Submitted by Catherine Atkins on Wed, 02/10/2024 - 16:56
We were thrilled to welcome nearly 200 delegates at the 2024 Early Cancer Institute Symposium yesterday, 1st October. Director Rebecca Fitzgerald introduced the event with a screening of the film made by the University’s external communications team to support their current cancer campaign. The short video features a number of the ECI scientists, from Group Leaders to PhD students, and outlines the breadth of research taking place within the Institute.
The lively first keynote talk from Professor Titus Brinker, visiting us from the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, focused on the use of AI in cancer prevention and detection. A consultant dermatologist, Dr Brinker has developed two interactive apps, SunFace and SmokerFace, to show the ageing effects on skin of smoking and unprotected sun exposure. His research shows that these apps can positively affect people’s behaviours in terms of sunscreen use and smoking habits, which in turn contributes to cancer prevention.
Our newest Group Leaders, Drs Danielle Harper, Siddhartha Kar and Mireia Crispin each gave an overview of their fields of research, ranging from new and improved optical imaging techniques of tumours to better understand their structure and the use of AI to better diagnose cancer to insights into cancer development from genetic epidemiology to enable improved cancer risk prediction and the ability to target screening to those at higher risk.
A perennial highlight of our Symposium is the talks from early career researchers and this year we heard three excellent presentations from Dr Adriana Fonseca (Blundell Group), Dr Giovanna Mantica (Laurenti Group) and Bill McGough (Crispin Group) describing their work.
Our second keynote address was given by Professor Simon Leedham, visiting us from Oxford where he leads a research group and practises as a consultant gastroenterologist. The focus of his talk was on using spatial biology to map the progression of colorectal cancer.
21 posters were on display and during the breaks and the final networking session there were lively discussions between the authors and the delegates.
Keep an eye on our website events page for our forthcoming seminars and other events.