UCL Institute for Women's Health (IfWH)

IfWH 5th Annual Meeting

The 5th IfWH Annual meeting was held on Friday 7th May at UCL. Thanks to all those who submitted and presented their work and thereby helped to make the day a success. Two hundred people attended, with representation from all clinical and research groups. The Harrie Massey Lecture Theatre had been chosen as the venue for the day as it has a greater capacity than previously used UCL venues, but even so, the fantastic attendance meant that there was a crush at times – we have already started our search for an even bigger space for next year!

The Annual Meeting serves as an opportunity to invite all those working in the Institute the chance to present work undertaken in the previous year, to highlight to staff the variety of work which is ongoing, to inspire new ideas and collaborations, and to introduce new and developing themes within the extensive clinical and research activity within the Institute. Our invited speakers this year were from varied areas of practice, thus providing the framework for a eclectic and stimulating programme of events: George Raja from the Department of Interventional Radiology at UCLH talked about a current major theme within obstetrics - postpartum haemorrhage and the interventional radiologist; Louiza Velentzis and Anthony Leathem from the Breast Cancer Research Group introduced us to the subject of glycobiology and nutrition in breast cancer research; Simon Waddington from the Prenatal Cell and Gene Therapy Group highlighted current potential future themes in his lecture on translational research initiatives: in utero and neonatal gene transfer, and Carol Dezateux, from the MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health at ICH, ended the day with a thought-provoking keynote lecture on the impact of changing childhoods on maternal health - insights from birth cohort studies. In addition, we heard about the latest strategic developments within UCL Partners and the Women’s Health Programme from Judith Stephenson, and the opportunities and challenges for Women’s Health within Biomedicine and UCL as a whole, from Ian Jacobs.

Annual Meeting Programme - Download (1,616KB)

The judging panel had a hard job to select winners from amongst the excellent oral presentations and posters displayed on the day, especially with so many different themes being represented, however the final prizewinning presentations were as follows –

Oral presentation Prizewinners

First

Ahad Rahim: Efficient gene delivery to the CNS, PNS and viscera following fetal and neonatal intravenous administration of AAV9
(Abstract authors: Ahad A Rahim, Andrew MS Wong, Suzanne MK Buckley, Klemens Hoeffer, Citra Mattar, Jerry Chan, Jonathan D Cooper, Simon N Waddington).

Second

Nikki Robertson: Xenon combined with hypothermia ameliorates the rise in the cerebral proton MRS biomarker lactate/NAA and reduces cell death in a perinatal asphyxia piglet model
(Abstract authors: Faulkner S, Bainbridge A, Chandrasekaran M, Kelen D, Kato T, Thayyil S, Cady E, Raivich G, Robertson NJ).

Third

Chris Jones: Accurate survival prediction by CGH-microarray analysis of ovarian tumours
(Abstract authors: T.Lebi, J.Morris, Estrid Hogdall, Claus Hogdall, Ian Jacobs, Suzanne Kruger Kjaer, S.A.Gayther and C.Jones).

Prize for best selected abstract

From nursing and midwifery: Anne Lanceley: Family History and Women with Ovarian Cancer: Is it asked and does it matter?
(Abstract authors: A. Lanceley; Z. Eagle; G. Ogden; S. Gessler; K. Razvi; L. Side; J. Ledermann; IJ.Jacobs)

From medical undergraduates: Funmi Oyesanya: Laparoscopic surgery versus Open surgery for the treatment of endometrial cancer at UCLH.
(Abstract authors: Funmi Oyesanya and Adeola Olaitan)

Poster Prizewinners

First

Hannah Lomax-Browne: Glycoprotein biomarkers in breast cancer metastasis
(Abstract authors: S. Fry, B. Afrough, H. J. Lomax-Browne, J. F. Timms, L. S. Velentzis and A. J. Leathem)

Second

Aisha Elaimi: Increased incidence of mosaicism detected by FISH in murine blastocyst cultured in vitro
(Abstract authors: Aisha Elaimi , Tanya V. Sabhnani, Hanan Sultan, Adel Alduraihem, Greg Fitzharris, Katie Howe, Joyce C. Harper)

Third

Dorrotya Kelen: Cytokine levels in a newborn piglet model of perinatal asphyxia
(Abstract authors: Dorottya Kelen, Faulkner Stuart, Manigandan Chandrasekaran, Takenori Kato, Sudhin Thayyil, Gennadij Raivich, Mark Sullivan, and Nicola J Robertson).

Prize for best poster

From nursing and midwifery: Debbie Warner: The role and value of combined clinics in a tertiary fetal medicine unit
(Abstract authors: D.Warner, C Daelemans, P Pandya, LS Chitty).

From medical undergraduate students: Anna Storrs: Die Hard Breast Feeders: A qualitative evaluation of services study of women’s experiences of care in a Primary Care Trust
(Abstract authors: A. Storrs and P. Boynton).

Acknowledgement must also go to Maria Notaridou and Nyala Balogun, who persevered through the refreshment breaks to eventually win the networking bingo games!

Thank you to the Scientific Panel for their hard work in selecting abstracts for oral presentation and on the day judging: Anna David, Neil Marlow, Judith Stephenson, Martin Widschwendter, Greg Fitzharris, Caroline Daelemans, Anna Kenyon, Ranjit Manchanda and Hayden Homer.