UCL Infection, Immunology and Inflammation (III) Symposium 2015

Written by Susan Liu (UCL Pharmacy)

On Wednesday 14 October, academics from top London institutions flocked to the UCL Institute of Child Health for the annual UCL Infection, Immunology and Inflammation (III) Symposium. This year saw the symposium expand its breadth to new topics never covered previously, ranging from inflammatory eye diseases to applying mathematical modeling to CD8+ T cells.

Immune pathology in tissues
Starting the day strong, Professor Tom MacDonald (Barts Health and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London) highlighted the importance of his research in his talk ‘Proteolytic degradation of therapeutic antibodies in the inflamed gut’.

This talk highlighted the effects the body’s microenvironments may have on drugs, emphasising the future of medicine towards becoming more personalised, a vision that UCL aims to direct its research towards through the UCL Personalised Medicine Domain. The reversibility of fibrosis and cirrhosis and T cell cardiotropism were also explored in this session.

Poster exhibition
During the networking breaks, attendees were able to view a poster display, exhibiting the diverse range of groundbreaking research and collaborations from early career researchers (ECRs) from across UCL and other higher education institutions. All posters were entered into the annual III ECR Abstract Competition. The top-scoring six were invited to present their work at the symposium (more on this later), and the other top-scoring abstracts were turned into posters for display.

There was fierce competition this year, with the standard set high by engaging work, such as ‘Progressive trends in bacterial abundances with gingival inflammation in Malawi’ by PhD student Liam Shaw (UCL Centre for Mathematics, Physics and Engineering in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology, and UCL Child Health).

Dr Anne Marijn Kramer (UCL Child Health) was awarded first prize for her poster depicting her work on ‘Delineating the impact of scFv affinity on CAR-mediated T cell function’. Marie Pariollaud (University of Manchester Institute of Human Development) was awarded the runner-up prize for her poster on ‘A novel mechanism links inflammation to the clock through REV-ERBα protein stability’.

Inflammation
The next session saw Professor Alan Salama (UCL Medicine) explore his pioneering research on ‘Novel means of targeting ischaemia reperfusion in the kidney’. Acute kidney injuries are prevalent among hospital patients, and Professor Salama’s research offers the potential for a future where they may be significantly reduced or avoided altogether in patients at risk.

New research has also stressed the need for different treatment pathways for patients in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and creating in vivo models of inflammatory eye diseases. These are clear examples of the excellent research that is taking place in the field of III and demonstrates new insights into existing diseases with real life clinical applications.

Early career researcher presentations
The second half of the day began with the six ECR Presentations, submitted as part of the competition mentioned earlier and shortlisted by the Symposium Organising Committee. The winning presentation went to Stuart Weston (UCL MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology) for his presentation on ‘InterFeron Inducible TransMembrane proteins (IFITMs) can restrict alphavirus infection’.

It is refreshing to see opportunities created to bolster rising talent from UCL and other universities. Regretfully, there could only be one winner, but for those valiant enough asking to discuss job opportunities post presentation, I wish you all the very best with your future careers!

Host pathogen biology
Session four saw talks illustrating advances in understanding HIV evasion mechanisms and therapeutic innovations in inflammation, and Professor Eleanor Riley (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) uncovered the mysteries of Natural Killer cells in infection and vaccination.

The findings from Professor Greg Towers (UCL Infection & Immunity) on the importance of Cyclophilin are not only significant for developing novel treatment therapies in HIV but may hold significant applications for further understanding of viruses.

System biology and diagnostics
The final session of the day concentrated on research in early detection of infectious diseases such as HIV, influenza and tuberculosis (TB). The symposium audience heard that the drive for faster and increasingly accurate diagnosis will see clear health benefits for patients globally, and will decrease the time it takes for them to receive the correct treatment.

The symposium was a great event, which brought together around 280 researchers from across the disciplines in UCL, UCLPartners and beyond. The annual event is not only a celebration of discoveries in the III field, but also a celebration of the next generation of talented young researchers.

UCL III Symposium 2015 – session videos