PAST EVENTS
Here are a some examples of some of the talks that we have hosted in the past. Most of them are descriptions, but if there is a link to the lecture itself, there will be a link to the resource page beside it. There may also be a link to our magazine article on the talk. Hope you enjoy exploring!
Interventional Radio-oncology (hosted with Edinburgh University Radiology Society)
Wednesday, 6th March 2019
As cancer treatment options become more numerous and complex, Dr Mark Hall, Interventional Radiologist from The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, talked to us about the novel role of CT guided minimally invasive surgery in this field.
Guido Sanguinetti - Artificial Intelligence: Predicting the Future
Tuesday, 22nd January 2019
It was our pleasure to invite you to EUOS’s first event in 2019. We asked Professor Guido Sanguinetti, a machine learning lecturer at the School of Informatics, to talk about his recent publication - “Detecting repeated cancer evolution from multi-region tutor sequencing data”(link below). His team have developed a machine-learning method that allows classification of patients based on how their tumours will evolve, taking us one step further to targeted therapies.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-018-0108-x
*About the speaker*
Professor Sanguinetti is a machine learning lecturer at the School of Informatics. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Geneva and his DPhil in Mathematics from Oxford. His interest lies in probabilistic modelling of biological systems, with particular emphasis on inference in dynamical systems. The list of his research projects can found below.
Linda Bauld: Challenging the Myths of e-Cigarettes
Thursday, 8th November 2018
Having just started at the University of Edinburgh, the incredible Linda Bauld dispelled the myths on vaping in a fascinating discussion.
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Linda Bauld is Chair of Public Health at the Usher Institute, Edinburgh, previously Professor of Health Policy, Director of the Institute for Social Marketing and Dean of Research (Impact) at the University of Stirling. She is also Deputy Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, a UKCRC Centre for Public Health Excellence covering 13 Universities.
Since August 2014 she has also held the post of Cancer Research UK's cancer prevention champion (the CRUK/BUPA Chair in Behavioural Research for Cancer Prevention). This involves a part-time secondment to CRUK - the world's largest independent cancer charity - to lead their cancer prevention initiative.
Linda is a behavioural scientist with a PhD in social policy. Her research focuses on two main areas: the evaluation of complex public health interventions; and the use of evidence to inform health policy. She has conducted studies on drug and alcohol use, inequalities in health and, most notably, on smoking cessation and tobacco control. She undertook the first study of the UK's national (NHS) stop smoking services when they were established in 1999. She has also played a significant role in the monitoring and evaluation of a range of tobacco control policies, and served as the UK government's scientific adviser on tobacco control from 2006 to 2010.
Examples of recent work include: authoring the 3 year review of smokefree legislation in England (published by the Department of Health in 2011); playing a key role in developing smoking cessation in pregnancy guidance in England (2010) and for the World Health Organisation (2013-14); coordinating the development of an independent alcohol strategy for the UK ('Health First', published in March 2013); leading a national review of smoking cessation services for the Scottish government (2013-2014); chairing the NICE programme development group on tobacco harm reduction (2011-2013), and acting as spokesperson for CRUK's obesity policy work in Scotland through the charity's 'Scale Down Cancer' campaign.
She chairs, or is a member of, a significant number of policy and research funding committees in Europe, England and Scotland. Her work with the media is extensive, and a particular current focus is contributing to the ongoing debate on electronic cigarettes and tobacco harm reduction. In 2017 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh for her contribution to cancer prevention and public health.
Stefan Symeonides: Cancer Immunology
Monday, 8th October 2018
Stefan Symeonides shared with us his view on cancer immunology while providing us with a few examples from his own trial portfolio.
Dr Symeonides is a Medical Oncologist and Senior Lecturer in Experimental Cancer Medicine at the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre and at the linked Edinburgh Cancer Centre (NHS Lothian). After clinical training in the UK (Cambridge & Edinburgh), Australia (Melbourne) & New Zealand (Christchurch), and research in academia (Cambridge & Edinburgh), clinic (Edinburgh) and industry (AstraZeneca, various UK Biotechs), he is currently in a CSO Clinician Scientist Fellowship and leads bridging the space between pre-clinical and clinical cancer drug development in Edinburgh, linking laboratory and clinical research.
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In the clinic, he leads the Phase I Trials Unit and also has a specialty focus on renal cancers within the Uro-oncology team. He leads a growing portfolio of early phase trials and also continues in drug development, working with CRUK’s Centre for Drug Development and in an advisory role for a number of UK Biotechs.
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His research focus is on novel therapeutic discovery and development. His main focus is immunotherapies and he is the clinical lead for the Edinburgh Cancer Immunology Research Network. He is particularly interested in combining cancer immunotherapies to improve their activity. His current FAK-PD1 trial (NCT02758587) of combination PD-1 (pembrolizumab) and FAK (defactinib) inhibition is an example of how scientific discoveries at the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre are being translated into the clinic.
2nd National BONUS Conference
Saturday, 29th September 2018
Delegates from across the country joined us as we hosted the British Oncology Network of Undergraduate Societies' 2018 conference. There were talks from leaders in molecular, clinical, medical, surgical and radiological oncology, workshops on careers in oncology, poster presentations and prizes, certificates of attendance and lunch provided.
