Author Archives: Ed Creed

Our future with Europe

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Our future with Europe by Sally Faulkner, Exeter’s Assistant Deputy Vice Chancellor (Europe)

Sally Faulkner, Exeter’s Assistant Deputy Vice Chancellor (Europe)

The past few months have marked an extraordinary start to a new decade and the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a crisis across Europe and the world of a magnitude we have probably not seen since the Second World War. European countries and communities have been amongst the worst affected, with high death tolls and major impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods. We have been reminded once more that the challenges facing humanity do not respect borders and that we must work together as nations to solve problems and create a better world.

This week marks the 75th anniversary of VE Day on 8 May, a time of reflection and remembrance, and the following day is Europe Day, when many will celebrate our hard won peace and unity. We know that in the UK – and indeed for many in the European Union – the Brexit process has at times been tortuous and divisive, but I believe we must now look to the future and make sure we continue to strengthen our European relationships and work harder than ever to find common ground on the challenges we all face.

Universities must be at the forefront of this collaboration and I believe the academic community are well placed to bring our countries and communities together through this time of crisis and renewal. We already collaborate on world-class education and research that enrich and improve all our lives, from culture and the arts, to science and business. We are well connected to our communities and governments and in the months and years ahead we must use our influence, knowledge and experience to help shape a healthier and happier world that we can sustain for future generations.

At the University of Exeter we are proud of our European connections and collaborations. We currently have around 1400 European students enrolled and nearly 800 European staff at Exeter, and over recent years we have consistently ranked in the top-10 in the UK for outbound student mobility, which includes ERASMUS+ students who go to Europe as part of their higher education.

We have also forged numerous fantastic partnerships with universities across Europe – from Lund University in Sweden, to TU Munich in Germany. In December 2019, we became the first UK University to join the Venice International University (VIU) Consortium – an association of 20 of the world’s top universities. In October, we signed a partnership agreement jointly to fund research and education collaborative projects for another 5 years with the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and together we have already funded 8 research and education partnerships with them.

In December 2018, we established the Europe Network Fund to facilitate research and education collaboration across Europe. There have been 3 calls for funding to date, and we have funded 34 collaborative projects across all Colleges. These academic partnerships will be the building blocks for helping us determine our future strategic partnership and engagement in Europe for the next 3 years, and will be reviewed in detail at our Europe Regional Board meeting on May 20th.

We are also delighted by the recent growth in research funding and collaborations with European partners. Exeter is currently 14th in the UK for EU Horizon funding and in 2020 obtained €90,203,573 for 152 projects – 88 with EU partners.

From SSIS, for example, Jason Reifler’s DEBUNKER project is an ERC Consolidator Grant that looks at public misperceptions in the areas of politics, health and science and examines how to combat these and how to design policies and communications to better effect. Jason is planning to refocus some of this work to examine misperceptions of Covid-19. You can find a summary of the project here: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/682758. From Humanities, Muireann Maguire’s RUSTRANS project is an ERC Starting Grant that examines the use of translation as a means of self-promotion and cultural consolidation for emergent nation-states, potentially politicised and conditioned by ideological preferences or state influences, and focuses on Russian translations into English. You can find a summary of the project here http://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/802437.

Another of our strengths at Exeter is addressing the environment and climate emergency – perhaps the biggest challenge of our generation beyond Covid-19 – and it is especially noteworthy that under Horizon Society Challenge 5, the “Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials,” Exeter is the top-performing institution in the UK by value of grant and 7th in the EU as a whole by value and volume of grants.

I mention these facts and figures only because they matter to our core mission at Exeter which is, through our people, partnerships, education and research, to innovate by challenging traditional thinking and defying conventional boundaries.

As Assistant Deputy Vice Chancellor (Europe), I want to help support and promote our European connections and research. I have found joy through my own work in Europe, across both research projects and teaching initiatives, as Professor of Hispanic Studies and Film Studies, and I want to use my knowledge, skills and this new role to ensure we continue to strengthen our bonds across Europe. In research, this means leading or participating in key research collaborations, and, in teaching, continuing our success in student exchanges and building on these as further research and digital possibilities open up. Ideally, our partnerships in Europe will be as multi-layered as possible, combining innovative research collaboration with opening up exciting learning possibilities for our students, as well as working with wider communities with the support of our alumni and philanthropic networks.

One way I want to make progress is to engage more with our community and bring to the fore more of our outstanding work in Europe through our communications, which include this new Exeter and Europe Blog. I also want to hear from colleagues and students about how we can strengthen our European education, research and partnerships.

