9th Annual Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Symposium

Although we were very disappointed to have to cancel our plans to hold this year's symposium back in June, we were delighted to celebrate the fantastic breadth and depth of infectious disease research happening across our network at our virtual event.

As in previous years we presented a showcase of the world-class infectious disease research in Edinburgh.

Links to recordings of each talk are now available below.

To ease screen-strain, we held the event over two days - the afternoon of Tuesday 10 November and the morning of Wednesday 11 November - and had an excellent programme of talks and poster presentations each day.

Poster presentations

One of the highlights of the physical symposium were the poster sessions.  We continued this tradition by using virtual breakout spaces that allowed each presenter to talk about their poster with attendees.

This year we had a people's vote to decide the winners and awarded prizes for the best student and postdoc posters on each day.  

Online list of posters presented at Symposium

Programme

9th Annual Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Symposium Programme (181.53 KB PDF)

Tuesday 10 November

13:00:  Ross Fitzgerald (Director Edinburgh Infectious Diseases) – Welcome and introduction

13:10:  Keith Matthews (School of Biological Sciences)

Quorum sensing and competition in African trypanosomes

13:30:  Kate Templeton (Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh)

Coronavirus Diagnostics

13:50:  Jim Kaufman (School of Biological Sciences)

Generalists and specialists: more on a new way of thinking about MHC and disease

14:10:  LEG STRETCH

14:20: ECR Lightening talks 1 - 3 minutes, 1 slide!

1. Rose Blake – Investigating the early interaction between MAP and the host using a bovine enteroid model  
2. Antonia Chalka – Building Salmonella typhimurium host prediction models using multiple genomic features  
3. Liz Hughes – To grow or not to grow...that is the question
4. Tessa Nash – Inside-Out Chicken Enteroids with Leukocyte Component as a Model to Study Host-Pathogen Interactions  
5.  Stephanie Brien – Disease risk and adaptive diversity in antelope conservation management  

14:40:  Helen Alexander (School of Biological Sciences)

Evolution to the rescue: understanding pathogen survival in challenging environments

15:00:  Steve Jenkins (Centre for Inflammation Research)

The life and times of a macrophage: only the good die young?

15:20:  POSTER SESSION 1

16:00:  Ker Memorial Lecture:  Ron Fouchier (Erasmus MC, Rotterdam)

Emergence of respiratory viruses in humans, with focus on influenza

Wednesday 11 November

09:30:  Ker Prize Winner:  You (Leo) Li (Usher Institute)

Global seasonality of respiratory viruses

09:50:  ECR Lightening talks 2 - 3 minutes, 1 slide!

1. Iona Walker – AMR and COVID-19 Beyond the Military Metaphor  
2. Samantha Griffiths – A novel miRNA-host transcription factor feedback loop to control HSV-1 replication
3. Stanley Otoboh – Genetic validation of the function of PfEMP1 in Plasmodium falciparum rosette formation  
4. Nia Verdon –  AMR bacteria can protect each other in small populations 
5. Susana Keane – Potential proviral human proteins in influenza A virus infection         

Lightening talks

10:10:  Till Bachmann (Infection Medicine)

AMR, One Health, and the Path to Better Diagnostics

10:30:  Nicki Lynskey (Roslin Institute)

Deciphering the genetic basis for virulence traits in pathogenic streptococci

10:50:  Clare Hamilton (Moredun Research Institute)

Towards the characterisation of virulence of Toxoplasma gondii

11:10:  LEG STRETCH

11:20:  POSTER SESSION 2

12:00:  Lukas Engelmann (School of Social and Political Science)

Covid-19 and the Case for a new History of Epidemiology

12:20:  Tim Connelley (Roslin Institute )

Using cattle immunogenetics and associated tools to enhance vaccine development

12:40:  Helen Stagg (Usher Institute)

Adherence to treatment: what does this mean for infectious disease control?

13:00:  Ross Fitzgerald (Director Edinburgh Infectious Diseases) – CLOSE

Ker Memorial Lecturer - Prof Ron Fouchier

We are delighted that Prof Ron Fouchier from Erasmus MC in Rotterdam will be giving the Ker Memorial Lecture.

About the speaker

Ker Memorial Prize winner

And as is customary we will also hear from the Ker Memorial Prize winner.

This year the prize was awarded to Dr You (Leo) Li, who completed a brilliant PhD with Profs Harish Nair and Harry Campbell on the "Global seasonality of respiratory viruses and the association between viral acute respiratory infection and subsequent pneumococcal disease".