(incorporating UCL MEDICAL SCHOOL)
SLMS BULLETIN – 07 NOVEMBER 2011
Dear Colleagues
The bulletin aims to keep staff up to date with School activities, events, awards, achievements and news.
Please forward any comments or feedback to the School
Communications Manager, email: slms-editor@ucl.ac.uk
or direct to me at: viceprovosthealth@ucl.ac.uk
.
Kind regards
Professor Sir John Tooke
Vice-Provost (Health), Head of UCL School of Life & Medical Sciences
Web: www.ucl.ac.uk/slms
Twitter: @ucl_slms
In this issue:
1 Domain Chair vacancies and appointments
2 New Director - Institute of Neurology
3. UCLPartners November update
4 UCL’s third staff survey ‘Have your Say’
5. SLMS in the media
6 Staff success
7 Future SLMS events
8 New starters in SLMS
SLMS News
SLMS Domain Chair Vacancies
SLMS Domain Chair job descriptions are available at: www.ucl.ac.uk/slms/vacancies .
Chair of the Neuroscience Domain
Professor Trevor Smart has been appointed the Chair of the Neuroscience Domain. I am sure you will join with me in congratulating Trevor and supporting him in this important initiative.
New Director of the Institute of Neurology
Professor Michael Hanna has been appointed Director of the Institute of Neurology. Michael is currently
Clinical Director at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and Director of the MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases. I am sure you will join with me in congratulating Michael, he will take up his new position on 4 th January 2012. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Alan Thompson for his successful leadership of the Institute of Neurology.
Update: UCLPartners
There have been a number of developments at UCLPartners (UCLP) since the last update in September
2011. Further information is available in the UCLP Update October 2011 by David Fish, Managing
Director of UCLP. I will continue to circulate David’s monthly update in this bulletin.
UCL’s third staff survey ‘Have your Say’

As notified recently in the Week@UCL and detailed on the UCL staff survey website UCL’s third staff survey ‘Have your Say’ will run from 31 October to 18 November. The purpose of the staff survey is to benchmark developments since the previous survey - to understand what UCL has done well and what can be improved – and to develop ideas for new projects and initiatives. Please access the survey via the encrypted personal link
All employees with a UCL email address received an email from ORC International on 31 October, this email has a personal link to the survey (through an encrypted URL), Department details will be prepopulated, from your email link. Staff without email access were given a hard copy to complete and a pre paid reply envelope to send directly to ORC International.
I would encourage you to complete this survey. Further information is available at: www.ucl.ac.uk/staff_survey/
SLMS in the Media
Sir Michael Marmot: The life scientific
Professor Sir Michael Marmot (UCL Epidemiology and Public Health), the scientist behind the Whitehall
Studies, examining the link between status and health, reveals what inspires and motivates his work.
Listen: BBC Radio 4 More...
Happier people live longer lives
Older people live longer if they are happier, according to new research into the importance of emotional wellbeing led by Professor Andrew Steptoe (UCL Epidemiology and Public Health).
Read: Daily
Telegraph More...
Could we face the return of CJD?
Leading CJD expert Professor John Collinge (UCL Neurodegenerative Diseases) believes the number of people believes the current CJD situation is 'very worrying indeed'.
Read: Daily Mail More...
Meningitis survivors 'denied extra help'
Research commissioned from UCL by the Meningitis Trust has found that children who overcome the infection are not being given enough support they need afterwards. Read: Daily Telegraph Staff and student success
Staff and student success
I would like to congratulate:

David Curtin (UCL Speech Sciences), who was named as Student Campaigner of the Year at the annual awards ceremony for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
(RCSLT). David, who graduated from UCL with a BSc Speech Sciences in 2011, received his award for a number of initiatives to increase awareness of individuals with speech, language and communication needs. These included successfully lobbying the producers of BBC’s ‘Eastenders’ to include an episode during which two characters have a conversation relating to a specific communication difficulty one of them suffers from, highlighting the effect this has on him and his caregiver. His other initiatives in this area have included collaborating with an East London hospital to launch an awareness campaign, writing to government and the media and campaigning to increase awareness around London.

Dr Clare Selden, Professor Humphrey Hodgson and Professor Barry Fuller , who have been awarded a Wellcome Translational g rant of more than £2m to bring their work on a bioartificial liver machine for patients with acute liver failure from the “bench” to a clinically ready system for regulatory approval, prior to first in man trials, to be undertaken at the Royal Free campus of
UCL. In addition, they have received a Technology Strategy Board Grand Challenge grant together with Asymptote plc and other partners for £1.45m, to develop large scale cryopreservation technology – a technique that will be widely applicable not only for the bioartificial liver machine but for stem cell banking.