I look forward to working with you in the months and years ahead.

Email:

Visit our European news section for the latest updates on research and education stories and I have listed a few to get you started:

University of Exeter, University of Sanctuary Award Presentation, 20 November 2019

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Welcome everyone, I’m Janice Kay, of the University of Exeter. It’s wonderful to see so many of you for this award ceremony. It is a moment of celebration, and one that has a very deep and important meaning. On behalf of the senior management team and our whole university community, we are absolutely delighted to have achieved University of Sanctuary status. This award is a clear marker of our commitment, our progress and our success in creating a welcoming and supportive environment for refugees and asylum seekers.

I quote directly from the Universities of Sanctuary organisation: Universities, as key institutions within our society, have a responsibility to support people from all walks of life to reach their potential. The notion of sanctuary fits with the values and strategic plans of most universities; it contributes towards progress in inclusivity, diversity, and sustainability. It means taking a practical, public step towards inclusion, and countering discourses of xenophobia and racism both within and outside university life.

The idea of Universities of Sanctuary has grown from the Cities of Sanctuary scheme. Exeter has had an active and engaged City of Sanctuary group since 2014 with a thriving network of supporters. I am extremely proud that our students and staff instrumental in setting up the City of Sanctuary group. Not only that, they have gone on take action here at the university to enable us to become a University of Sanctuary, a university that welcomes refugees into our community and actively supports them.

This award recognises the efforts of many members of our community. I would particularly like to  recognise the work of last year’s Guild and specifically the former Students’ Guild President Grace Frain and previous Vice-President for Welfare and Diversity Rose Ahier. They championed and drove forward our activities to become a University of Sanctuary. It is wonderful to see Grace here today. Working alongside them has been our Sanctuary Scholars, our academic lead Dr Nick Gill and our Head of Student Immigration Services Jim Price, as well as many others.  Our ongoing thanks go to all of our local partners who work with the university to provide advice, guidance and support to our scholars. I would especially like to thank Refugee Support Devon and our local City of Sanctuary group.

This is a moment for celebration but I want to reflect for a moment on how important it is that we provide a safe and welcoming university community for refugees and asylum seekers. Refugees come to our country to seek safety from fear and persecution, be it for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Latest government figures indicate that there have been over 32,000 applications for asylum in the last 12 months. These numbers include people for whom a higher education in their country of birth may have been an unattainable goal. For some, exploring and fulfilling their potential through academic exploration would never have been an option. Universities in our country can help. Higher education has a longstanding tradition of providing sanctuary to academics and students. We are proud to be able to continue this tradition. The University of Sanctuary status shows we are doing this, and our commitment to going further. Equal Access to Higher Education is of course a universal right under Article 26 of the Declaration of Human Rights.

We have very many initiatives at Exeter to support refugees either directly through education and training or indirectly through our research which contributes to the evidence base and body of knowledge about forced migration and frail and failed states. Our academics and students have set up language exchange programmes, they conduct outreach activities using drama as a medium of engagement and have set up new information resources. Dr Nick Gill will share more about these later.

One of our most fundamental initiatives is the Sanctuary Scholarship programme which started in 2017. The scholarships enable the cost of tuition to be waived and provide support for living costs. We have now supported nine studentships and we are fortunate to have one of our Sanctuary Scholars with us today.

One of our Sanctuary Scholars has taken part in a video project called Lost in the Noise, which has been pioneered by Harry Bishop, a former student and Vice President for Community and Welfare at our Cornwall campus and who is now a member of staff in Cornwall. This project has sought to profile individuals and students whose voices may otherwise indeed have become ‘lost in the noise’. It is vital that we hear these stories and that we start to understand the experiences of others. This is a powerful route to becoming a more diverse, compassionate, progressive and culturally competent community. Thank you to the scholar for sharing their experiences so candidly in this film and to Harry for your project which has enabled this to happen. This film extremely impactful and brings to life the importance of universities as a place of sanctuary.

So once again, thank you for joining us to mark our award as a University of Sanctuary. It is an important milestone for us as an institution and one from which we will continue to build.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

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The year is 2050, the stench of plague fills the air and 10 million people are dying from cuts and grazes due to an enemy that cannot be seen. You would be forgiven for believing that we had entered a dystopian, parallel future, but alas not. This is the current future of mankind if we do not address the ever-growing threat: antibiotic resistance.

