Bringing the infectious diseases community together in Edinburgh

June 2026: On Wednesday May 27, we hosted our 15th Annual Symposium at Edinburgh Futures Institute. It was a fantastic day with talks from across the Edinburgh Infectious Diseases membership.

Symposium attendees at Edinburgh Futures Institute.

The day began with the delivery of the annual Ker Memorial Prize winners presentation. The prize is awarded annually to the student submitting the best PhD thesis in infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh, and a mark of great distinction for both the student and their supervisor.

This 2026 prize was jointly awarded to Nelly Mak (Institute for Regeneration and Repair) and Ocean Chau (Roslin Institute), both of whom have made significant contributions to the understanding of host-pathogen interactions in viral infections.

Nelly and Ocean Ker Prize — Nelly Mak and Ocean Chau receiving their Ker Prize awards from EID Co-Director David Dockrell.

Diverse range of talks

Throughout the day, attendees heard from 8 speakers from across the EID network. The talks ranged from infectious diseases in aquaculture to infections in stroke patients to the treatment of fungal infections.

The programme was praised for its diversity and inclusivity.

Thank you to all our speakers for their informative and engaging talks.

Symposium speakers

Valentina Busin, Moredun Research Institute - Tick Borne Disease surveillance
Laurie Denyer-Willis, School of Social and Political Science - Who Gets Called Irrational? Farming, Antibiotics, and AMR
Andrew Maclean, School of biological Sciences - Asphyxiating apicomplexans: inhibition of parasitic respiratory chains
Fernando Mardones, Global Agriculture and Food Systems - Aquaculture Under Pressure: A One Health Perspective on Infectious Disease Dynamics
Laura McCulloch, Institute for Regeneration and Repair - Infection in acute and chronic stroke recovery
Iain Page, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh - Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis: How can we deliver effective care in an era of antifungal resistance?
Rute Pinto, Roslin Institute - Udderly viral: How special are bovine incursions of influenza A viruses?
Lesley Smith, Scotland's Rural College - A systems understanding of antimicrobial resistance genes from livestock production to the environment and wildlife

Co-creation panel

Just after lunch we were treated to a panel discussion all about co-creating research.

The panel was chaired by Jaime Garcia-Iglesias from Usher Institute with Tracy Jackson (Associate Dean for Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement) and Matthew Silk (School of Biological Sciences) as panel members.

Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) is the practice of actively partnering with patients, carers, and the public in the design, planning, and evaluation of health research and care services

The panel discussed the importance of stakeholer engagement and bulding relationships from the very beginning and although it is a long process to build meaningful partnerships, it is beneficial to spend time and effort in building those.

ECRs highlighted

We were also treated to 5 'flash talks' from early career researchers. These speakers had a maximum of 3 slides and 5 minutes to give a brief overview of their research.

All 5 speakers were excellent and it was great to hear about the work being undertaken by our ECRs.

Throughout the day we also ran two poster competitions, with attendees encouraged to view and vote for their favourite poster during the breaks.

Congratulations to Fern Fairgrieve (Edinburgh Napier University) for best student poster 'Antibiotic resistance in the river almond: Comparing urban and agricultural impact’' and Dr Hannah Ravenswater (School of Biological Sciences) for best staff poster 'Revealing the hidden diversity of avian influenza viruses co-circulating across different species of UK breeding seabirds'.

Poster prize winners L-R: Fern Fairgrieve (Edinburgh Napier University) and Hannah Ravenswater (School of Biological Sciences).

ECR flash talks

Marie-Louise Wöhrle, School of Social and Political Science - Microbial gardens? Conservation, biodiversity, and infectious diseases in Scotland
Grant Henderson, Bioinformatics and Statistics Scotland - Quantifying Spread and Control of UK HPAI Outbreaks
Matin Mahmoudi, Roslin Institute - cGAS activation during human cytomegalovirus infection is driven by exogenous DNA
Liqi Chen, School of Physics and Astronomy - Phages cooperate with ribosome-targeting antibiotics to kill bacteria
Germander Soothill, Usher Institute - Pharmacokinetic variability and mutational flexibility promote resistance to dolutegravir-based therapy

Ker Memorial Lecture

The Symposium closed with the Ker Memorial Lecture, this year delivered by Professor Emma Thomson - Director of the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.

The Ker Memorial Lecture (and Prize) are very generously supported by Miss Aileen Ker (pronounced "Car"), in memory of two outstanding Edinburgh physicians, her grandfather Dr. Claude Buchanan Ker, and his son (her father), Dr. Frank Leighton Ker.

Professor Thomson gave a summary of her team's work characterising under-recognised viral diseases in rural Uganda. She spoke about improving diagnostic capacity so that undiagnosed new or emerging infections may be detected at source more rapidly in the future.

Emma THOMSON — Ker Memorial Lecture - Professor Emma Thomson (University of Glasgow) and Professor Mark Woolhouse (Usher Institute) presenting the award.