, compared to an untreated group that continued to show motor and sensory impairment beyond six weeks after the injury.
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