Whether we want to face it or not, our antibiotics are failing. Drugs that we have relied upon to so effectively treat bacterial infections are no longer working due to these crafty bugs becoming resistant to them. Over time, bacteria have evolved to survive antibiotics, with this “survival of the fittest” process resulting in populations of menacing “superbugs”. No matter how many different antibiotics we throw at these resistant microbes, some can no longer be killed and so what were once minor infections become fatal.

So how can we fight back!?

One avenue is to discover and develop new antibiotics. However, this has proven to be extremely costly and difficult, so alternative options are being explored. Mankind’s possible saviour: bacteriophages.

Bacteriophages, or simply phages, are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. Just as humans get viruses like flu, bacteria suffer from their own invaders which hijack the bacterial cell and turn it into a virus making factory, before killing them. With their large bulbous head and spindly legs (think War of the Worlds alien invader fighting ships), they are perfectly adapted for attaching to bacteria. Phages are the optimal killing machines. Currently, phages are not widely used to treat infections in the Western world as not enough is known about them. If we want to be able to harness the power of these microscopic bacteria killers, then we need to know more about how they work.

Most research studying bacteria and phages use methods that involve growing billions of cells in a test tube, and looking at how fast the population grows and dies on average. But this is not always the most informative. Imagine you want to know how fast humans run 100m. Someone tells you the average time is 15 seconds. Although all humans, not everyone would take 15 seconds. Clearly if Usain Bolt ran the race he would be much quicker, and the man who decided to hop all the way much slower! This also applies to bacteria. Even though they should all be identical, individual bacteria can behave very differently.

My work lets us identify the Usain Bolts and the Hop-Alongs of the bacteria world, as well as many others in between. I want to know which responses occur when we expose bacteria to phages and how this may affect the killing ability of these viruses.

Erin Attrill, Living Systems Institute

I use technology called ‘microfluidics’ that allows me to isolate and experiment on individual bacteria. With ‘micro’ meaning small, and ‘fluidics’ relating to the movement of liquids, I perform experiments on bacteria with equipment no larger than a postage stamp. Using networks of thousands of tiny channels, I can trap single bacteria in their own tiny chamber under a microscope and watch what happens when I add phages. Over the course of a day, I can continually monitor and photograph the same cells and record whether they are growing, dividing and even the exact point at which they lyse – that is, when they burst open releasing hundreds more phages.

I have observed that although all identical, some bacteria die instantly, but others grow much faster and divide multiple times before finally lysing hours later. Perhaps most importantly, some bacteria in the experiments are not killed by the phages at all. These bacteria survive the exposure and fill their chambers with more bacteria offspring. What makes these cells special and able to survive is unclear, and one aim of my work is to use microfluidics to try and understand why.

It is important to understand these differences to be able to optimise how many phages would be needed to eradicate the bacteria in a human as a potential treatment. If most bacteria are killed with two hours of phage treatment, a person may begin to look healthy, but if the “Usain Bolt” variants survive, then they could cause the infection to return. A longer dose or a higher concentration of phages may be required to eradicate the entire population so we need to fully understand how the different cells behave.

There is no need to be afraid of the word ‘virus’ – the good news is that phages cannot infect human cells. These minuscule invaders are the enemy of bacteria and so we should harness their power to defeat our bacterial foes. As stated, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So let’s welcome in the age of the phage.

Erin Attrill, Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter

This article was the runner up in Max Perutz Science Writing Competition 2019.
Read all the shortlisted articles here https://mrc.ukri.org/documents/pdf/max-p-shortlist-articles-2019/

Digital Transformation: how corporate culture responds to the internet

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Prepaid business card provider, Soldo, spoke with Prof. Mark Thompson as part of a series, speaking to today’s most influential digital disruptors. Prof. Mark Thompson is Professor in Digital Economy at Exeter Business School, and Strategy Director at the Methods Group.  He is a leading contributor to Digital Leaders, the Digital transformation business intelligence network with over 110,000 subscribers in the UK. Mark was co-author of the 2014 book “Digitizing Government” and the “2018 Manifesto for Better Public Services”. He also serves on the board of TechUK. Previous roles include National Audit Office Digital Advisory Panel, Cabinet Office Data Steering Group and acting as senior adviser to the Cabinet Office on ICT Futures.

Professor Mark Thompson

Professor Mark Thompson, Professor in Digital Economy at The University of Exeter Business School

We hear a lot about digital transformation – what does it mean to you?

Everybody bangs on about digital transformation, but it’s often hugely misleading because these discussions are usually technology led. To me, Digital Leaders’ version of digital transformation comes down to one thing: the arrival of mature services that have been developed around the shared infrastructure of the internet.

