This is the web page of the Health and Medicine track of the ABCP 2021 Annual Conference, to be held on Friday 2nd July, 2021.

Programme (Tentative)

Day 1: Friday 2nd July 2021 (Zoom link)

  • 2:00-2:30pm:  Myelinating memories
    • Speaker: Professor William D. Richardson, FMedSci, FRS, University College London
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      Professor William D. Richardson
      Professor William D. Richardson

      William Richardson obtained his BSc (Physics) from Manchester University in 1973, and his PhD (Biophysics) from King’s College London in 1978.

      He spent postdoctoral time at the National Institutes of Health (USA) and the National Institute for Medical Research (London) before his first academic appointment in the Department of Zoology (later Biology) at University College London (UCL) in 1985.

      Since then he has worked in the field of developmental neuroscience, specializing in the development of oligodendrocytes, the myelin-forming cells of the central nervous system (CNS). His pioneering work in this area has shown that oligodendrocytes continue to be generated throughout young adult life in mice and that the newly-formed oligodendrocytes are required, together with the neurons they ensheath, for motor learning and long-term memory formation. He continues to investigate the role of oligodendrocytes and myelin in brain plasticity, learning and memory, through a combination of genetic and behavioural experiments in mice.

    • Moderator: Professor Daqing Ma, FRCA, Imperial College London
  • 2:35-3:00pm: Precision medicine for Asthma
    • Speaker: Professor Kian Fan Chung, MBBS, MD, DSc, FRCP, Imperial College London
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      Professor Kian Fan Chung
      Professor Kian Fan Chung

      Kian Fan Chung is a Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Head of Experimental Studies Medicine at National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London and Respiratory Physician at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, London.

      He is Senior Investigator for the National Institute for Health Research, NHS, UK. He is Visiting Professor at ICL/NTU Lee Kong Chian Medical School, Singapore, and at Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, China.

      He leads the UK-Korea Collaborative PRISM project on precision medicine in severe asthma, the INHALE project on integration of biological length scales for personal pollution exposure and the COVAIR project on SARS-CoV2 aerosol. He co-led the EU-IMI-funded U-BIOPRED Severe Asthma Consortium.

      He focuses on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He studies mechanisms pertaining to epithelial-macrophage interactions at the airway interface and airway smooth muscle-mast cell-eosinophil crosstalk in the airway mucosa. He has an interest on the impact of environmental pollution and nanoparticles and of the microbiome on the lungs focusing on both innate and acquired mechanisms.

    • Moderator: Dr Jing Deng, PhD, University College London
  • 3:05-3:35pm: Visualizing virus infection
    • Speaker: Professor Peijun Zhang, PhD, University of Oxford
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      Professor Peijun Zhang
      Professor Peijun Zhang

      Peijun Zhang obtained B.S. in Electrical Engineering and M.S. in Solid State Physics from Nanjing University. She received her Ph.D. in Biophysics and Physiology from University Virginia. After postdoc training and subsequently a staff scientist at NIH, she joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2006 as an assistant professor then associate professor with tenure.

      In 2016, she was recruited to Diamond Light Source as the founding director of eBIC (the UK National Electron Bio-imaging Centre), and jointly as a full professor at the University of Oxford.

      Her research focuses on structural biology of human pathogens and molecular mechanisms of infection, in particular HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, by developing and applying novel technologies for high-resolution and in situ cryoEM. She received many awards, including “Carnegie Science Emerging Female Scientist Award” (2014) and “Wellcome Trust Investigator Award” (2017), and recently an ERC AdG grant award (2021).

    • Moderator: Professor Tao Dong, PhD, University of Oxford
  • 3:40-4:10pm: Patient participation and shared decision making in healthcare 
    • Speaker: Professor KK Cheng, FMedSci, University of Birmingham
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      Professor KK Cheng
      Professor KK Cheng

      KK Cheng has been a professor at the University of Birmingham since 1995. His main interests are in the epidemiology, prevention and control of important non-communicable diseases, and the development of primary care in China.

      He has developed collaboration between the UK and China in primary care. He founded the Department of General Practice at Peking University Health Science Center in May 2011.

      KK is Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine, Public Health England. He also holds an Honorary Chair at the University of Hong Kong.

    • Moderator: Professor Ruoling Chen, PhD, University of Wolverhampton

Day 2: Saturday 3rd July 2021 (Zoom link)

  • 2:00-2:25pm: The new era of chronic migraine therapy
    • Speaker: Dr Beili Shao, University Hospitals of Leicester
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      Dr Beili Shao
      Dr Beili Shao

      Dr Beili Shao is a Specialty Registrar in Neurology in University Hospitals of Leicester. She gained PhD in Neurosciences in University of Nottingham. Her PhD was about the efficacy of protein kinase C inhibitors in blood brain barrier protection under hyperglycaemic insult. She is also an associate fellow of the higher education.

    • Moderator: Professor Daqing Ma, FRCA, MAE, Imperial College London
  • 2:25-2:50pm: Use of health economic evaluation in resource allocation decision-making
    • Speaker: Dr Huajie Jin, Senior Health Economist, King’s College London
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      Dr Huajie Jin
      Dr Huajie Jin

      Dr Huajie Jin (Lily) obtained Bachelor of Medicine (MBBS) from Southeast University, MSc in International Health Policy (health Economics stream) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and PhD in Health Economics from King’s College London (KCL). She has 13 years of work experience in health economic evaluation, including four years working on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) clinical guidelines, and nine years working as a Senior Health Economist for KCL.

