Past events

Pitching your research

Date: 24 November 2023
Venue: College Court

The Institute for Precision Health held a workshop for PGRs and ECRs to give a better understanding of how to pitch your research successfully and succinctly, directly feeding into IAA funding pitches. This was the first in a series of workshops to help improve research communication and build confidence.

This was open to all PGRs and ECRs from across all departments.

Our speakers on the day were Dr Lynne Howells - Introduction, Professor Don Jones - Preparing your pitch, Dr Carl Edwards - Understanding intellectual property and commercialisation steps and Dr Rebecca Hames - Writing for impact and understanding funding requirements.

Some of our attendees gave excellent 2 minute pitches for their project ideas. Our winner on the day was Dr Colleen Maxwell (CVS).

Research Institutes and Centres – strategies and opportunities

Date: 26 October 2023
Venue: Digital Culture Studio, David Wilson Library

The purpose of this event was to foster collaboration and alignment among the University's Research Centres and Research Institutes and explore interdisciplinary opportunities within and beyond our colleges. The event also gave opportunity to learn about the strategies and support available from the Institutes and learn about the current and future funding landscape from the Research, Partnership and Development (RPD) team.

The agenda consisted of:

• Institute director and representative talks about strategy and support available
• The RPD team gave an overview of funding opportunities with emphasis on interdisciplinarity/opportunities from key funder working groups
• A facilitated discussion about the alignment of all centres across the institutes, the ideas that map across institutes and the ideas that align with upcoming calls

Are You Industry Ready? Transitioning from academia to industry and growing your career

Date: 7 September 2023
Venue: Charnwood Campus – Loughborough

A masterclass for early career life science research scientists looking to move from academia into industry. The day consisted of facilitated interactive workshops run by professional coaches Engage and Grow and Action Coach in conjunction with industry speakers, led by Quotient Sciences.
This full day event was aimed at PGR students and ECR’s within the life sciences, chemistry, computing and mathematical sciences from across the midlands to explore what industry recruiters are looking for, understand the value of their transferable skills and build confidence to explore new career opportunities.

Workshops and presentations included how to:

• Leverage your transferable skills to boost employability
• Ace job interviews: Gain insights for interview skills and leave with confidence
• Develop your career pathway: Be clear on next steps for career success
• Network for success: Connect with industry experts, build relationships and explore opportunities

Follow us on X and LinkedIn to see posts from the day.

Collaboration in Data Science and Radiotherapy 1st and 2nd workshop

NIHR Leicester BRC, University of Leicester and Institute for Precision Health

Following the first introductory workshop, the aim of the 2nd all-day workshop was to bring together combined expertise in radiotherapy, data science, AI and machine learning and to develop collaborations and work on project ideas with a view to future funding applications. Datasets available for analysis including local data were also discussed.

The 1st half-day workshop took place on 12th May 2023 and identified areas or problems of interest (see the list of potential projects below). These were presented again at the 2nd all-day workshop at College Court.

List of potential projects:

• Identifying patients at risk of radiotherapy-associated pneumonitis in lung cancer using a radiomics approach
• Impact of image quality parameters and data harmonization on machine learning accuracy
• Predicting patient outcomes from radiotherapy planning CT imaging features
• Impact of brainstem- and hippocampus-sparing radiotherapy on function in brain radiotherapy
• MRI predictors of local recurrence and distant relapse following neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer
• Clinical and imaging features predicting feeding tube use in radiotherapy for head & neck cancers
• CT image classification and compression for data analysis
• Applying multiple-model and ensemble learning methods to multi-output or multi-class problems in radiotherapy

QIAGEN's 2023 Cancer Research roadshow

Date: 27 April 2023

A Roadshow Exhibition featuring new Instrumentation solutions for Cancer Research 

QIAGEN Specialists were available for Q&A and advice sessions and Lunchtime talks were held by our specialists and Research Customers.

• Introduction & QIAGEN Cancer Solution Overview – Cara Hall, Senior Customer Solution Manager
• Liquid Biopsy Biomarkers – Rebecca Allsopp, University of Leicester
• Enhancing Sensitivity and Precision in Mutation Detection with QIAcuity Digital PCR – Imran Kibria, Senior Instrument Specialist
• Cutting edge sequencing for challenging RNA samples – Syed Abedi, NGS Specialist

Driving Innovation in Midlands Healthcare

Date: 25 April 2023

A Charnwood Campus Life Sciences Cluster event in partnership with the University of Leicester.

