Psychiatric drug development and an award for our Incubator: News from Imperial

Here’s a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial.

From psychiatric drugs and business awards to heart disease risk, here's some quick-read news from across Imperial.

Psychiatric drugs

Drug development in psychiatry is lagging far behind the rest of medicine, with very few new drugs in the last 50 years, according to an Imperial expert.

In an opinion piece this week, Professor David Nutt, from the Department of Brain Sciences, says that despite huge advances in medicine, when it comes to major psychiatric conditions such as depression, schizophrenia and ADHD, doctors still rely on the same drugs discovered decades ago.

The lag is due to a “complex mixture of stigma and ignorance of the whole field of psychiatry” that has led to low investment compared with other branches of medicine, explains Professor Nutt. Highlighting current barriers, he cites “unnecessary regulatory attitudes and barriers, negative commercial decisions, and no cohesive international plan to make progress”.

Professor Nutt explains: “Although understanding of the brain has massively advanced, most of the medicines used in psychiatry today are functionally the same as the drugs discovered by serendipity in the 1950s, and almost no mechanistically new treatments have been discovered.”

Read the full piece in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Incubator award

Imperial's White City Incubator, in collaboration with Scale Space, has been awarded “Incubator/Coworking Space of the Year” at the West London Business Awards 2025 for the second consecutive year.     

The accolade recognises the Incubator’s contribution to the White City district and wider Imperial WestTech Corridor by providing a solid foundation for science entrepreneurs to succeed.  

The Incubator has supported 59 early-stage businesses since 2016 with fully equipped wet labs and tailored business support embedded within Imperial’s innovation-focused campus. These companies have since raised £622 million and created more than 600 new jobs. 79% of Incubator graduate companies are still based locally.   

The judging panel said: “At the heart of the White City Innovation District, the Imperial Incubator offers a comprehensive space and a range of advanced equipment. Meanwhile, Scale Space provides extensive business support. Together, they form an outstanding environment for startup success.”  

All of this year's winners are listed on the Awards website.

4-dimensional tech

Imperial researchers are working on a new project looking at 4D engineering of healthcare technologies. Dr Connor Myant from the Dyson School of Design Engineering and Professor Robert Hewson from the Department of Aeronautics will be working with colleagues at the University of Birmingham on the 4D Health Tech project, which is one of six transdisciplinary research projects receiving a share of a £10 million investment from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Numerous tissues within our bodies continuously adapt to environmental cues over time. In a healthy state, this enables growth, movement and regeneration, but changes also occur due to deleterious effects such as diseases and ageing. These time-dependent changes are not typically incorporated into the engineering of medical devices. The new project aims to inclusively transform the engineering mindset into four dimensions, enabling the innovation of a new dynamic medical device era.

The work forms part of a broader strategic response by EPSRC that aims to address the recommendations identified in the 2022 report Tomorrow's Engineering Research Challenges (TERC), which sets out a long-term vision for engineering research while understanding the interfaces between disciplines and promoting greater translation between science and engineering.

Heart disease 

About a quarter of a million people in the UK have dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) a disease of the heart muscle where one chamber of the heart becomes enlarged, making it harder to pump blood around the body.  

Many more males are diagnosed than females, with approximately a 2:1 male to female ratio. In a new study, Dr Paz Tayal, Clinical Lecturer at the National Heart and Lung Institute, investigated whether this was due to males being more susceptible, or females being underdiagnosed.  

After carrying out a systematic analysis and population study, they found that sex-specific criteria for diagnosis are not being applied, so women are potentially being underdiagnosed. However, even accounting for this, males were more at risk.  

Dr Tayal said: “More vigilance is needed to accurately diagnose DCM in female patients, but we also want to understand the genetic, reproductive and environmental factors that means males are much more likely to have this disease.”  

Read the full paper published in the journal Circulation. 

Health research leader

An Imperial critical care expert has been chosen to lead a national research programme funding vital research to improve health and care.

Professor Anthony Gordon, from the Department of Surgery & Cancer, has been appointed as Director for the NIHR’s Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme, taking up the position from June 2025. The HTA is the largest of the NIHR research programmes, funding research to produce high-quality evidence on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of various technologies, including drugs, devices, diagnostic tests, procedures, and public health interventions.

Professor Gordon’s research interests focus on precision medicine in sepsis. He has led many clinical trials which have shaped international sepsis guidelines, including as UK chief investigator for the international REMAP-CAP platform trial for COVID-19 and influenza. He has served as programme Director of the NIHR’s National Research Collaboration Programme (NRCP) since 2024.

Commenting on the new appointment, Professor Gordon said: “I’m delighted to take up the role of HTA Programme Director and continuing my work with NIHR. I look forward to ensuring that the HTA Programme can help to deliver new bold and ambitious research projects for the benefit of patients and the public.”

Read more about the new NIHR appointments.

Cellular stress  

Imperial researchers are hoping to provide a new way of thinking about the impacts of cell stress on disease. Through a series of papers and reviews they focus on the impact of rogue proteins in cells caused by inherited mutations in our DNA, and how cells behave when they are under stress.  

Cells normally deal with these proteins rapidly and efficiently. But when they are under stress because of an infection, temperature shock, or other issue, the usual safety nets and waste disposal mechanisms can’t work, making the cells become even more ‘stressed’.  

The researchers believe their insights may help to explain why diseases behave differently, whether that be for bleeding, cancer, heart or muscle function. 

Professor Claire Shovlin, from the National Heart and Lung Institute, said: "We think it probably also alters how people respond to treatments they are given, and that the type of DNA mutation should be taken into account for future drug trials.”  

Read the commentary in the American Journal of Human Genetics, and the team's key papers in the journals Blood, Cell Stress and NEJM.

Tumour imaging

Researchers and clinicians from Imperial, UCL and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have developed a groundbreaking imaging technique to better detect and understand brain metastases - tumours that spread to the brain from cancers elsewhere in the body. Using a specially designed tracer called [18F]fluoropivalate, combined with a hybrid PET-MRI scan, the team can detect short-chain fatty acids that brain tumours rely on for growth.

The study involved 22 patients, 12 with untreated brain metastases and 10 previously treated with radiotherapy, and showed consistent uptake of the tracer in all cases. This imaging advancement could be particularly valuable in distinguishing cancer progression from treatment-related changes, a key limitation of conventional MRI.

Speaking about the research, Professor Eric Aboagye said: “The findings have the potential to significantly improve early detection and treatment strategies for patients with intracranial metastatic disease, which remains a major clinical challenge despite advancements in systemic cancer therapies.”

This research, led by scientists from Imperial’s Department of Surgery and Cancer and funded by MRC MCMB, supports licensing agreements and an ongoing FDA-approved Phase 2b trial in the United States, and could lead to better care for patients facing this challenging condition.

Read the paper in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging

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