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HAPPY EASTER TO ALL OUR FRIENDS

We hope you have a restful and peaceful Easter and will be rested ready to view the Royal Wedding before the return to work on 3rd May.

April 2011

BSSPD at Birmingham

The BSSPD conference was held in Birmingham under the presidency of Professor Damien Walmsley. The venue was Austin Court conference centre which sits between the ICC and the NIA and behind the Malt Shovel pub. It is a hidden gem and those people who had difficulty locating it were from Birmingham!



The conference was opened by Professor Lawrence Young, Pro-Vice Chancellor & Head of College (Medical and Dental Sciences). BSSPD has a long and rich history in Prosthodontics where it has interacted with the other specialties and has often found itself collaborating in many interdisciplinary projects over the years and the title “Jewels of Restorative Dentistry” reflects this type of association. Gay Penfold from the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC) gave a fascinating talk on “Jeweller or Dentist – spot the difference!” Her entertaining style included pictures and designs of the latest jewellery. This was followed by speakers from Birmingham who included Deborah White, Trevor Burke, Philip Lumley, Iain Chapple and David Attrill. The speakers enjoyed being on the same platform as each other and remarked how good it was to hear others speak.



Birmingham was represented in the open papers covering Cleft palates (Naveen Karir), e-learning (Upen Patel). In the posters many of the SHOs took part and our own 4th year student Anusha Patel won the student prize and received a commendation on her project in the main competition.



The Annual Dinner was held at the splendid location of the Botanical Gardens. In keeping with the beautiful spring weather it was possible to enjoy a pre-dinner drinks in the grounds. It was a treat for all the horticultural minded members of the Society. After the awards ceremony, there was an after dinner speech by Don Maclean. He made society members laugh as he fired joke after joke for 40 mionutes. People then congregated around the bar and waited for the coaches to take them home to the Mint hotel. The party did not finish as people stayed up late discussing so many different topics to the early hours.

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Year of 1991 Reunion

The Mint Hotel was the setting for the reunion of the Year of 1991. Twenty years on and many people were trying to remember what others looked like. Many people had not changed and were enjoying dentistry and life in general. Stories were swapped how many children, how many marriages and what were they up to!! Professors Lumley, Walmsley and Chapple gave the speeches. The organisers were Simon Ellis and Andy Towlerton who had done a great job on getting the majority of the year together.


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Wine and Cheese

The Wine and Cheese was a good get together and an enjoyable evening. The use of mobile phones had to be banned and there was a lot fun duringthe music round where some contestants danced the songs for the rest of us to enjoy. Hurjoht and the entertainment team at BUDSS must be congratulated for making it so successful.




During the day there were comments from Twitter and Facebook from past students and staff.

Comments on Twitter
MusicalDentist Adam Joy I miss cheese and wine nights :( Times like this when I wish I wad still at DH
DrAlastairSloan @MusicalDentist @dammo have to say it's also one of the things I miss!! Always an enjoyable evening!

Facebook comments
Damien Walmsley Cheese and Wine tonight in the 5th floor canteen - looking forward to it
Shiralee Patel, Jinal Patel, Victoria Weblin and Gabrielle Stanley like this.
Nigel Kirk - Oh I remember the days!
Deepak Basi - Quiz too?? Was always my favourite day of the year :)
Damien Walmsley - LOL glad you like the trip down Memory Lane
Sabrina Parmar - Thank god they got rid of the carpet in there! What a mess it was that year!
Upen Patel - Got it all cleaned up by 8pm!

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Valete

The School has seen two members of staff move on either to retirement or a new career.

Sue Fisher is retiring from the School of Dentistry after more than 40 years of dedicated service. During this time, Sue has made a wonderful contribution the School, particularly in Biomaterials where she looked after the microscopy research area. She was also a mentor to many Biomaterials students who came through the department. I am sure all of her friends and colleagues at both the School and Hospital would like to join us in wishing her all the very best for her retirement.

