MRC funding for public health research

Researchers in two UCL departments will undertake four studies as a result of the awards from the MRC's National Prevention Research Initiative, which focused this highly competitive round of funding on preventing cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

At UCL Primary Care & Population Sciences, Professor Paul Wallace, Dr Elizabeth Murray and colleagues received £384,000 for a randomised controlled trial of a six-week online programme "Down Your Drink" to promote safe drinking habits. Dr Richard Morris, Dr Irene Petersen and Dr Andrew Hayward will use £131,000 to analyse the decline in the British coronary heart disease epidemic.

£202,000 went to Professor Andrew Steptoe (UCL Epidemiology & Public Health) to develop web-based weight loss interventions for African Caribbean women. Professor Robert West of the same department received £188,000 for a large-scale randomised trial that will assess by modern good clinical practice standards the effectiveness of Tabex (cytosine) - a relatively cheap drug in use in Eastern Europe - in attempts to give up smoking.

• Links:
• UCL Primary Care & Population Sciences
• UCL Epidemiology & Public Health
• Down Your Drink