Seminar Series

We host a regular seminar series, providing the opportunity to hear from members of our BRC community across our five research themes, with representation across a variety of career stages, ranging from our Senior Investigator Fellows to PhD students.

We hold regular seminars for colleagues across our partnership and additionally for patients and the public, keeping people at the heart of our research.

Format

One hour seminars, followed by a networking lunch for those attending in-person, are delivered in a hybrid format to help ensure equity of access. We would encourage in-person attendance where possible to make the most of the networking opportunity.

The in-person location will rotate between Streatham (LSI), St Lukes (South Cloisters) and the RILD for fairness across all research groups.

Find the details of upcoming seminars and book your free space below.

Upcoming Seminar

Join us for our third NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre Seminar where you’ll have the opportunity to hear from some of our exceptional BRC researchers. A networking lunch will directly follow (13:00-13:30), providing the perfect opportunity to stimulate collaboration and foster connections.

We are delighted to announce our three seminar speakers:

• Dr Nick Kennedy, BRC Senior Investigator Fellow in Genetics & Genomics
• Dr Sonia Medina Hernandez, BRC Translational Fellow in Rehabilitation
• Emily Plumpton, BRC PhD Student in Clinical Mycology

Date: Tuesday 12^th November 2024

Time: 12:00 – 13:30

Location: Room 2.13, South Cloisters, St Lukes Campus. In-person attendance is encouraged to facilitate networking, but to ensure the event is accessible to all, a virtual link is also available.

Please note that a new Stagecoach line 4 University service is now in operation, providing free transport between campuses. Further details can be found here.

Email Dr Sophie Gould to register for this free event

Talk and speaker information

Speaker: Dr Nick Kennedy

Title: Pharmacogenetics in inflammatory bowel disease: from discovery to translation

Overview: The UK prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) is likely to reach 1% in the next decade. Gastroenterologists and patients now have an increasing range of treatments to choose from, but predicting response and adverse effects remains challenging. The Exeter IBD Research group have worked on using genetics and other molecular techniques to understand differences in drug response for over ten years now. This talk will highlight some of the key work to date, including a focus on how these discoveries can be brought into clinical practice.

Bio: Dr Nick Kennedy is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Royal Devon and Exeter and Senior Investigator Fellow at the Exeter BRC. He undertook his postgraduate training in Adelaide, South Australia and Edinburgh, where he also obtained a PhD. His clinical and research interests are in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis), particularly in understanding treatment response in IBD. He is a member of the UK IBD genetics consortium and current chair of the British Society of Gastroenterology IBD clinical research group. Beyond his interests in inflammatory bowel disease, he is also excited at the broader possibilities of better use of electronic patient record data in research. He is the Trust’s Chief Research Information Officer, a theme lead for digital innovation, AI and data with the Exeter Healthtech Research Centre and on the management group for the South West Secure Data Environment for Research and Development.

Speaker: Dr Sonia Medina Hernandez

Title: Mind the Gap: unravelling maladaptive fear learning patterns during chronic low back pain

Overview : This research seeks to translate pain mechanistic data into real-world scenarios using the Vsimulator platform. Specifically, the focus is directed towards disentangling the neural dynamics in individuals experiencing chronic pain and anxiety during everyday challenging situations, such as commuting on public transport. The overarching goal is to devise therapeutic VR-based protocols that aim to rehabilitate maladaptive cycles of anxiety, commonly contributing to the perpetuation and exacerbation of pain symptoms, in a precise and personalised manner for each patient.

Bio: After graduating in Neuropsychology back in Madrid, Sonia completed an MSc in Psychological Research Methods at Birkbeck University, followed by a PhD in Neuroimaging at King’s College London. Back in 2023, Sonia moved to the University of Exeter, first as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and soon after as a BRC Fellow. Overall, Sonia’s research interests cover an array of topics within the field of pain, from the study of pain modulatory systems in healthy individuals using psychophysics, to clinical neuroimaging for the assessment of neural correlates of pain perception, as well as mechanisms of action of non-pharmacological treatments in chronic pain cohorts. Currently, her focus is on the application of virtual reality for the treatment of neuropathic pain, specifically studying the neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning VR-based interventions, using fMRI, fNIRS and psychophysiological assessments.

Speaker: Emily Plumpton

Title: Are T cells the key orchestrators of airway inflammation in asthma and fungal asthma?

Overview: Fungal spores are a major constituent of indoor and outdoor air pollution. Increased exposure to spores (e.g. damp and mouldy housing) dramatically increases the risk of respiratory disease and exacerbates inflammation in a subset of asthma patients. However, we do not understand what predisposes someone to fungal sensitisation, or how fungal spores interact with immune cells in the airway. Using advanced flow cytometry, we have characterised inflammation in asthma patients with and without fungal sensitisation. We now hope to further our understanding of fungal asthma by investigating how T cells, the key players in anti-fungal immunity, respond to fungi and bacteria found in the airways of asthma patients.

Bio: Emily is a BRC PhD student, supervised by Dr. Peter Cook, Prof. Michael Gibbons and Prof. Chris Scotton, at the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology. She graduated from her degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Exeter in 2023 and conducted a placement year in GlaxoSmithKline’s Immunology Research Unit. The core focus of Emily’s PhD is understanding how T cells drive inflammation in the airways of asthma patients, although she is also interested in looking at the microbiome and macrophage behaviour.

Seminar Schedule 2025

• 21st January
• 4th March
• 22nd April
• 3rd June
• 15th July
• 9th September
• 21st October
• 2nd December