This infrastructure element cannot be overstated. Imagine, for example, that we had electricity and understood how to make washing machines and TVs, but we had no National Grid. On every street, it would be completely rational to build our own washing machines and TVs, because there’s no market – people would be using different voltages, current and plugs. Indeed, the birth of electricity was very much like this.  It’s nobody’s fault – the absence of a common infrastructure means everyone’s on their own.

Add the National Grid, and suddenly it’s irrational to build your own appliances – someone else can profitably make devices because they’ll work for millions of people. So the game-changer is the shared infrastructure.

Four decades after the internet’s invention, we finally have online technologies that can meaningfully interact with each other and be joined up and used at scale. Digital transformation is nothing to do with websites or front ends (although they’re important of course); it’s about the shared plumbing.

But that is technology led, yet you said at the outset that a purely tech discussion is misleading…

Very true. What is transformational is what these new technologies mean for businesses and the way they operate – which is both exciting and hugely challenging.

To see why, instead of focusing on innovation, let’s look at what it means to be an incumbent, a legacy business.

A legacy business is any organisation – and the challenges are absolutely organisational –  which grew up in the last century with processes, infrastructure, services, an operating model and, most importantly, a value proposition, defined before the prevalence of the internet. They lived successfully through the online services revolution which created new opportunities to get closer to their customers, without challenging their fundamental value propositions.

Today, however, incumbents face Big Tech like Amazon on the one hand, and startups like regtech, fintech, proptech etc. on the other. Any legacy business in 2019 is surrounded on all sides by challengers to their traditional value proposition.

For example, I was speaking with a pharmaceuticals executive recently who advocated “sticking to the knitting”: he said “We make drugs, and the minute we take our eye of that, we’re dead in the water”. But we now live in a health data economy which focuses on keeping people well rather than curing them when they are ill. Businesses like Amazon are outspending pharma in the healthcare sector exponentially.

So digital transformation is actually the belated response of legacy organisations, in particular, to the arrival of the shared plumbing of the internet. It’s a dawning realisation in modern boardrooms that capitalising on new technology demands a wholesale review of business models and core value propositions based on what you can achieve with digital technology and services; and that the new wave of emerging technologies – AI, virtual reality etc. – will only accelerate the need to throw off the shackles of old practices.

How can boards do that?

Well, above all, don’t do everything yourself. In the old days, billions were spent on in-house development of services, especially back-office functions. That is simply no longer of any value, indeed it’s hugely costly.

Every business is different, but as a matter of general advice:

  • Reconfigure everything you do around the customer – learn from their activity and take datapoints from every interaction to feed back into responsive service design. A good acronym for this is “SMAC”: Social Media, Mobile, Analytics and the C
  • Use digital platforms for the heavy lifting of service delivery. There’s plenty of competition between all the major players – Salesforce, AWS, Microsoft etc. to handle the infrastructure of corporate service delivery.
  • And finally, but most importantly, it will require a dramatic transformation of culture.

Why is culture such a problem?

Because we all find comfort in the status quo, and modern digital businesses demand that we focus exclusively on outcomes and rip apart the comfortable architectures that prevent us achieving those outcomes. Plenty of core and back-office functions will be either removed completely or consumed as-a-service in the pursuit of leanness, efficiency and agility.

Take Transferwise, an upstart in the money transfer business but now a world-leading ‘unicorn’. It’s user-friendly and beautifully designed, it’s disruptively cheap, and yet underneath the hood, they didn’t build it. Much of the key functionality is a white-label version of a different company’s business, Currency Cloud. They have built a $1BN business without reinventing the wheel and minimising their infrastructure investment.

This applies to legacy businesses too, but they are weighed down by a century of baggage – that they themselves have built. Five years ago, boardrooms fought that realisation; they embraced a certain digital mindset of sorts – open standards, agile development, the Eric Ries doctrine of failing fast etc.; but I think there is now a readiness in some quarters to think the unthinkable in big corporates about the radical changes required to core value propositions and organisational structure.

Now, I say “in some quarters” because there’s also plenty standing in the way of larger legacy businesses. I like to look at the incentives which drive behaviours, and unfortunately many holders of the CXO roles ultimately empowered to upend their organisations to undergo this extremely painful transition are only a couple of years away from the golf course. They are often grotesquely disincentivised at an organisational level from driving change, so there’s a lot of kicking the can down the road.

