HHTU News Roundup
HHTU Director made Professor
![](https://hhtu.hull.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Judith-Cohen-small-1-200x300.jpg)
The Director of the Hull Health Trials Unit has recently been promoted to Professor in the latest Hull promotions round!
Judith brought her expertise from the Sheffield Clinical Research Unit in 2017 in order to help create the Hull Health Trials Unit which was then officially launched in March 2019. Since then the Unit has gone from strength to strength growing in both project and staff numbers under her lead.
Judith’s hard work and knowledge successfully and continually brings in more and more research to the University. As well as this she leads the module Bench to Bedside II, Clinical Trials in the Msc Pharmacology and Drug Development and is a PhD supervisor.
The process to become a professor is a huge undertaking in itself and a huge achievement. All the staff at the Hull Health Trials Unit are very proud of our Director.
Other Promotions
As well as the HHTU Director two of our close collaborators were also promoted. Dr Maureen Twiddy was promoted to Reader and Dr Micheal Crooks to Professor. Maureen is the Methods Hub Lead and the HHTU work closely with her for many of our studies. Mike is the principal investigator for many of our respiratory studies. Congratulations to them both.
MABEL Protocol Paper Published
The protocol paper for the NIHR Health Technology Assessment MABEL Trial has been published in the ERJ open (click here to view it). Chronic breathlessness, a persistent and disabling symptom despite optimal treatment of underlying causes, is a frightening symptom with serious and widespread impact on patients and their carers. Clinical guidelines support the use of morphine for the relief of chronic breathlessness in common long-term conditions, but questions remain around clinical effectiveness, safety and longer term (>7 days) administration. MABEL is looking to evaluate the effectiveness of low-dose oral modified-release morphine in chronic breathlessness.
PRE-DX at 3/4 Recruitment
The PRE-DX Study‘s aim is to recruit 330 patients newly diagnosed with breast cancer to participate in the study from 20 different hospitals around the UK. Recruitment will end in November 2023 so reaching the 3/4 recruitment stage is a big step to reaching the goal.
MOI-A received MHRA Approval
The MOI-A study has received MHRA approval this month. The MOI-A Study is to establish the effective dose of losartan in older adolescents and adults who have Osteogensis Imperfecta. The research is funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of the REMEDI4ALL EU Horizon platform and will be working with sites in both the UK and Italy.