Together Again - 11th Annual Symposium

The 11th Annual Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Symposium was held on Thursday 23 June 2022, and we were delighted that it was our first in-person symposium for 2 years.

Ker Memorial Lecture and Prize

We were particularly pleased that the Ker Memorial Lecture was given by Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert from the University of Oxford, who spoke about her pioneering work to develop the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

And as is customary we also heard from the winner of the Ker Memorial Prize, Dr Mabel Tettey, awarded for the best PhD thesis in infectious diseases submitted in 2021.

Poster sessions

We very much encouraged all students and postdocs to present their work in the poster sessions.

The People's Vote Winner was Fiona Sargison from the Fitzgerald lab for her poster on Genome-scale analysis of Staphylococcus aureus to identify determinants of avian host-adaptation.

Programme 

 

COFFEE AND SET UP
0930 - 0935 Ross Fitzgerald, Director Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Welcome and introduction
0935 - 0955 Kate Cuschieri, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Impact of HPV vaccination in Scotland
0955 - 1015 Liam Morrison, Roslin Institute Drug resistance in livestock trypanosomes: a neglected problem in neglected pathogens
1015 - 1035 Richard Sloan, Infection Medicine How does the cellular protein RPRD2 inhibit HIV-1 infection?
1035 - 1050 Beth Mills, Centre for Inflammation Research Routes to reducing the burden of microbial keratitis
1050 - 1105 Freya Bull, School of Physics and Astronomy  A model for the infection dynamics of a urinary catheter listen to all the lightning talks in this session
Jamie Gorzynski, Roslin Institute Genomic epidemiological analysis of Legionnaires’ Disease in Scotland uncovers long-term endemic L. pneumophila clones of public health importance
Rose Doyle, School of Biological Sciences Characterisation of novel dissemination genes in Burkholderia pseudomallei
COFFEE
1135 - 1150 Vasso Makrantoni, Infection Medicine Genome plasticity: A survival strategy for human fungal pathogens – please note only part of the talk is available
1150 - 1205 Joanna Young, School of Biological Sciences  Toxoplasma gondii: dissecting chronic infection of a ubiquitous parasite
1205 - 1220 David Smith, Moredun Research Institute Bradyzoite biology: from invasion to persistence – please note this recording has been edited to remove disturbance from unwanted interruptions
1220 - 1235 Farren Yero, Inst. for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Duke University Where Science Meets Slavery: Reimagining Vaccine History through Anti-Colonial Art
1235 - 1250   Will Harvey, Roslin Institute Predicting the direction of influenza evolution  listen to all the lightning talks in the session
Piotr Janas, Centre for Inflammation Research Respiratory syncytial virus infection causes long-term changes in the expression of major histocompatibility complexes in murine airway epithelial cells
Richa Sharma, School of Chemistry Fluorescent smart probes – a "tag-and-kill" approach for infectious microbial pathogens
Nelly Mak, Infection Medicine Does Allelic Variation in the IFITM Amphipathic Helix Influence Its Antiviral Activity?
LUNCH
1410 - 1425 Prerna Vohra, School of Biological Sciences Sequencing approaches to understand and control zoonotic pathogens
1425 - 1445 Ian Laurenson, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Diagnosing mycobacterial infection – where are we and where are we going?
1445 - 1505 Lonneke Vervelde, Roslin Institute Mucosal tissue models: from egg to enteroid
1505 - 1525 Katerina Guschanski, School of Biological Sciences AMR in ancient DNA
1525 - 1540 KER MEMORIAL PRIZE WINNER:  Mabel Tettey, School of Biological Sciences Analysis of released peptidases and their role in the transmission biology of African trypanosomes
COFFEE
1615 KER MEMORIAL LECTURER:  Professor Sarah Gilbert, University of Oxford ChAdOx1-vectored vaccines against different viral targets

Online attendance

We will also be making the sessions available to an online audience.  Please select the "online only" ticket option when registering if you able not able to join the symposium in person.

Updated information on speakers and the timings for the symposium will be added to the event website as they become available.