Furthermore, there’s a marked lack of education for non-technical senior people about these issues. We’re awash with training in technology, and it’s full of buzzwords.  But there’s no safe space for senior executives to join up the buzzwords and assemble them meaningfully in order to consider the effect of digital on their industries, behaviours, cultures, value propositions and service architectures. They can pay exorbitant fees for the major consultancies to develop a strategy, but the consultancies themselves are often incentivised to produce outsource arrangements that don’t necessarily represent the best interests of the company – whose leaders can often shrug off responsibility for understanding it all themselves to ‘the experts’, rather than getting properly to grips with it and owning the change themselves.

What can executives do, then? Because they’re being pushed tactical product by tech firms, endorsed by the analysts, the Gartners and IDCs – and nobody is talking corporate strategy?

Exactly. But we can group the current crop of technologies into some useful groups which senior executives can think about.

  • We’ve already mentioned SMAC, a focus on the front-end, data-driven approach to continuous customer-centric service redesign. It seems to me that at the highest level, you can look at that cluster of social, mobile analytics and Cloud and ask fundamental, often very challenging questions about how a business can reconfigure itself around its customers.
  • Then there are technologies around the back office, for example we talk about Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which is for attacking process-heavy administration. Increasingly, the genie’s out of the bottle because cloud-based services and infrastructure are commoditised and cheap, and creating tools to shorten back-office functions or eliminate repetitive ones is becoming as simple as bolting Lego bricks together: if companies don’t keep up, their own people will start doing it for them – bypassing governance and risk management structures.
  • There’s a third, less sexy consideration. Many large enterprises have grown by acquisition. They find themselves with multiple CRMs or ERPs, a vast hinterland of slow and old-moving technologies. It’s less glamorous, but there’s a huge piece of work in identifying common capabilities and service patterns across large organisations and then executing on the heavy consolidation that needs to happen in order to remain competitive. Without re-architecting into the cloud, you won’t get the interoperability and scalability that makes all this worth while.

That feels like three good clusters of activity, but again they’re all pretty useless unless, as a board, you’ve got some handle on your value proposition; which is going to change because you’re not going to do everything yourself.

One last example to help explain: the Hollywood Studio of the 1930s. It’s a fantastic example of a fully vertically-integrated organisation: the movie mogul owned everybody from the scriptwriters to musicians to set designers, actors and even movie theatres. Move to today’s HBO-type model and you have a sea of niche providers, all sustained by digital infrastructure. Creatives, production teams, aggregators, portals and marketers all operate separately and optimally, focused on a core value proposition and depending on a network of other operators to monetise their own particular service.

It required upheaval to move from the 1930s to today, but the magnitude and velocity of change – and associated transformational challenges – facing today’s incumbents is unprecedented.

 

This article first appeared on Soldo, a solution providing multi-user business expense cards that empowers employees by automating their expenses. You can read more interviews from Soldo’s digital disruptor series here.

Gender equality : « See it to be it » – Professor Janice Kay, Provost

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How many women head up the UK’s leading companies? Our research has found that of 350 CEOs, it was just 12, equal to the number of male CEOs called David. And Andrew. And John.

Our expert Professor Ruth Sealy analysed the names of the FTSE 350 CEOs. Of this powerful group, 18 were called David, 13 were named Andrew and 12 called John. Just 12 were women, representing only 3.4 per cent of the group. Are you surprised?

Professor Janice Kay

Professor Janice Kay, Provost

Today (March 8) is International Women’s Day  –a valuable opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women, and to call for gender balance in society. Some people think this job is done, but while we have made strides in equality, this example shows there’s still a long way to go.

Last year’s gender pay gap report exposed the grim realities of a national picture in which men are consistently paid more than women, and hold more of the most senior roles. In fact, more than three quarters of 10,000 companies paid men more than women. Just one in three have women among their highest paid earners. Males are paid higher bonuses than females, and earn more than women overall – in every single sector.

Universities are no exception. Undergraduate students are roughly 50/50 male and female, so this should be reflected all the way up the scale. Yet only 15 per cent of senior leaders are women. At the University of Exeter, we acknowledge this problem and we’re on the right track. .We’re really proud of our national Advance HE Athena SWAN silver award – awarded to only 17 universities in the UK to recognise this commitment.

