Blog Posts

CONGRATULATIONS PROFESSOR SARAH COUPLAND 18th DONIACH LECTURE AWARDEE

9/7/2021

Sarah has been awarded a highly prestigious award this week.
At Manchester Pathology 2021 Professor Coupland was the 18th Doniach Lecturer awardee.
The Doniach Lectureship and Award was founded in 2003 in honour of the late Professor Israel Doniach. The objective of the Doniach Award is to celebrate the life long contribution of a Senior member of the Society to the science of Pathology and to the Scientific activity of the Pathological Society.

Chronological list of Doniach Lecturers

1st 2003 Prof Peter Isaacson, London
2nd 2004 Prof Dame Julia Polak, London
3rd 2005 Prof Sir Dillwyn Williams, Cambridge
4th 2006 Prof A Munro Neville, London
5th 2007 Prof Sir Nicholas Wright, London
6th 2008 Prof Sir James Underwood, Sheffield
7th 2009 Prof BA Gusterson, Glasgow
8th 2010 Prof CJLM Meijer, Amsterdam
9th 2011 Prof FT Bosman, Lausanne
10th 2012 Prof M Alison, London
11th 2013 Prof P Quirke, Leeds
12th 2014 Prof H Stein, Berlin
13th 2015 Prof CS Herrington, Edinburgh
14th 2016 Prof IO Ellis
15th 2017 Dr JJ Going, Glasgow
16th 2018 Prof JE Martin, London
17th 2019 Prof GI Murray, Aberdeen
18th 2021 Prof SE Coupland, Liverpool

University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University has invited four recognised experts in their fields as visiting professors.

24/6/2021

The InFLAMES (Innovation Ecosystem Based on the Immune System) Flagship is one of the ten extensive research projects funded by the Academy of Finland. The goals of the InFLAMES Flagship are to identify new targets for drug development and to engage in drug development together with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The Flagship also seeks breakthroughs in diagnostics and personalised medicine.

Professor Sarah Coupland Specialises in Eye Cancers, and in molecular- and digital pathology

The expertise in the Flagship will be strengthened by Professor Petter Brodin, Professor Sarah Coupland, Dr Simon Goodman, and Professor Reijo Salonen. Their terms will last until the end of 2024. See full article

Uveal Melanoma Awareness #OpenYourEyesToUM

21/5/2021

Uveal melanoma is a rare, often fatal, type of cancer that develops in the eye. There is a huge need for early detection and effective treatments to fight this disease. May is the #MelanomaAwarenessMonth and OPGG UCD Research have created this video to raise awareness and #OpenYorEyesToUM

Small uveal melanomas ‘not always harmless’, study finds

20/5/2021

A new article from Liverpool ocular researchers demonstrates that small uveal (intraocular) melanomas are not always harmless, as the current paradigm suggests.

Instead, a reasonable proportion of them have molecular genetic alterations, which categorises them as highly metastatic tumours. The article recommends that they should not be observed but rather treated immediately, to improve patients’ chances of survival.

The paper shows that uveal melanoma patients with small tumours, when treated within a certain time frame in Liverpool, do indeed have improved outcomes.

The study was undertaken by researchers at Liverpool Ocular Oncology Centre based at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group (LOORG) at the University of Liverpool and with Professor Bertil Damato, formerly of Liverpool and now based at the Ocular Oncology Service at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London.

First author Dr Rumana Hussain, of Liverpool Ocular Oncology Centre, said: “Uveal melanoma is a potentially lethal disease, with a 50% mortality rate from metastatic disease. However, traditionally, small lesions have been monitored rather than treated as it was considered that these are less likely to cause metastatic spread and that local treatment does not influence outcome.

“Liverpool is one of the only ocular oncology centres in the world that offers prognostic biopsies to all of its melanoma patients, and we have therefore collected a large molecular genetic cohort of small tumours. This is the first study to show that over a quarter of these smaller uveal melanomas have lethal genetic mutations, and suggests that we may be able to influence patient survival and mortality outcomes with earlier treatment of these small melanomas. This will cause a massive shift in the approach to such patients, both in terms of management of their primary tumour, but also in terms of the consideration of prognostic biopsies in small ocular cancers.”

The Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group’s mission is to conduct high quality basic, translational and clinical research into the pathogenesis and treatment of adult ocular tumours that will improve patient care and survival.

