The aim of this event is to provide a forum for external clinicians/clinical academics and basic scientists to identify potential collaborators. We are hoping to foster collaborations not only between those who are pitching, but also between pitchers and the audience.

The format will be 3 minute pitches (0-1 slide) from members of each camp, to a larger audience made up of other external clinicians/clinical academics and basic scientists.

This will then be followed by tea and coffee to allow interested parties from the pitchers and audience to interact.

Pitches will include area of work, what they might be looking for in a collaborator and what they potentially have to offer (e.g. particular research techniques, interest in particular research areas, blood samples, tissue samples, patient phenotyping and/or outcome data, clinical viewpoint on research, help with patient involvement in grants etc).

Programme

14:00 Welcome

Prof Veronica Kinsler

Assistant Research Director for Clinical Academic Training and Development & Principal Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute

Professor of Paediatric Dermatology and Dermatogenetics, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children UCL GOS Institute of Child Health

Dr Sally Leevers

Director of Academic Training, The Francis Crick Institute

14:10 “How it works at it’s best – an example of Crick Group Leader and clinical academic pairing”

Prof Andreas Schaefar

Principal Group Leader - Assistant Research Director, The Francis Crick Institute

14:20 “The Human Biology Facility – from inception to completion and everything in between.”

Jennifer Hay

Human Research Facility Director, The Francis Crick Institute

Douglas Gray

Head of Human Research Facility Governance, The Francis Crick Institute

14:25 3 minute pitches

1. Dr James Kinross (Reader in Colorectal Surgery and a Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College London)

Specialty: Colorectal cancer

Title of talk: Engineering the gut microbiome for improved cancer outcomes

2. Dr Rob Sellar (Senior Clinical Research Fellow, UCL)

Specialty: Haematology

Title of talk: Exploiting E3 ligases to treat cancer

3. Dr Sara Ghorashian (Consultant Paediatric Haematologist, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer, UCL GOS Institute of Child Health)

Specialty: CART

Title of talk: Towards better models of CART cell therapy for haematological malignancy

4. Prof Robert Wilkinson (Principal Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute; Honorary Professor, University of Cape Town & Professor of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London)

Specialty: M. tuberculosis

Title of talk: Protective and pathogenic immune response to M. tuberculosis

5. Niloufar Safinia (Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist, Honorary Consultant Transplant Hepatologist)

Speciality: Immunoregulation in cancer

Title of talk: The liver in an immune-dependent world

6. Dr Francesca Ester Morreale (Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute)

Specialty: Targeted protein degradation for antibiotics research

Title of talk: Enabling targeted protein degradation in bacteria

7. Dr Brian Hogan (Lead clinician for liver critical care and consultant in intensive care medicine, Royal Free Hospital NHS Foundation Trust & Honorary Associate Professor, UCL)

Specialty: Liver

Title of talk: Liver Critical Care - a symphony of opportunities in machine perfusion, inflammation/immunity and critical care research.

8. Prof Marco Endrizzi (Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute & Professor of Experimental Physics, UCL)

Specialty: X-ray microscopy

Title of talk: Detail and context: X-ray phase-contrast microtomography for imaging soft tissue across scales

9. Dr Ania Koziell (Consultant Nephrologist, Evelina London Children's Hospital & HEFC Senior Lecturer, Kings College London)

Specialty: Kidney

Title of talk: Using the APOL1 genetic risk factor to unlock mechanisms contributing to kidney disease - a genomics approach

10. Dr Daniele Cervettini (Translation Scholar, The Francis Crick Institute)

Specialty: AAV gene delivery

Title of talk: Programmable, cell-type specific AAV for precision gene delivery

11. Dr Zhongbo Chen (Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellow, The Francis Crick Institute)

Specialty: Neurodegenerative disease

Title of talk: Elucidating pathogenic mechanisms of repeat expansion disorders to improve diagnosis and treatment of hereditary ataxias

15:35-16.30 End of event followed by networking and tea/coffee

Registration

We will host this as an in-person event. Please book now for a free in-person ticket. Ticket holders will be emailed with full attendance details closer to the event.

CrickMed: Pitch and Match