Blog posts

Professor Ma gives Keynote Lecture

MaProfessor 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.

Academic Promotions Success

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

Staff Ambassadors wanted for the Althea-Imperial Programme

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.

Metabolomics Conference Dublin 2016

Metabolomics2016_AU_CSM-1
Current and ex- members of CSM at Metabolomics 2016, Dublin

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.

Prof Jeremy Nicholson giving the opening plenary.
Prof Jeremy Nicholson giving the opening plenary

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

Best C Section Poster Prize

ChrisCongratulations 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.

Postdoc Team Award

Kirsty-Flower-PDC-Reps-Award-Nominee-2015-279x300Congratulations 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!

 

Prize Winners in Anaesthesia, Pain Medicine and Intensive Care

MattCongratulations 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.

 

WeihongCongratulations 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.

 

 

 

CSM showcase research at Institute for Molecular Science and Engineering Launch Event

InstituteLaunch-011Prof 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.

Dr David MacIntyre wins President’s Award for Outstanding Early Career Research

DoM 06.05.2015pm 38Dr 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

Research Associate Presents at International Society of Lumbar Spine Conference

LumbarDr Chloe Chiou (Research Associate) gave a presentation at the International Society of the Lumbar Spine Conference held in Singapore from the 16th to 20th May. The presentation described work on using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assess compressed lumbar nerve roots in patients with sciatica and associations between the structure and function of the nerves and clinical symptoms. This work is supported by the Networks of Excellence scheme, the Wellcome Trust ISSF.

Dr Paul Strutton, Senior Lecturer in Neurophysiology