Anna McDonagh (nee Jephcott) also has left the School of Dentistry. Anna has been with us for 7 years. She started in Clinical Practice and then moving onto Oral Surgery. She was a popular member of staff and was a past Staff President to the Dental Student Society. She is taking up a career in general practice and spending more time with her young family. We wish her all the best.

The picture shows both Sue and Anna during the various presentations and get-togethers that took place.

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Research Gala - Presentation Day

The Second day of the Gala consisted of presentations by Doctoral Researchers and Post Doctoral Researchers. For the School of Dentistry James Smith presented “The effects of extracellular matrix molecules on dental pulp cells”. And in the postdoctoral section Lisa Palmer presented her work on “Regulation of NET Release by Reactive Oxygen Intermediates in vitro”. There was also my career in research and Will Palin gave a talk “Seeing the light: Dental biomaterials science and beyond”. Will provided an overview of his career and his present research.

There were also invited talks by Professor Geoff Hale on ‘Friends, faithfulness and fortune: riding the rollercoaster of drug development’. He gave an insight into how to commercialise your research and keep your friends. The final lecture of the day was on Exciting Research into Diabetes by Professor Andrew Hattersley from Peninsula Medical School.

Prizes were awarded by the College to the best presentations and posters by doctoral and postdoctoral researchers. The School did very well and in the poster section, highly commended certificates were given to

Zoe Gale
Survival of dental pulp stromal/stem cells in response to Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF)
(Blogger's note Zoe is a seasoned veteran and winner of previous Galas!)

Erum Khan
Architectural characterization of organotypic cultures of H400 keratinocytes

In the postdoctoral section highly commended certificate was given to

Andrew Creese
Contribution of GCF to the Saliva Proteome: Quantitative Proteomic Analysis.

In the Postdocotral presentations the winner was our very own Lisa Palmer.

Overall the School wishes to thank all the people who took part, came and supported and helped with the organisation. It was a good showcase for the College of Medical and Dental Sciences and the School is pleased to have made a contribution to it.

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Research Gala - Poster session

The school was well represented at the poster session of the College of Medical and Dental Sciences Research Gala. We had several people presenting over the three and half hour session on Monday. The students had a great opportunity to meet other researchers from around the College and also enjoy a drink and nibbles. Tomorrow we look forward to the verbal presentations taking place and wish all our students. post docs and staff all the best.

March 2011

Alexander MacGregor Open Day lecture

Professor Jack Ferracane, Professor and Chair of Biomaterials and Biomechanics at the School of Dentistry at the Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA gave the Alexander MacGregor Open Day lecture. The title of his lecture was Dental Research in the Trenches: The Northwest PRECEDENT.



Jack is recognised as a global leader in resin-based composite research and current interests include the interaction between dental materials and the dentine/pulp complex and the development of practice-based research networks for oral health studies.

The theme of his lecture was Practice-based research which is a relatively new concept to dentistry, in which clinical studies are performed by trained private practitioner members of local or regional networks in their own offices under the normal constraints of their daily practice. His presentation discussed the establishment of one such NIH/NIDCR-funded network, Northwest PRECEDENT, a collaboration between the Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Washington and including member dentists in five states of the northwest of the United States.Outcomes of completed and ongoing studies and their potential impact on evidence-based dental practice will be presented.

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Charles Tomes Lecture 2011 delivered by Professor Iain Chapple

Professor Iain Chapple was invited to give the prestigious Charles Tomes Lecture at The Royal College of Surgeons of England on Friday 25th March 2011. The lecture was entitled “Genes, Greens and Inflammatory Scenes” during which Iain presented the current evidence regarding the pathogenesis of periodontal disease with emphasis on dietary and genetic risk factors. Many of the staff at the School of Dentistry attended the lecture following which Iain was presented with the Charles Tomes medal.