This event took place on the Charnwood Campus and aimed to facilitate development of research partnerships between Industry and the University of Leicester.

Our speakers were: 

• Professor Chris Brightling, Co-Director University of Leicester Institute for Precision Health, Honorary Consultant Respiratory Physician, Respiratory Theme Lead for Leicester NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (Respiratory).
• Professor Jacqui Shaw, Co-Director University of Leicester Institute for Precision Health, Head of Department Genetics and Genome Biology (Genetics).
• Professor Pratik Choudhary, Honorary consultant in Diabetes, Leicester Diabetes Centre. Chair of Diabetes Technology Network UK.
• Dr James Hodgkinson, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, School of Chemistry.
• Professor Don Jones, Co-Director University of Leicester Institute for Precision Health, Director of van Geest MultiOMICS facility and Dr Jim Langridge, Waters (Biomarkers).
• Catalent - Industry Showcase Talk.
• Professor Andre Ng, Head of Department, Cardiovascular Sciences, Professor of Cardiac Electrophysiology, Consultant Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist.
• Dr Lucy Alexander, Head of Business Development, Charnwood Campus.
• Dr Tim Hammonds, Royal Society Entrepreneur in residence, Honorary Visiting Fellow

Download the agenda (docx, 712kb).

See our Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise Professor Phil Baker talking about research at Leicester in our launch video.

Institute for Precision Health PGR Seminar Day

Date: 10 March 2023

This event was open to institute-funded PhD students and their supervisors.

This event allowed IPH funded students to share their research projects and their contributions to IPH with the other Institute students, supervisors and Institute directors. Each gave a 10 minute presentation and answered questions outlining their research. 

There was also an opportunity to win a prize for the best image submitted.

Congratulations to Gemma Donaldson (awaiting approval to publish the image) and Savvas Papageorgiou, our joint winners who received £25 each in vouchers.

You can see the image submitted by Savvas below (Image by the Advanced Imaging Facility (RRID:SCR_020967) at the University of Leicester and the BBSRC grant nr: BB/S019510/1). The image shows the identification of point mutations within EML4-ALK V3 that cause dissociation of the oncoprotein from microtubules. Beas2B parental cells were transfected with YFP-tagged EML4-ALK V3 constructs and stained with antibodies against GFP (in green) and α-tubulin (in magenta). Phosphomimetic constructs (S144D/S146D and S134D/S144D/S146D V3) exhibit less localization to microtubules compared to wild-type V3 (P = <0.0001) and similar microtubule localization with cells lacking EML4-ALK V3 entirely (i.e., YFP-only) (P = 0.9983 and P=0.9997, respectively). Images were taken using the Airyscan high resolution microscope at 63X magnification. 

Improving health outcomes through data science, AI, machine learning, mathematical modelling and biomedical engineering

Professors Chris Brightling, Jacqui Shaw, Don Jones (Institute for Precision Health) and Professor Simon Gill (Chair in Theoretical Mechanics, College Dean for College of Science and Engineering) will bring together an interdisciplinary team to understand how our data scientists, computer scientists, mathematical modellers and engineers can contribute to innovative solutions in areas of unmet clinical need and wider healthcare challenges.

The first steps were to map out the areas of expertise and interest across the University of Leicester, Leicester NIHR-Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire.

Applications were made (closed 28 February 2023) so that our first seminar and networking event around areas of common interest could be arranged. 

For more information email Dr Lynne Howells (iph@le.ac.uk).

Improving the research culture around Black and/or South Asian communities: improving accessibility to cancer clinical trials (external event)

This event provided an opportunity to explore the challenges to participation in research/cancer clinical trials in Black and South Asian communities. As part of this event, a series of group discussions was organised involving experts by experience, charity representatives and researchers to co-produce a strategy that identifies priorities to improve inclusion in research to tackle health inequality. From identifying barriers to inclusion and how we achieve a diverse and inclusive research culture, to improving how we understand patients’ needs and expectations and how we can reach out to Black and/or South Asian groups in our geography.

Speakers

• Shahnaz Aziz, Patient Public Leadership and Equality Lead, East Midlands Academic Health Science Network
• Dr Oladejo Olaleye, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Date: 24 February 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Cancer Care and Research

This event was open to internal staff, organised by Gianina-Ioana Postavaru and took place on 27 January 2023

The first part of this event involved a short (10-15 min) presentation from UoL/UHL colleagues to showcase their research in the area. They presented research areas/questions they would like to develop and invite collaborators. The second part provided an opportunity for discussions to develop research ideas around EDI in cancer care and form new collaborative links.