To be clear, men and women who do the same work at Exeter are paid the same salary. The issue around our gender pay gap is career progression. We’re establishing a range of schemes to ensure women aren’t disadvantaged by taking maternity breaks or caring responsibilities – that they’re supported and their expertise is recognised when they return to work, or through flexible working schemes. As women, we all have a role to play in this, whatever our age and stage.  This might be through tangible support such as mentoring. We have to make sure that women have the right opportunities at the right time to progress, and that strong female talent is visibly nurtured. As Billie Jean King said, you’ve got to see it to be it.

At the University, we’ve taken a good look at how our academic career progression works.  The proportion of female Professors has increased from 17 per cent in 2012 to 27 per cent today. The percentage of women on the University’s Executive Group has risen to 29 per cent. It’s not enough, but we’re working on it. The importance of having a balanced senior leadership team is vital in decision-making and signalling our values.

I’m proud of our work to support women’s careers. Female staff were the main beneficiaries of our decision to introduce the Living Wage in 2014. Our policy on maternity and paternity leave and family-friendly benefits is best in sector. We allow new parents to take six months of leave at full pay, followed by a further 13 weeks of leave at statutory pay. The policies are available for employees as soon as they start and parents can choose to share their leave entitlement. Our new menopause policy resulted from consulting female staff members.

We want to do what we can to develop real cultural change that is embedded in the values of our organisation, that avoids tokenism, and in which people of all genders are committed to gender equality. Our policies are supported by outstanding research. Internationally respected work on the phenomenon of the ‘glass cliff’ for female leaders has taken place in Exeter by Professor Michelle Ryan and her colleagues.

Just last month, leading Medical research journal The Lancet published a special edition dedicated to advancing gender equity in science, medicine and global health. Their editorial highlights the fact that systems must change – not just to support women, but to avoid disproportionately privileging men. Executive editor Dr Jocalyn Clark summarised: “Gender equity is not only a matter of justice and rights, it is crucial for producing the best research and providing the best care to patients. If the fields of science, medicine, and global health are to hope to work towards improving human lives, they must be representative of the societies they serve.”

In the Westcountry, we’re working to inspire, inform and prepare young people to take the best decisions about their future. More than two thirds of the 900 year 9-13s from disadvantaged and under-represented groups who took part in our University of Exeter Scholars programme last year were female.

This article first appeared in the Western Morning News.

The behaviour of fat and the impact on how easily obese people can lose weight

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Dr Katarina Kos leads the adipose tissue biology group at the University of Exeter and researches obesity-related disorders.

Obesity is one of society’s most pressing concerns. Suggestions for diets and weight-loss regimes are on everyone’s news feed.

The role of psychology and human behaviour is recognised as a key factor for success, but little appreciation is given to the behaviour of fat itself.

This is something that my research at the University of Exeter has begun to address. Studies have found that the way fat behaves can have an impact on how easily obese people can lose weight.

In my role as a clinician working with people who are struggling to lose weight, I know how hard losing those extra pounds can be.

That is why I hope my research into the behaviour of fat will with time offer solutions to help make this easier.  In the first stage of a longer research project, we have identified the type of damage done to fat tissue when overworked and are now studying in more detail which molecules are involved.  Next we plan to explore which drugs might help people to reverse the damage.

The most recent study, Lysyl oxidase and adipose tissue dysfunction looked at a molecule which is impaired when fat is struggling and overloaded with excess calories.

Like human beings, overworked fat ‘complains’ and becomes distressed and struggles to do its job. As fat cells begin to struggle for oxygen and suffocate under the burden of storing more and more energy, the fat becomes inflamed and as a result scarred.

The research by the Exeter Adipose Tissue biology group that I lead examined the molecule LOX in fat tissue which causes this scarring. The paper, drew a good deal of media interest both in the UK and around the world.

Scarred fat tissue is fibrous and rigid and less able to store excess energy. To compensate, the body can drive this energy to other parts of the body including the muscle (see below) and vital organs, such as the liver and heart, which it can cause serious health complications.

Bacon

Above, a picture of bacon where we find fat in the muscle described as mottling.

The study showed that fat scarring may not resolve itself with weight loss. In fact, there is evidence that the more the fat tissue is scarred, the more difficult it can be to lose weight in the longer term.

But this does not mean that people who are obese should lose hope. Not all obese people have scarred fat and even those with scarred fat can shift excess pounds.

In my clinical work, I talk to obese people all the time have tried for years to shift those extra pounds, and, based on my experience, I can offer the following advice.