The Charles Tomes Lecture was founded in 1941 following a bequest left by Sir Charles Tomes who was a former member of the Board of Examiners in Dental Surgery.



The pictures show Iain delivering the Charles Tomes Lecture “Genes, Greens and Inflammatory Scenes” and receiving the Charles Tomes Medal from the Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery Professor Derrick Willmot.

Martin Ling
26th March 2011

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BCHC Ball

Birmingham Community Healthcare (BCHC) Celebration Ball was held on Friday at the Botanical Gardens. The School of Dentistry had two tables and enjoyed a fun night of good food and dancing. The dinner was organised by Cheryl Fountain and Dominique Ryder from the Dental Hospital Management team. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great night.

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Birmingham at International Association for Dental Research

This Monday morning you may see quite a few jetlagged academics around the building. They are all returning from the 2011 International Association for Dental Research held in San Diego. The city is beautiful with lots to do but we were mainly here to take part in the conference. There were many successes including Lisa Parmer who won the Periodontal Research Group President’s award for the “Best Abstract” by a doctoral or post-doctoral student. It was selected from over 300. Last year Irundika Dias won it, so Birmingham has won 2 years in a row! Sonam Kaira got to the last 6 in the implant research group. There was also a first for Martin Ling who gave his first IADR presentation.

Other Birmingham presentations are highlighted in the pictures and overall it was a successful conference. There was much sharing of ideas and looking to new projects with colleagues in other institutions. It was also a conference where Prof Walmsley handed over the Editorship of the Journal of Dentistry during his last board meeting at this IADR.

There was the chance to see San Diego and also eating out in the Gaslamp Quarter was good fun. However conference is over and it is back to work. Thanks to everyone for covering us whilst we were away. Rest assured we did a good job of flying the Birmingham flag.



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Birmingham at American Dental Education Association

The University of Birmingham was present at the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). Karen Gardner from University of British Columbia organised a Faculty Development Workshop on Global Communities. Assisting her in the development workshop was Susan Bridges from Hong Kong University and Damien Walmsley from Birmingham. The Workshop was based on the Universitas 21 project on International Peer Review. Students from several universities around the world place Blogs of their work onto a web site (www.diastemas.com). The project is based around Operative Dentistry and is led by Louis MacKenzie in Birmingham. Damien was contributing on the use of social networking and discussion boards.

The conference was attended by 2,000 dental educators and the highlights were several keynote speakers covering motivational, political or educational topics. One of the big debates at the conference was open access to educational materials and there is a big move for this to take place in dentistry. Needless to say once you got out of the conference, there is lots of sun to enjoy. The ADEA conference draws to a close and the International Association for Dental Research is starting. There will be more updates on the Birmingham contingent as they arrive into San Diego.

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Giles Perryer promoted to Associate Professor

Professor Lumley, Director and Head of School of Dentistry, announced the news that Giles Perryer has been  promoted to the position of Associate Professor. This is an excellent example of the University recognising and rewarding educational innovation, in particular Giles’s exceptional leadership in the area of e-learning.

Giles is currently the Director of e-learning, Chair of the IT committee and a Clinical Teacher at Birmingham School of Dentistry. Giles is also President of the Central Counties Branch of the BDA. His interest for many years has been in dentistry e-learning, and in 2007 he led the team that won the Times Higher award for “The Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year” for his work in creating the Birmingham University Ecourse. In the same year he won the DDU “Dentist Teacher of the Year” award. Outside of e-learning, his teaching interests include virtual microscopy, colour-blindness, and visual aids in operative dentistry. Outside of dentistry Giles can play a mean tune on the Accordion and is always asked to preform at Student's revues.

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Birmingham Student wins Frank Ashley Prize

Congratulations to 4th year student Dan Caga, who has won the competitive Frank Ashley Undergraduate Prize from The British Society of Periodontology for his Elective project protocol entitled "The effects of red light laser exposure on the cell growth and inflammatory response of an oral epithelial cell line".

