College of Medical and Dental Sciences
Research and Enterprise Gala 2010

19-20 April 2010
Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre & Wolfson Centre, Medical School Building

The Research Gala was held over two days and a report on the event is described below.
Links to the pictures of the day are also included

Gala Pictures High Resolution
Gala Pictures Low Resolution
Professor Walmsley's pictures of the Day

Day 1

It is always a pleasant task when you have enthusiastic young people who want to tell you about their research.  The Research and Enterprise Gala held over the 19th and 20th of April 2010 was just the right vehicle for this to take place.  Even a volcano in Iceland did not derail the programme, when we discovered that our guest speaker and several other contributors to the two days were stranded in various locations around the world.   But on the Monday morning it was business as usual when Professor Eric Jenkinson, Head of the School of Immunity and Infection very kindly stood in for Professor Lawrence Young and opened the Gala with an overview of the activity in the College.  Eric was quick to highlight that the College of Medicine and Dental Sciences is one of the major research grant earners at the University and that the College collaborates with local institutions such as Advantage West Midland and neighbouring NHS hospitals.  The strategy for the College is to invest in people by recruiting and retaining key personnel.  It is also very keen to foster and nurture the future careers of up and coming researchers.  Finally, Eric conveyed the final message that the College is successful and has a bright future.


 
The opening session was chaired by Professor Damien Walmsley and concentrated on established researchers in each of the Schools in the College.  Professor Iain Chapple (Dentistry) started with a detailed presentation covering Inflammatory Periodontitis: a model disease for research into infection and immunity. Iain outlined his research and showed the translational aspects of his findings.  This was followed by Professors Philip Johnson (Cancer Sciences) and Richard Gray who gave a history of Clinical trials at Birmingham and with the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit,  and not only covered the Cancer trials but also those on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.  Richard in particular outlined the difficulty of measuring outcomes for the chronic diseases described. This session was closed by Professor Richard Lilford (Health and Population Sciences) who gave an overview of Evidence and Judgement in Applied Research. He highlighted the complexity of undertaking studies in Health Services research.  The final talk before lunch was by Lucy Vernall from the Ideas Lab, who gave a brief overview on how to publicise your research.


 
Then it was time for the poster presentations and on Day One there were 54 posters from young postgraduate students from across the College presenting their research findings.  The judges were asked to assess posters outside their own School and all remarked on the high quality of the work and the enthusiasm of the presenters.  The afternoon session was dedicated to research presentations from postgraduate students and demonstrated the depth and breadth of the material.  Subjects  ranged from gynaecology to renal cancer from Portland cement to signalling pathways in the adenovirus. It was a varied and enjoyable session which was chaired to time by Professor John Gordon.
 
After the tea break we picked up once again on more talks showcasing key areas of School-based research. Professors Peter Lane and Graham Anderson (Immunity and Infection) gave a fascinating overview of Making naive and memory T-cells.  Finally Professor Wiebke Arlt (Clinical and Experimental Medicine) presented A hitchhiker’s guide to the steroid galaxy.  Her presentation was very clever and many of us went away remembering traffic jams and the large bouncing blue ball!

We had lost our guest lecturer to the Volcanic Ash crisis, so Professor Steve Watson very kindly stood in and moved his talk forward from Tuesday to the Monday.  Steve had some amusing antidotes about being a PhD supervisor and also the view from the student of the supervisor.  His main talk was an in depth coverage of his research area on platelets. “Role of platelets outside of the vasculature: when half is twice as much”.  He also unearthed the first sue of Aspirin from the Mississippi medical Journal in the 1930s.  Following Steve’s lecture it was then time for a well-earned drink and reflections on a busy but productive day.


 
Day 2

Professor Bryan Turner chaired the Early Career Research: Some Key Themes and Rising Stars session which was all about Post Doctoral Career Development in Research.  Bryan has set up a committee and outlined the qualities that a post doc needs to have.  His list included, being imaginative, showing initiative and having a great insight. Finally, and not least, they should show creativity!  His build up led to a series of talks showcasing some rising stars from across the College.  The audience could only be inspired by the very high quality of the presentations in this section that were all superb. Moreover, because each gave their own personal history about their careers, it really helped bring home the fact to the students and postdocs that there are many routes to success (and that a personal fellowship is a big help, and can be achieved even after an initial rejection).

Professor Nick Barnes then followed with a session of Commercialisation of Research.  This consisted of an overview and case studies.  Nick started the ball rolling with  The Who, What and Why of Commercialisation and exampler projects were given from the following companies Celentyx,  Neuregenix & Free-light chain.  Finally, Dr Gary Thorpe gave a an inspiring talk on the history of Chemiluminesence which will no doubt have inspired many young researchers to look to developing their own companies.



Over lunch there was the second set of posters to judge.  For this session there were 30 presenters and once again there was a lot of activity over the lunch break.  The final session of the day was the Post Graduate presentations which once again were of a high standard. The presentations were over, but there was still the final judging to be done and the shortlisting of the final 11 posters over the two days.  These were then whittled down to an eventual winner and 5 highly commended posters.  There was much discussion as the standard was so high it was difficult to separate the final six.

Professor Walmsley announced to the audience the final winners which are outlined below.
 
Presenters:
1st prize (£100):
Manju Kurian (School of Clinical & Experimental Medicine)
Infantile Parkinsonism-Dystonia (IPD), a Novel Neurotransmitter Disorder and Dopamine ‘Transportopathy’ is Caused by Mutations in SLC6A3
 
2nd prize (£75) :
Emma Mader (School of Immunity and Infection)
Strong Induction of Colonic Isolated Lymphoid Follicles by Activation of the Alternative NF-kappa B Pathway.
 
3rd prize (£50):
Gareth Wyn-Jones (School of Dentistry)

 
Posters:
Overall winner (£100):
Louisa Jeffery (Immunity & Infection)
1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3, TGF-beta and IL-2 combine to inhibit T cell production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and promote development of regulatory T cells expressing CTLA-4 and FoxP3
 
Highly commended (£50 each):
Natalie Forrester (Cancer Sciences) Regulation of DNA damage signalling pathways by adenovirus
Phil Tomson (Dentistry) Hepatocyte growth factor promotes mineralisation in dental pulp cells
Myriam Chimen (C &EM) Leptin and leptin receptors changes in Autoimmune Type 1 Diabetes.
Natalie Roberts (Immunity & Infection) A Novel Role For gdT cells in Medullary Thymic Epithelial Cell Development
Garrick Wilson (Immunity & Infection)  Hepatitis C virus modulation of hepatocellular polarity: mechanism(s) and consequences.
 
There was much excitement and cheers as the winners were announced and came down to have their photographs taken.  Professor Walmsley brought the proceedings to a close by thanking everyone who had helped organise the day especially everyone in the College Research & Knowledge Transfer Office.  Finally, a big thanks was given to Karen Carter Postgraduate Manager (Research) whose organisation had meant that the two days were a success.

Research Gala Brochure