  • Almost everyone can lose weight. Most heavier people succeed in losing some weight, but many put it on again, some very quickly. Our previous research has shown that women with weight problems have managed to drop dress sizes on many occasions and that Yo-yo dieting, and weight regain after weight loss is very common.Research suggests that it may be more difficult for obese people with more scarring of their fat to be as successful with weight loss as those with less scarring. With established scarring and exposure to excess energy, these calories are increasingly stored in unhealthy places, including on the tummy and within vital organs. This can predispose people to health problems including diabetes, fatty liver, high blood pressure and heart disease. However, even people with scarring can lose weight, though not necessarily quite as much and most would not expect and want to become a size 0.
  • A person does not need to be clinically obese to have scarred fat tissue. We do not yet understand why some people are more prone to fat tissue scarring than others. Some may have a genetic predisposition similar to the increased risk of diabetes.  We find fat scarring in people with a more extreme but rare condition called lipodystrophy where people have very thin arms, buttocks and legs and a disproportionally large tummy. It could also be that certain foods make us more prone to fat scarring regardless of the amount of energy they contain.  We are embarking on further research to learn more about this.
  • Help your fat tissue by using muscle to cope with excess calories.  Even just a short walk after a meal helps. Any type of calorie, whether from a diet of surplus fat, sugar or protein can be stored as energy in fat tissue once the body has met its energy need. But with a growing amount of fat tissue, it struggles to take up blood sugar into the fat cells and requires more and more insulin to do so. This is known as insulin resistance which can progress to pre- diabetes.  Once the pancreas fails to supply sufficient amounts of insulin and the pancreas is overworked, this can progresses to diabetes Type 2. We are studying when best to use activity breaks in sedentary people to help unburden the fat tissue.  Preliminary research by my team now being pursued has found that a short walk after a meal can have a beneficial effect on lowering blood sugar.
  • Why eating the same amount of calories will not mean you will be of the same weight. Some people seem to eat a lot but never gain weight, while others appear to eat like birds and struggle.  Whether the calories are in excess depends among other things on our metabolism, our age and whether we are fidgety, sedentary or active. There are also big differences in energy needs between men and women. Generally, women require far fewer calories day to day.
  • A lot of the ‘Obesity damage’ can be reversed through weight loss.  Many obesity-related health problems are reversible, especially if their onset is of more recent duration. Studies have shown that even modest weight loss (5% of total body weight) can reduce blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and with it also the risk of heart disease.  Fat tissue recovers from inflammation and fatty liver disease can also resolve. Recent studies show also that diabetes can improve or vanish with weight loss. The same type of operations used for weight loss surgery can also be very effective in managing Type 2 diabetes and are thus also called ‘metabolic surgery’.

So what should you do to keep fat happy and allow it not to be overworked?

My tips, based on my experience working with patients with weight problems, are:

  • For those who struggle with their weight, do not despair. Weight loss is possible.  Even for those whose fat tissue is scarred, you may not reach a size zero, but with determination and lifestyle change you can shift those pounds, but it will take commitment. In my experience, people, with the right commitment, manage to lose 5 per cent of their body weight or a stone in six months which is a realistic target.
  • Weight loss will be more easily sustained without the use of radical calorie restrictions, but with changes to well- rehearsed habits.  You can cut your calorie intake by 400-500 calories a day by eating from smaller plates, avoiding refined sugars and junk food and start eating more slowly.  You do not need to give up snacking altogether. Trade crisps and cakes with healthy options such as chopped vegetables and yoghurts, swap ice cream for sorbet and think twice about cream.  Consider also whether you are consuming many liquid calories from alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, as they also count.
  • Do not cut too many of your calories at once. It is the little changes that will become a new, healthy habit.  This is not about being on a diet for a period of time, it is rather about adjusting your lifestyle for a lifetime. This will require commitment and may not always be comfortable. People who find a buddy to join the efforts are more likely to be successful.
  • If your doctor has tested you for obesity- related health complications, or you have been told you have fatty liver disease or diabetes and have a much larger waist than hip circumference, weight loss can make a great difference to your health and turning your life around will make you a healthier person.
  • For those of average weight  – you are not immune from unhealthy fat.  One possible sign of this is if your waist is wider in circumference than your hips.  You may want to follow the advice above.  Regular activity will help you to a healthier body and better fat proportions. As exercise drives oxygen to all your tissues including the brain boosting concentration and decreasing the risk of dementia.
  • For the lucky lean ones: you may have a natural protection from disordered fat, however look at your parents and their health as this is likely to predict your future risk. We tend to increase in body weight as we age.
  • For anyone: avoid big meals to absolute fullness and always consider some light activity e.g. a walk after consuming large amounts of calories.
  • Have breakfast and do not teach your body to go into starvation mode as this will make it more energy efficient which will not help your weight. Smoking will decrease tissue oxygen levels which damages fat and causes scarring. It also increases the likelihood of wrinkles! If you sit at a desk all day, try to break up periods of sedentary work with short periods of activity – whether walking to the copy machine or up some stairs – especially after you just had a meal. Even small activity changes will help your fat tissue and stop it from becoming overworked.

