Meeting Report
Tuesday 3rd October
Royal College of Surgeons
Overview '06
As part of its on-going commitment to the work of Kidney Research UK, The Amgen Foundation, a subsidiary of Amgen Ltd, agreed to fund a sixth ‘Fellows Day’, which took place in London at the Royal College of Surgeons on the 3rd October 2006.
This annual event is designed as an opportunity for Research Fellows
and PhD Students supported by the Fund to attend an academic meeting
and celebration of their work.
This initiative continues to build a spirit of belonging and
demonstrates the Fund's continuing interest in supporting and
encouraging young scientists and clinicians.
The 2006 Fellow’s Day was jointly hosted and chaired by Professor Kathryn Wood, Professor of Immunology, at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford (former Trustee and current Special Advisor for the charity) and Dr Anthony Warrens, Senior Lecturer & Honorary Consultant at Imperial College School of Medicine, London (and Medical Adviser to the Charity).
Following an introductory welcome, Professor Charles Pusey (Chairman of the Kidney Research UK) delivered an update on the work of the charity. We learned that the charity has an ongoing spending commitment of £8.8 million which includes a further funding commitement of £2.2 million for this year alone. Three-quarters of charitable expenditure goes on research with the remainder used for patient care and raising awareness of kidney disease. Professor Pusey stressed the varied nature of the grant applications and the high demand for fellowship funding. He also discussed the charity’s close collaboration with other organisations, including several currently jointly funded career awards with Diabetes UK, The British Renal Society and the Royal College of Surgeons England, as well as other special projects supported by the pharmaceutical industry, government and the Big Lottery Fund. The charity’s strategic focus will be on research, in line with its new identity, continued growth of income, developing new approaches to fundraising, increased operational effectiveness and efficiency and working more closely with other renal and research organisations.
Guest Presentations
Richard Poulsom DSC, Honorary Professor of Molecular Pathology at Bart’s and the London, Queen Mary School of Medicine, University of London, gave a presentation on cells derived from bone marrow use in renal regeneration. Reviewing the evidence, Professor Poulsom discussed the latest studies in this area and also reviewed current thinking both for and against the contribution of these cells. Professor John Monson, MD, FRCP, FRCPI, gave a presentation on the theme of career development opportunities in clinical research.
Presentations from Researchers funded by Kidney Research UK
The following six Fellows/Students gave 15 minute oral presentations outlining their work. Mrs Nicola Thomas, BRS/Kidney Research UK Multidisciplinary Research Fellow, St Helier, Carshalton
“Can innovative patient-centred education programme control the parameters that delay the progression of diabetic kidney disease?” Dr Nick Jones, Senior Fellow at Nuffield Department of Surgery, University of Oxford
“CD8+ memory T cells develop during rejection independently of CD4+ T cells: naïve and memory CD8+ T cells exhibit differential mechanisms of rejection.” Dr Sheema Shrivastava, Training Fellow, Hammersmith Hospital, London
“Regulation of the adaptive immune response by innate factors: role of coagulation proteins.”
Ms Mhairi Sigrist, Joint BRS/Kidney Research UK Multidisciplinary Research Fellow, Derby General Hospital.
“Functionally significant vascular calcification is rapidly progressive in CKD 4 and 5 patients.” Dr David Walbaum, Training Fellow, University of Edinburgh.
“Inhibition of macrophage NF-kB leads to an anti-infalmmatory phenotype with preservation of antimicrobial properties.” Ms Evangelia Prodromidi, PhD Student, Hammersmith Hospital, London
“Bone marrow-derived stem cells improve renal disease in a mouse model of Alports syndrome.” During the day, there were also six poster presentations from:
Dr Catherine Boulter (Senior Fellow at the University of Cambridge),
Dr David Ferenbach (Training Fellow at the University of Edinburgh),
Ms Kate Evans (PhD Student at the University of Leicester),
Dr Lavanya Kamesh (Training Fellow at the University of Birmingham),
Ms Isobel Morten (PhD Student at the University of Leeds)
Dr Anurag Singh (Training Fellow at the University of Bristol).
A further 10 unmoderated posters from fellows and students were viewable during lunch.
New concluding session for 2006!
 The meeting concluded with lay presentations from three fellows (Dr Ravinda Rajakariar, Dr Garetheh Lewis, Ms Jackie Buck) communicating the outcome of their research in clear and concise way to the mixed audience as lay members and supporters of the charity joined the theatre for this last session in the day’s programme.
Chaired by Dr Tim Johnson, a former Senior Research Fellow, assisted by Professor Kathryn Wood, Pauline Lockier (Journalist and Marketeer) and Diana Blass (Lay Trustee). The aim of this session was to encourage a focus on the development of effective presentational skills of selected researchers across a range of disciplines and to assess the indicated progress made against agreed project milestones. This session was very well received by the conference and will be included in future Fellows Days.
Evening Dinner at the new Connaught Rooms
The evening dinner was held at the new Connaught Rooms and included a display detailing events run by Kidney Research UK to raise funds for research. Professor Pusey gave short speech thanking all those who presented and attended Fellows Day. This was followed by the presentation of three awards for ‘Best Oral Presentation’, ‘Best Poster Presentation’ and ‘Best Outcomes Presentation’ which Professor Charles Pusey announced and presented to Ms Mhairi Sigrist, Ms Isabel Morton and Dr Gareth Lewis respectively. The evening was well attended and enjoyed by all those present.
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