      Her research interests include model-based and/or trial-based economic evaluations and cost-of-illness studies. She is particularly interested in the development of whole disease models which cover the entire care pathway for a given disease. She has been working on the economic evaluation of a wide range of different disease areas, including mental health disorders, cancers, kidney diseases, infectious diseases, and orthodontics.

      She currently leads the health economic analysis for three clinical trials, including PROSPECTS (a UK trial that aims to recruit 100,000 women receiving breast cancer screening), STARRT-AKI (a 15-country trial that recruited over two thousand patients with acute kidney injury), and LQD (a UK trial that aims to recruit 276 patients with depression).

    • Moderator: Professor Daqing Ma, FRCA, MAE, Imperial College London
  • 2:50-3:15pm: Computational modelling to predict cell-materials interactions and cell-cell sensing
    • Speaker: Dr Jinju (Vicky) Chen, Senior Lecturer, Newcastle University
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      Dr Jinju (Vicky) Chen
      Dr Jinju (Vicky) Chen

      Dr Chen is a Senior Lecturer in Biointerface Engineering at Newcastle University since 2018. Her research in cell and tissue mechanics, cell-hydrogel scaffold interactions, micro/nanofabrication of bio-inspired materials and advanced microscopy aims to address global challenges in healthcare (e.g. tissue regeneration, safety regulation of medical implant and biofilm infections). Her bespoke modelling and experimental research have been mainly funded by EPSRC (incl. Frontier Award), BBSRC National Biofilms Innovation Centre and The Royal Society. She is a Principal Editor of Journal of Materials Research and Editorial board member of Scientific Reports.

    • Moderator: Professor Daqing Ma, FRCA, MAE, Imperial College London
  • 3:15-3:40pm: Microtubule-dependent mechanism in controlling cardiomyocyte contractility after myocardial infarction
    • Speaker: Dr Xuan Li, British Heart Foundation intermediate fellow, University of Cambridge
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      Dr Xuan Li
      Dr Xuan Li

      Dr Xuan Li is a British Heart Foundation intermediate fellow, at BHF Cambridge Cardiovascular Research Centre of University of Cambridge. She obtained Ph.D in Biochemistry in the University of Birmingham, and her post-doc training was in Cell Biology at MRC-Lab of Molecular Biology. Her group is interested in studying how microtubule dysfunction contributes to inflammatory disease development, particularly inflammatory cardiovascular diseases.

    • Moderator: Dr Huiliang Li, associate professor, University College London
  • 3:40-4:05pm: Novel antisense therapy for genetic disorders
    • Speaker: Dr Haiyan Zhou, Institute of Child Health, University College London
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      Dr Haiyan Zhou
      Dr Haiyan Zhou

      Dr Haiyan Zhou is an assistant professor (tenured) at University College London. She leads a research team on developing RNA-based novel therapies for genetic disorders and translational biomedical research in rare childhood genetic conditions.

      Dr Zhou is also the director of the MSc Personalized Medicine and Novel Therapies Programme at UCL. She is the non-clinical chair of the Junior Faculty and deputy lead of the Novel Therapy Theme in the Biomedical Research Centre at UCL Great Ormond Street Hospital.

      She is member of World Muscle Society, Oligonucleotide Therapeutic Society and American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. She is also the UK representative and management committee member of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (e-COST) on ‘Delivery of Antisense RNA Therapeutics’. Dr Zhou holds a medical degree in clinical medicine and PhD award from Peking Union Medical College.

    • Moderator: Dr Huiliang Li, University College London
  • 4:05-4:30pm: Experience-dependent circuit reorganization in the developing visual cortex
    • Speaker: Dr Y. Jennifer Sun, Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London
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      Dr Y. Jennifer Sun
      Dr Y. Jennifer Sun

      Dr Sun completed her undergraduate thesis from Peking University studying neuronal network and visual circuit assembly. Her PhD research at University of Southern California focused on circuit computation and sensory cortical development using both computational and systems approaches. During her postdoc training at UC San Francisco, Dr Sun worked with Drs Roger Nicoll and Michael Stryker to apply molecular techniques, electrophysiology, and 2-photon imaging to study the cellular and circuit mechanisms of neuroplasticity in developing and adult brain.

      Dr Sun recently joined UCL Institute of Ophthalmology to start her independent research. The Visual Plasticity Lab studies how neuroplasticity in the visual systems is regulated through interaction in the local environment as well as crosstalk between different brain regions. We apply state-of-art imaging techniques, together with computational, physiological, pharmacological, and molecular manipulation, to identify the underlying biological basis of visual cortical plasticity.

    • Moderator: Dr Guifen Chen, Queen Mary University of London
  • 4:30-5:00pm: Panel discussion on career development in life sciences (in Chinese/English)
    • Panel members: senior professors and speakers
    • Moderator: Dr Huiliang Li, University College London

Organising Committee

Professor Daqing Ma (马大青), Imperial College London (Chair)

Professor Tao Dong (董涛), University of Oxford

Professor Ruoling Chen (陈若陵), University of Wolverhampton

Dr Jing Deng (邓京), Barts Health NHS Trust & University College London

Dr Guifen Chen (陈桂芬), Queen Mary University of London

Dr Huiliang Li (李会良), University College London