This project, under the supervision of Drs Mike Milward & Paul Cooper, will investigate how lasers influence periodontal epithelium cell growth and inflammatory response, which are key factors in the aetiology of periodontal disease.

Dan has been awarded £500 towards the running of his project and will be invited to the autumn meeting (11th-12th November 2011) of the British Society of Periodontology in Liverpool to collect his prize. 

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February 2011

Congratulations to Birmingham City

Well done on winning the Carling Cup

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Staff club

The Staff Club meets straight after work on a Friday as requested by the majority of staff due to it being pay-day for many that day. The get together takes place in the Gin Parlour of the ‘The Jekyll & Hyde’ (upstairs). George from stores was there and looking forward to Arsenal winning the Carling Cup. Little was he to know that he would be disappointed. Well done to Kris Coomer for organising this Hospital/School get together.

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Resident Student Photographer working on Final Year Book

The foyer of the Alex MacGregor was set up for a final year photography session. Resident student photographer Ahmed Din was snapping away and we are looking forward to see the results later this year.

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Is this the first sign of Spring

It may be dull outside but the first signs of spring are starting to show and here is the proof from my garden!

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Inaugral Lecture - Professor Landini

Professor Gabriel Landini, Professor of Analytical Pathology in the School of Dentistry in the College of Medical and Dental Sciences delivered an outstanding Inaugural Lecture entitled:

"Searching for the invisible – and other challenges in quantitative microscopy"

In his lecture, Professor Landini discussed some of the longstanding problems encountered in interpreting and quantifying diagnostic features of histopathological samples, with a particular interest in oral cancer (a disease estimated to affect over 260,000 people each year in the world). He focussed on progress made in Birmingham in the area of image analysis applied to quantitative microscopy leading to the identification of procedures that can help bridge the gaps between the appearance of some elusive structural patterns (shape of cells, tumours, tissue architecture) and their mathematical description for diagnostic purposes.

Gabriel received his degree in Dentistry in 1984 from the Universidad de la República, Uruguay and a PhD degree in Oral Pathology from Kagoshima University, Japan in 1991, before moving to Birmingham. His research interests are in oral cancer, pattern formation, fractals and image processing applied to the understanding and quantification of histopathological scenes.

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BANGRA !!!

Birmingham University’s Bhangra Team led by our very own Jasveer Poonian became winners of the Bhangra Showdown 2011 on Saturday 5th of February. The competition was held in a sold out Hammersmith Apollo and was organised by Imperial College. There were 10 Universities that competed and Birmingham were hailed champions! The society was set up in 2008 and has grown from comprising of a handful of dancers to having more than 200 members.



Watch their Championship winning performance on uTube 

Well done to all those who took part in the UoB team. A special mention to BDH’s very own Jasveer Poonian (BDS3), Jasdeep Bhandal (BDS3), Mandip Singh Walia (BDS2), Harsharn Mudhar (BDS2), Gurwinder Thind (SoH) and Dhanveer Bansal (B med Sci 2)

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IT has results

It is with great pleasure that the school announces that Mark Smith, our IT Manager is now the proud father of Kaleb Levi Smith (Kal), born at 7:23am on Sunday 6th February 2011, weighing in at a whopping 9lb 6oz!  Mother and baby are doing well and attached is a photograph of Kaleb.



MANY CONGRATULATIONS!

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The One Show

Did you see? Did you miss? Were you convinced?

iPlayer while it is available

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BDA/Dentsply Student Clinician Prize in Dublin

Dublin or to be more precise the Ritz-Carlton outside Dublin was the setting for the BDA-Student Clinician Prize. The weather was very blustery to say the least and many of us had some bumpy flights over from the UK. The hotel is in a magnificent setting on the Powerscourt Estate, Enniskerry, near Dublin, Ireland. It was damp with a persistent drizzle but the scenery was beautiful.