Together with Dr Helen Kalirai, Professor Sarah Coupland leads the basic science and translational research portfolio, in addition to being a diagnostic Consultant Pathologist at the Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust. Sarah leads one of the four NHSE supra-regional Ophthalmic Pathology services, and has led the molecular oncology prognostication service for around 10 years. Professor Heinrich Heimann leads the clinical research portfolio of the LOORG and heads the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Centre.

Professor Sarah Coupland said: “Since the early 1990s it was clear that uveal melanomas could be divided into differing genetic prognostic groups. This has become even more definitive through studies such as The Cancer Genome Atlas Uveal Melanoma study, to which LOORG significantly contributed. These past analyses, however, were based mainly on large tumours, and very few genetic investigations have been undertaken on small uveal melanomas, which erroneously have all been labelled as ‘safe’. Our study using a unique collection of tiny intraocular biopsies of small uveal melanomas with follow-up clinical data, shows that they too can be broken down into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ tumours. Instead of watching the latter, they can be treated earlier and thereby increase significantly the chance of cure for these patients”.

The Ophthalmic Pathology Service and the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Service are funded by NHSE.
The full article, Small High-Risk Uveal Melanomas Have a Lower Mortality Rate, can be found here.

LOOK WHO'S MADE THIS YEAR'S TOP 100 POWER LIST...

1/4/2021

LOORG ARE PROUD TO CONGRATULATE OUR VERY OWN...
Professor Sarah Coupland as nominated by The Ophthalmologist readers and whittled down by their international panel of judges to the final 100!

CLICK FOR FULL LIST

CONGRATULATIONS ANNA!

10/3/2021

Anna Ikin, Senior Biomedical Scientist in Ophthalmic Pathology at the Liverpool Clinical Laboratories, and a member of LOORG.

Anna is admitted as a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science - a fantastic achievement!
Well done from all of us at LOORG Anna! Onwards and upwards!

INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY 2021

8/3/2021

In order to celebrate IWD 2021 on March 8th, here are a couple of shots of wonderful LOORG members in the lab that day: Prof Sarah Coupland, Dr Karen Aughton, Dr Helen Kalirai and Dr Sam Barlow (front to rear).

These ladies are key members of LOORG whose mission is to find a cure for adult ocular tumours, particularly uveal melanoma. They are showing support and solidarity for celebrating women's achievements in science! #choosetochallenge.

Prof. Coupland also gave a virtual presentation on the evening of March 8th to the University of Liverpool’s Medics Against Discrimination Society (MADSoc).
Her talk was very well received.

Also thanks to our photographer on the day and newest member of LOORG research technician James Draper.

CONGRATULATIONS to our PROF SARAH COUPLAND, who was elected as VICE PRESIDENT for Communications of the ROYAL COLLEGE OF PATHOLOGISTS!

30/10/2020

The recent election enabled all Fellows of the College to participate, and it had a wide field of candidates from all of its different specialty areas and professional backgrounds within the College.

Sarah was elected to the prestigious role of Vice President for Communications. She will also be specifically taking a lead in Genomics for the College.

Together with the two other Vice Presidents -Professor Peter Johnston (Vice President for Professionalism) and Dr Angharad Davies (Vice President for Learning) - Sarah will be supporting the President-Elect, Dr Mike Osborn.

All of the elected Fellows will take up their appointments at the Annual General Meeting to be held on 19 November 2020, and serve a term of three years.
rcpath elections

LOORG'S PROF SARAH COUPLAND AND DR HELEN KALIRAI PARTICIPATING IN 2020 CUREOM SYMPOSIUM

29/10/2020

Sarah and Helen participating in the 9th Annual CURE OM Science Meeting.
With over 160 active viewers throughout the event and presentations from three different continents and numerous countries!
Please visit the virtual event platform and view the session recordings. The recordings will appear under the "Stage" tab, then under "Past Presentations".

LANDMARK LOORG PUBLICATION

8/10/2020

L/R Natalie Kipling, Dr Helen Kalirai, Dr Yamini Krishna (first author), Prof Sarah Coupland

Transcriptome Profiling Reveals New Insights into the Immune Microenvironment and Upregulation of Novel Biomarkers in Metastatic Uveal Melanoma.
Krishna Y, Acha-Sagredo A, Sabat-Pośpiech D, Kipling N, Clarke K, Figueiredo CR, Kalirai H,Coupland SE.

Cancers (Basel). 2020 Sep 30;12(10):E2832.
doi: 10.3390/cancers12102832.
PMID: 33008022

Read LOORG's new landmark paper published in Cancers, examining Metastatic Uveal Melanoma.

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