Socialise with activity in mind. Loneliness and boredom does make us seek comfort in food. People who find a buddy to join weight loss efforts are more likely to be successful.  Consider options where you can socialise with sporty activities from a walking group to taking on a challenge of a run with your mates.

Being kind to yourself can help weight loss too. Stress increases the risk of overeating and comfort eating and disturbs sleep and we know that a disturbed body clock affects our weight negatively. Find calorie-free happiness instead (a bath, book, music to dance to, chat with a friend, a fun past time which could be anything from knitting to sculpting, from gardening to playing golf).  Do set yourself a realistic target. Having a target or a sporty challenge in mind with a date set will keep you focused. This could be anything from a 5km walk to running a marathon, from climbing the local hill to a mountain, from swimming a length in the pool to crossing the English channel.  And for those with mobility problems sitting exercises, including yoga, may be an alternative. Many people opt for swimming as it is gentler on the joints.

Do not judge yourself on the way you look or your body weight, leanness does not bring happiness. However, people with weight problems are more frequently depressed. Seek treatment which maybe in form of talking therapies or tablets as this will help you to be stronger and to take on the effort and commitment to look after your weight.

Be forgiving to yourself as setbacks are natural, life happens and distractions occur, allow them to pass and get back on track. You can do it!

Here at Exeter we are at the forefront of research into obesity. Our research is optimistic. We are looking into whether the timing of activity can aid weight loss, which types of foods predispose us to fat tissue scarring and which drugs could help improve scarred fat tissue. We are also looking at genes which are linked to healthy and unhealthy fat.

We think obesity is something that can be tackled. But we need the best science to help people fight that unhealthy fat and keep unwanted pounds off. That way we can help tackle diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and strokes. Let’s get moving.

By Dr Katarina Kos, Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter’s Medical School

Business support available in Exeter

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Being the founder or owner of a start-up or SME (small and medium sized enterprise) can sometimes feel very lonely. Joe Pearce, business support manager for Peninsula Innovations Limited (PIL) – the operator of the University of Exeter Innovation Centre and Exeter Science Park Centre – shares his advice on how to best make use of the support available for businesses in Exeter.

Joe Pearce

Joe Pearce

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With small teams, long hours and overwhelming workloads, being the owner of a start-up or SME can be a lonely and isolating experience, with many reluctant to pass the pressure onto others. Finding the right business support is an essential ingredient for ensure success.

Rather than a luxury, business support should be seen as a “value-added” activity, just as important as making sales or keeping up-to-date with accounts – and it is important that organisations get it right from the outset.

Exeter is an outstanding place to start and to grow your company; with a thriving business community, a diverse support network and access to world-class research facilities. People living and working in Devon enjoy an exceptional lifestyle – Exeter ranked as the number one city in the UK for quality of life in the 2017 Tech Nation report.

At PIL, we understand that businesses need support from independent business advisors, to act as confidential and professional sounding boards. Business mentoring, advice and support is available to small businesses at Exeter Science Park Centre and as well as clients of the SETsquared Business Acceleration Centre.

SETsquared is a partnership between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey, supporting high-tech start-ups. You can find out more about SETsquared in Exeter here.

With experts in residence, who have personal experience in owning, running and growing businesses, we can provide feedback, guidance and advice to businesses in the region looking to grow and thrive. Companies have access to a mentor from a pool of entrepreneurs and businesspeople, who can help them to connect with professional partners in relevant industries.

Being part of the business community is another benefit of being located in Exeter. The city is home to a host of fast-growth, innovative businesses, presenting ample opportunities for collaboration and networking.

So, as a business within the Science Park Centre – whether you are a tenant or have a hot-desk – not only are you part of the SETsquared hub, you can also build relationships with someone you trust to offer good advice, ultimately helping your business to flourish. Businesses outside these facilities can access support through organisations like the Heart of the South West Growth Hub.

For more information about the support available for businesses at Exeter Science Park Centre, visit our ‘Why Exeter’ page or for information on shared working space, laboratory and office accommodation, call the Science Park Centre on 01392 249222.