On 12 July, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Guy’s and St Thomas’ Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) – a partnership with king’s college London, welcomed Early Career Researchers (ECRs), and senior investigators to our Precision Medicine Early Career Researchers Conference 2022. The event, opened by Professors Catherine Williamson and Leonie Taams, showcased the innovative research carried out by our ECRs. In addition to a wide range of career development sessions, ECRs were invited to take part in a presentation and posters exhibition.
We were delighted to welcome some of the BRC’s exceptional ECRs as they presented their own research:
- Dr Josca Schoonejans – Department of Women and Children’s Health.
- Mr Lukas Emanuel Schmidt – School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences.
- Mr Shane Solanky – The Cutaneous Immunology Group, St John’s Institute of Dermatology.
- Dr Alice Mitchell – Department of Women and Children’s Health.
- Dr Jennie Clough – School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences.
- Dr Helen Alexander, Unit for Population-Based Dermatology Research, St John’s Institute of Dermatology
The conference provided the opportunity for our ECRs to network with their peers and the established research community. We were also very pleased to welcome guest speakers who delivered the career development sessions. These included:
- Kirty Swift – Head of Leadership, Learning & Development, King’s College London
- Dr Davide Danovi – Senior Lecturer, Centre for Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine.
- Greg Dow – Research Development Manager, King’s College London Health Faculties.
- Mira Vogel – Lecturer in Education, King’s Academy.
The poster session was a further opportunity to hear from ECRs and the high standard of research on display from both the oral and poster presentation was testament to the supportive translational research environment within the BRC. Choosing a winner for the oral and poster sessions was difficult, however, the judges felt the following presentations demonstrated both excellence in scientific content and communication skills:
Oral presentation:
- Dr Jennie Clough, School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences – An IL2RA enhancer polymorphism determines responsiveness to IL-2 signalling and the balance between pathogenic and protective T-cell immunity in Crohn’s Disease.
Poster presentation:
- Dr Elizabeth Gray – Immunology & Microbial Sciences – Conventional and unconventional T-cell sources of IL-17A and IL-17F in psoriatic arthritis
Sharing her thoughts about the event, Cluster 2 Research Manager, Dr Frances Doyle said:
“This conference has been an excellent opportunity to see the breadth and depth of the work of the BRC and how our early career researchers are contributing to translational research. It has been great to see so many people sharing their work and making this conference such a success.”
Cluster leads Professors Catherine Williamson and Leonie Taams would like to thank members of the conference committee for their time and effort in organising this wonderful event:
- Dr Lazaros Fotopoulos
- Dr Javier Barallobre-Barreiro
- Dr Robin Dart
- Dr Caroline Ovadia
- Dr Peter Dixon
- Rezaur Rahman
- Preeti Khurana
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