Birmingham staff attended the dinner to support final year student Sam Collier who presented a comparative study on the treatment of Peri-implantits between Australia and UK specialists. Although Sam did not win there is no doubt she throughly enjoyed the experience. Congratulations go to Leeds, Manchester and Belfast who were the winners this year. After the ceremonies there was some captivating and stunning performances of Irish Dancing and everyone got into the mood when audience participation was required. Note Prof Lumley back on the Dance Floor yet again. There was talking and dancing until the early hours.

Although the weather was wet and windy the dramatic settings of the hotel gave a wonderful backdrop to the morning light as everyone made their way home. Well done to Kate Caple and Dentsply for once again arranging a very enjoyable Students Clinician prize.

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January 2011

Significant Birthdays

Andy Corke and Richard Caddick celebrated significant birthdays this week. Both are part timers who teach on the General Dental Practice phase of Clinical Practice. Richard is head of GDP. Here we have a picture of Andy on the left and Richard on the right. The rose between the two thorns is Jill Boylan who looks after the administration of Clinical practice.

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BUDSS Annual Dinner

The BUDSS Annual Dinner was held at Edgbaston Cricket ground and the theme was based around the Chronicles of Narna. The night was cold but on arrival there was a warm greeting at the door. A large ice gateway served as an entrance which we passed through before receiving our welcome drinks. The evening was a great mix of magicians, dancing and very smartly dressed people.

The Edgbaston catering staff put on a nice meal and we were treated to some special Strictly come Dancing Ballroom dancing. There were also several volunteers who agreed to take part in the dancing. Our very own Hurjoht took up the drums and by the end of the evening everyone was on the dance floor.

As the pictures show there was the opportunity to meet and discuss life away from the dental hospital. Whilst the evening finished late, many students went onto Oceania to make sure the evening finished even later. Congratulations to Hurjoht and the BUDSS committee for making the evening both successful and enjoyable.



.............and that Final Year Group Photograph!

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New Year Resolutions

Where is everybody in the Dental School Office. Has the Diet Coke man walked past the window. It is very quiet this lunchtime.

Wait a minute! There are people running along the canals and yes it is the Curriculum team ably led by the School Manager. They are all out running staying true to their New Year Resolution to keep fit. Well done to you all and look forward to seeing you out there in February and March and April and .....

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Sunny afternoon

Although it is cold out there the Friday evening sun is a delight. Here is a picture to send you off home for the weekend.

Success for Owen

The School is very pleased to report on the success of Owen Addison who has recently been awarded a prestigious National Institute of Health Research Clinician Scientist fellowship.



The NIHR Clinician Scientist award is open to “all open to researchers working in medicine and dentistry who are capable of leading research in their discipline”. The award is aimed at post-doctoral registrars and Consultants and provides salary and research costs, including personnel, for up to 5 years. The fellowship which constitutes over £900,000 of research income to the School will strengthen interdisciplinary research between Biomaterials and Tissue Injury and Repair and will focus on the inflammatory response to indwelling and skin/mucosa penetrating implants.

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Kathy Porter retirement



Kathryn Porter, Senior Dental Nurse on Clinical Practice, Floor 5 is retiring from the Dental Nursing Department after over 40 years of exemplary service.  Over the years Kathryn has made a wonderful contribution to the Dental Nursing Department, particularly Clinical Practice. There are many dental and nursing students who Kathy will have made a big impression on during their time at Birmingham.  Tessa Meese, Dental Nurse Manager gave a short resume of Kathy's extensive contribution to the Hospital and School since she joined in 1968.  Phil Lumley, Head of School, gave an appreciation on behalf of the School of Dentistry.  There were many friends and colleagues at both the Hospital and University who gathered in the Boardroom to wish her all the very best. 

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There was not alot of  Happy New Year about the snow that arrived on the first Friday of January. This is a picture of the Aston Express Way taken from the Small Lecture Theatre. Not an easy commute today. Congratulations to all of you who struggled in.

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