UCL Institute for Women's Health (IfWH)

IfWH 4th Annual Meeting

9th December 2008, University College London

December saw the IfWH hold its 4th Annual Meeting. Building on the traditions of previous meetings, all staff within the Institute were encouraged to participate and it was fantastic to see so many people from across all disciplines take part throughout the day. The meeting was held in the Wilkins Old Refectory in main UCL and we filled the space admirably with a capacity crowd throughout the day. Professor Judith Stephenson, Margaret Pyke Professor of Sexual & Reproductive Health and Deputy Director for the IfWH, organised a varied and stimulating programme with a variety of keynote lectures including an inaugural lecture on prevention of preterm delivery by Professor Kypros Nicolaides, a review of the impressive progress made within the Gynaecology Diagnostic Unit regarding diagnosis and treatment of ectopic pregnancy by Mr Davor Jurkovic and an illuminating introduction to the work of MedicalAid Films by Professor Eric Jauniaux. The standard of submitted abstracts was as high as ever with submissions from clinical and research staff at all levels, representing obstetrics, neonatalogy, midwifery and all areas of gynaecology. The judges had a difficult task to reach their conclusion regarding the prize winners from a total of 14 oral presentations and more than 50 poster presentations, but the final outcome was as follows:

From left: Dr Simon Gayther, Vedanta Mehta, Hayden Homer, Professor Ian Jacobs, Stephan Camuzeaux, Alejandro Acosta saltos

Oral Prize Winners

First

Hayden Homer - A novel Role for BUBR1 during Female Mammalian Meiosis

Second

Simon Gayther - A Genome Wide Association Study for Ovarian Cancer identifies common genetic risk alleles in the population

Third

Vedanta Mehta - Long term increase in blood flow to the pregnant sheep uterus following local delivery of an adenovirus encoding VEGF to uterine arteries

Poster Prize Winners

First

Alejandro Acosta Saltos - Role of C-Jun in Neonatal Hypoxic/Ischaemic Brain Injury

Second

Stephane Camuzeaux -Ovarian Cancer Serum Biomarker Discovery using MALDI-TOF MS Profiling

Third

Evangelia Ourania Fourkala -Novel methylated gene loci in breast cancer are not affected by intra-tumour heterogeneity

The organising committee were delighted with the feedback during the day where it was clear that the event was enjoyed by all. We look forward to the next meeting in December 2009 which will celebrate the five years since the inception of the IfWH.