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

Tuesday 4 March, 2025 – 12.00-13.30
Location: RILD Building Lecture Theatre, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (Wonford).

Speaker: Professor Michael Gibbons 

Fibrotic Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis: the CHORUS trial 

This talk will discuss the CHORUS trial, a multi-centre double-blind randomised placebo-controlled group-sequential superiority trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of oral Corticosteroids in patients witH fibrOtic hypeRsensitivity pneumonitis (fHP). Corticosteroids, and other immunosuppressant therapies, are currently used as the standard of care in the management of fHP, despite a lack of evidence. There is emerging data to suggest that corticosteroids and immunosuppressants may be harmful in patients with fibrotic interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), such as fHP.  

Bio: Michael Gibbons is a Senior Investigator Fellow in the Mycology Theme of the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), and Health & Care Director (Medical – Joint) of the Regional Research Delivery Network, South West Peninsula. Michael also leads the Academic Department of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Devon University Hospital and is Lead of the Regional NHSE Specialised Commissioned ILD Service, managing a population of ~2.5M. He is interested in all aspects of respiratory related research, but with a particular focus on interstitial lung disease, infection, and the links between infection, inflammation and ageing.  

Speaker: Professor Anne Corbett 

Remote collection of blood biomarkers for neurodegeneration: Progress and findings from the VITAL study 

The VITAL study is exploring whether we can collect micro-samples of blood from people at home using finger-prick sampling kits. If effective this could be a valuable way of screening large numbers of people for early biomarkers of neurodegeneration without the need for a clinic visit. VITAL is recruiting people through the PROTECT-UK cohort of older adults to determine the acceptability of this approach, the validity of the data collected and how it correlates with cognitive function. This presentation will give an update on this exciting work and present some of the early findings 

Bio: Anne Corbett is Professor in Dementia Research and Director for Business Engagement and Innovation for the Department of Health and Community Sciences. Her research focuses on cognitive health in ageing and how dementia might be prevented in older adults. She is also the online PROTECT-UK study and has built a portfolio of research into cognitive health in ageing, dementia prevention and large scale digital health research. Her portfolio includes large international cohort studies, online clinical trials, biomarker research and digital tools for brain health. Her research programmes span epidemiological, biomedical and interventional studies, in addition to a translational research pipeline of medical devices and digital platforms for improving health services. She holds funding from UK government, EU, NIH, charity and philanthropic funders and several industry-funded collaborations. Her PROTECT portfolio now supports over 100 collaborations and has generated over 160 publications to date.  

Speaker: Suhel Ahmed 

A specific de novo ACTB variant is a novel cause of syndromic neonatal diabetes. 

Neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM) is a monogenic condition with 40 causative genes identified to date. Whilst these genes explain the majority of cases, ~10% of patients remain without a known aetiology. Identifying novel genes causing NDM can improve our understanding of the mechanisms regulating beta-cell development and survival. The aim of this study was to identify novel causes of neonatal diabetes. We used whole genome sequencing to identify a de novo ACTB (p.Ser348Leu) variant in two unrelated individuals who had NDM with additional extra-pancreatic features. A review of the current data suggests that the ACTB (p.Ser348Leu) variant causes NDM via a mutation-specific mechanism. These results provide new insights into the essential role played by ACTB in pancreatic beta cells.  

Bio: Suhel is a second year BRC-funded PhD student working within the diabetes theme. The aim of Suhel’s PhD project is to identify genes essential for survival of insulin-producing cells by studying rare genetic types of diabetes. His research currently focuses on utilising genome sequencing data from individuals diagnosed with neonatal diabetes to identify novel disease-causing genes, and replicating these genetic findings by analysing the candidate gene(s) in the wider neonatal diabetes cohort and other disease relevant cohorts. 

Coming soon…

Joint BRC – MRC CMM External Speaker Seminar 

March 25th 2025 

Title: AIDS-associated mycoses 

Professor Nelesh Govender is an expert in fungal diseases and antifungal resistance and was awarded an NIHR Global Research Professorship in 2024. His research topic is ‘Refining Interventions to Reduce AIDS Mortality from Bacterial and Fungal Infections in Africa’. 

He is a Professor in the School of Pathology at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa and Honorary PI at the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and the University of Cape Town. He is the Head of The Centre for Healthcare-Associated Infections, Antimicrobial Resistance and Mycoses (CHARM), part of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, and works closely with the South African Department of Health to generate evidence to guide government policy. 

Professor Govender’s work has translated to the discovery of two novel fungal pathogens, namely Emergomyces africanus and Blastomyces emzantsi causing life-threatening human infections. His work on cryptococcal meningitis has led to implementation of a national laboratory screening programme and access to life-saving antifungal treatments for people living with HIV in South Africa.  

Seminar Schedule 2025

• 4th March
• 25th March
• 22nd April
• 3rd June
• 15th July
• 9th September
• 21st October
• 2nd December