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The British Oncology Network of Undergraduate Societies (BONUS) aims to promote interschool collaboration; to promote oncology as a specialty; to share resources and to facilitate networking between students with an interest in Oncology. You can find out more about them on their website: https://www.bonus-oncology.co.uk/ and on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BONUSonc/
Imran Liaquat: Optimising Resection in Low Grade Gliomas
Tuesday, 25th September 2018
Neuro-oncologist Mr Imran Liaquat offered his insight into the world of oncology, as those with an interest in surgery, oncology, or neuroscience, saw how these fascinating fields combined in the clinical setting with the surgical management of gliomas.
Mr Liaquat graduated from University of Glasgow medical school in 2002 and did his Basic Surgical Training in the West of Scotland.
He has been a Consultant Neurosurgeon at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh since 2013 and has led the Adult Neuro-oncology service since appointment. He set-up the Low Grade Glioma service with colleagues in 2015 and has an interest in using new technology, functional MRI and evolving surgical techniques to achieve maximal safe resection in Low Grade Glioma Patients.
He has experience in all aspects of General Neurosurgery and Neuro-oncology including Awake Craniotomy, Fluorescence guided tumour resection, and management of Low Grade Gliomas. He is also a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Clinical Tutor at the University of Edinburgh.
He has recently been appointed the Lead Clinician for the Scottish Adult Neuro-oncology Network and recently organised the British Neuro-oncology Society Meeting in Edinburgh.
In addition to his Brain tumour interests, he also participates in the management of General Neurosurgical and Spinal diseases.
Society and Architecture in Cancer Care: Maggie’s Centres
Wednesday 4th April 2018
Maggie’s Centres began 21 years ago in a little stable block in Edinburgh, the brainchild of Maggie and Charles Jencks. Since its humble origins in 1996, the organisation has gone on to support over 300,000 people affected by cancer and now has 22 Centres across the UK and overseas.
Maggie's Centres provide practical, emotional, and social support to people with cancer and their family and friends. Maggie's Centre Edinburgh supports over 18,000 visitors each year.
Maggie’s Edinburgh was the first Centre to be designed and built, by Richard Murphy Architects, and Murphy has said his inspiration “was to slip a building within a building, with lots of little niches and intimate spaces”. The open plan nature allows for an emotional openness, with sadness as well as laughter, while the more private spaces allow for peace and quiet.
We joined the team at Maggie’s to hear all about their history, their unique programme of support and their plans for the future.
Drug Discovery & Cancer
Tuesday 27th March 2018
This was a talk from Dr Elizabeth Patton, a programme leader within the Medical Research Council Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Patton is also on the Editorial Board for the PCMR Journal. As well as co-authoring an editorial on ways to help promote the advancement of female scientists, she has teamed up internationally with four other scientists for a groundbreaking project on melanoma research.
You've heard about skin cancer before – but how much do you really know about it? Through Dr Patton's talk, we discovered what the group of five scientists have been working on – and why even companies like L'Oreal Paris have become interested in their work.
Crispr Genome Editing: A New Tool to Tackle Brain Cancer
Thursday 8th February 2018
"Looking, speaking and cleaning with CRISPR genome editing: new tools to tackle brain cancer" was delivered by Dr Steve Pollard (Professor of Stem Cell and Cancer, and Group Leader at MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre, University of Edinburgh).
Glioblastoma is a fast-growing type of brain tumour. There are few options for treatment and only one in five patients will survive more than one year after diagnosis. CRISP genome editing is a way to make precise, targeted changes to the genome of living cells. (Read more on CRISPR here: https://www.neb.com/tools-and-resources/feature-articles/crispr-cas9-and-targeted-genome-editing-a-new-era-in-molecular-biology)
Come along on a Thursday evening for a talk on using a complex technique to tackle a fatal disease. Find more information on related research here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/cancer-centre/news-and-events/latest-news/brain-cancer-study-reveals-therapy-clues
Present and Future Endocrine Treatment of Breast Cancer
Monday 27th November 2017
Edinburgh University Endocrinology Society and Edinburgh University Oncology Society teamed up to invite Dr Alexey Larionov from the University of Cambridge to deliver a talk on the endocrine treatment of breast cancer.
Dr Larionov spent over 10 years researching endocrine aspects of breast cancer while working as a post-doc at the University of Edinburgh. His current research interests are bioinformatics and exome sequencing of heritable breast cancers. Dr Larionov may be familiar to students who undertook the Endocrine Elective during the intercalated year – his talks and seminars are engaging, insightful and fascinating.
So Who Makes the Biggest Contribution to Curing Cancer?
Tuesday 26th September 2017
EUOS held a debate entitled "So who makes the biggest contribution to Curing Cancer?". Throughout the night we heard from a variety of doctors within the speciality, discussing the roles of medical oncology, surgical oncology and public health.
We had a fantastic line up set of expert guest speakers who gave an insight into the importance of their own specialist field including the university's very own Professor Malcolm Dunlop, Professor of Coloproctology and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon representing surgical oncology, Professor Alison MacCallum, Director of Public Health and Health Policy at NHS Lothian, representing public health, and Prof Allan Price, a professor of clinical oncologist, as well as Prof David Cameron, Professor of Oncology, and Clinical Director of Cancer Services in NHS Lothian, who both represented oncology.