Blog posts
Dr Harry Antoniades – Reader and Consultant Hepatologist working in Digestive Diseases, has received substantial funding with Imperial College sponsoring the study to run a 3-year multi centre clinical trial called R-RID. The trial will be looking at the use of selective intestinal decontamination to reduce infections in patients with liver failure.
Due to start on October the trial will be run in conjunction with The Royal Liverpool University Hospitals, University Hospitals Birmingham, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital and Firmly Health NHS Trusts. The two big collaborating liver centres are Birmingham Liver Unit and Liverpool.
Professor Daqing Ma delivered his keynote lecture entitled “Anaesthesia can Influence Cancer Patients’ Surgical Outcomes” at the Summer Symposium of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) on “Improving Patient Outcomes in Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine,” held in Brighton from 7 – 8 June, 2016.
The Symposium was assembled from a group of renowned national and international experts who presented on a wide range of subjects with a common theme of improving outcomes. Prof Ma’s lecture focused on his group’s “pioneering” work of the potential impact of anaesthetics/techniques in promoting cancer recurrence following surgery. The lecture was very well received from an audience of over 500 consultant and trainee anaesthetists at the conference. Prof Ma also participated in the judging of trainee’s oral and poster presentation prizes during the conference.
Prof Ma’s area of research, which has the potential to change clinical practice for cancer patients, has been supported by his BOC Chair grant. He is also collaborating nationally (Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research) and internationally (Ireland, Sweden and China) to further the understanding of this hugely important topic, mechanistically and clinically.
Congratulations to all our successful Academic Promotions staff, all listed below with their new titles:
- Oliver Pardo – Senior Lecturer
- Antoniades Charalambos – Reader in Hepatology
- Stephen Brett – Professor of Critical Care
- Lakjaya Buluwela – Professor of Cancer Medicine
- Daniel Elson – Professor of Surgical Imaging
- Daqing Ma – Professor of Anaesthesia
- Julian Marchesi – Professor of Digestive Health
- Justin Vale – Professor of Practice
- Mark Wilson – Professor of Practice
- Neil Tolley – Professor of Practice
- Ailsa Hart – Professor of Practice
The Althea-Imperial programme, which supports innovative and entrepreneurial female students, is recruiting ambassadors to help promote the scheme across all departments and faculties.
There will be a briefing session (lunch provided) on Tuesday 2nd August at 12.30pm in the Faculty Building, Boardroom, Level 4 to inform staff ambassadors on how they can help recruit and advise female students. Staff wishing to attend or find out more should email althea-programme@imperial.ac.uk.
Congratulations to Dr David Pinato, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Medical Oncology, who has been awarded the National Royal Society of Medicine Sylvia Lawler Prize for his research at Imperial and in addition, received an American Society of Clinical Oncology Merit Award.
In the last week of June, many members of Computational and Systems Medicine (CSM) hopped over to Dublin to attend the Metabolomics 2016 conference, the annual conference organised by the Metabolomics society. It was held in the new and beautiful Convention Centre of Dublin located right by the River Liffey. This year saw the biggest conference held ever, with over 800 delegates from all over the world.
Professor Jeremy Nicholson, Head of Department of Surgery and Cancer, gave a fascinating opening plenary for the conference on metabolic profiling in systems medicine. Many of the rest of us either gave speeches or presented posters. We made new friends, learnt new methods and techniques and gained much insight into the latest development in the field of metabolomics around the world. Next year’s meeting will be held on 26th-29th June 2017 in Brisbane, Australia.
By Abellona U
Professor Roger Kneebone’s new series of podcasts has just launched on iTunes. Every fortnight he’ll be releasing a 30-45 min conversation with someone whose career has been unusual or inspiring, and whose interests cross traditional boundaries. The first two are available now.
Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone.
Congratulations to Dr Chris Mullington, anaesthetic registrar currently undertaking a PhD in collaboration between the Department of Anaesthetics and the MSk Lab who won the best caesarean section poster prize at the recent Obstetric Anaesthetists’ Association in Manchester.
His poster was entitled: “Is mean body temperature a cause of shivering during elective caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia? A pilot study”, which summarised the work investigating the mechanism underlying this common side effect of regional anaesthesia in obstetric patients.
Congratulations to Kirsty Flower, who formed part of the Hammersmith team who won the first Postdoc Development Centre Team Award, given to a group of individuals for their outstanding contribution to postdoc life. As a thank you, they received a £100 voucher to put towards a team celebration.
A huge thank you to Kirsty for all your hard work in supporting our postdoc community!
Congratulations to Matthieu Komorowski, (research fellow completing a PhD with Prof Tony Gordon) who has just won first prize in the Royal Society of Medicine Research and Innovation competition for his submission entitled: Beyond the Surviving Sepsis Campaign: the Surviving Sepsis Computer. As part of the prize, Matthieu will be invited to give an oral presentation to present his project once it is completed, and receives a £500 prize fund.
Congratulations also to Weihong Du (current BSc Surgery and Anaesthesia student) who has won the John Snow Anaesthesia iBSc Award from the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia for his project entitled: To further investigate the mechanisms of leukocytes activation during VILI and how this activation leads to systemic inflammation.
Prof Naomi Chayen and a team from Prof Zoltan Takats group were shortlisted to present at the Institute for Molecular Science and Engineering launch event on Wednesday 22 June.
The role of the Institute for Molecular Science and Engineering is to take on grand challenges in science and technology using an approach that integrates molecular science expertise with engineering. Projects were selected to showcase collaboration across disciplines at the College, and the potential of future collaboration in solving grand challenges. The event was hosted by Imperial’s President, Prof Alice Gast.
All staff levels are welcome to attend the Postdoc Development Centres upcoming Postdoctural Knowledge Forum happening on Tuesday the 28th June 2016. To register please contact Surgery and Cancer’s Postdoc Rep Dr Kirsty Flower (k.flower@imperial.ac.uk)
Professor Nicholson has recently been interviewed as part of a News Medical’s Thought Leaders series discussing his thoughts on Tackling Healthcare Challenges in a Changing World.
Dr David MacIntyre – MRC-CDA Fellow and Lecturer in Reproductive Systems Medicine has been recognised for his world-class research with the panel commenting:
“David’s research has impacted at a national and international level. He has been demonstrably influential on colleagues in his Department and is involved in several internal activities. He is an impressive candidate who has a good track record in securing funding”
Dr David MacIntyre’s research investigates the role of inflammation in the onset of term and preterm human labour. He is particularly interested in understanding the implications of the vaginal microbiome in poor pregnancy outcomes such as preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), which is also known as when a woman’s waters break early during her pregnancy. His research team approaches this using both classical biochemistry methods as well as a “systems” approach where data acquired from genomic, transcriptomic and metabolic profiling platforms are integrated and modelled to investigate the interaction between vaginal microbiota and the maternal host. It is hoped that will lead to improved diagnostic and predictive tools that will assist in patient stratification and ultimately, improved pregnancy outcomes