Up and coming events
Tuesday 8 November 2011, from 16.00
Bloomsbury Institute for Pathogen Research (BiPR): Launch
This new partnership between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and University College
London, will form a centre for leading research on infectious diseases combining basic science, translational and clinical expertise across our institutions, and associated hospitals, to provide an optimal environment to produce new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics.
The launch will start with presentations by Professor Simon Croft (Head of faculty of Infectious and
Tropical Diseases LSHTM), Professor Deenan Pillay (Head of Research Department of Infection UCL),
Professor Malcolm Grant (President and Provost, UCL), Professor Peter Piot (Director, LSHTM),
Professor Anne Johnson (Co-Director UCL Institute for Global Health), Professor Chris Whitty (Chief
Scientific Advisor and Director Research and Evidence Division, UK Department for International
Development), and Professor Sir John Tooke (Vice Provost Health, UCL).
Location: AV Hill Lecture Theatre (Medical Sciences Building, UCL)
Please RSVP to Lauren Collins, telephone: 020 3108 2116. E-mail: lauren.collins@ucl.ac.uk
.
9 th November 2011, 12.30 – 14.00
UCL Grand Round
"What are we doing at UCL/ UCLP about brain degeneration?"
Introduction by Professor Sir John Tooke , Vice-Provost (Health) and Head of UCL School of Life &
Medical Sciences
Speakers include (running order to be decided):
 Martin Orrell , Professor of Ageing and Mental Health, UCL Mental Health Sciences Unit
"Memory lane - the way ahead for better treatment in dementia"
 Nick Fox , Professor of Clinical Neurology, UCL Institute of Neurology
" Seeing what Alois Alzheimer couldn't see - imaging the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease"
 John Collinge , Professor of Neurology, UCL Institute of Neurology
“Molecular mechanisms and rational treatment of prion disease: implications for the commoner dementias”
Panel discussion (with speakers listed above and panellists below):

Gill Livingston , Professor of Psychiatry of Older People, UCL Mental Health Sciences Unit
 Katy Judd , Consultant Nurse at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
 Vivienne Hill , Champion of Alzheimer’s Research UK
 Michael Hutton , Chief Scientific Officer, Neurodegenerative Disease Drug Hunting Team, Lilly
UK
Chair: Professor Patrick Maxwell , Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences
Location: Cruciform Lecture Theatre 1, Cruciform Building, Gower Street, University College London,
London WC1E 6BT
To register: http://alzheimergrandroundstaffticket.eventbrite.com/
Friday 11 th November , 09.00- 18.30
UCL Symposium on the Origin of Life
The origin of life is probably the most exciting but also most elusive question in biology. UCL has recently started an initiative addressing a broad range of aspects concerning the origin of life, including the development of an origin-of-life reactor.
The First UCL Symposium on the Origin of Life provides a one-day platform for bringing together worldclass scientists researching disciplines including planetary sciences, chemistry, molecular and microbiology, biophysics and evolution. International speakers are presenting their work alongside prominent researchers from UCL, and the organisers hope that this meeting will both inspire and bring together researchers across UCL with converging interests in the origin of life on earth. The scientific

organisers are Dr Finn Werner and Dr Nick Lane .
Location: JZ Young Lecture Theatre, followed by drinks reception in the Grant Museum
ALL WELCOME.
Further information and registration details : http://www.ismb.lon.ac.uk/origin_of_life.html
12th November, 10.00-16.00
Improving Liver Transplant Outcomes - Your Views
Morning Session
9.30-10am Registration and coffee
Video: Royal Free Hospital 20 years of liver transplant
10am - Lunch
Invited speakers and discussion
Topics covered
• History of liver transplantation
• Current transplant outcomes and limitations
• Areas for development in liver transplant
• Ethics of organ donation/tissue use for research
• Regulations for research
• Trust perspective on Transplant
Lunch 12:30 - 1:30pm
Film premiere: Making of "Thank You for Life" book
Afternoon Session
Invited speakers and discussion
Topics covered:
• Thank You for Life - book of letters from donor recipients to donors
• MARS "liver dialysis" therapy in liver failure
• New Hepatitis C treatments
• New liver transplant perfusion device (LIVET)
• Drugs trials in liver transplantation
• Talk from a patient representative
To register: www.ucl.ac.uk/silva/tapb/tapb-events-publication/20110906-01
Wednesday 16 th November 2011, 10.00
ICH OPEN DAY AND POSTER COMPETITION
From 10.00am
ICH POSTER COMPETITION for higher degree students
10.30-11.30am
Coffee and pastries available by the poster displays
From 2.00pm
INSTITUTE OPEN DAY for potential research students
4.00pm
Refreshments on the Balcony
4.30pm
Special Guest Lecture in the Kennedy Lecture Theatre
Speaker and Title to be confirmed
The Guest Lecturer will then award the prizes to the Poster Competition winners.
Followed by Drinks on the Balcony
ALL ARE WELCOME!
Please come along to see the poster displays and to join the Open Day.
Location: Winter Garden, Balcony and Philip Ullmann Wing
22nd November 2011 e-Health: Building the UCL Community
The use of emerging information and communications technology - especially the internet - provides unique possibilities to improve healthcare, patient safety and public health. Expertise in e-Health at UCL spans the full range of basic to applied science including expertise in computer science, health informatics, ethics, epidemiology, health psychology and clinical medicine, providing a real opportunity for
UCL to exploit the research potential offered by these resources.

This one day symposium is an opportunity to find out more about the breadth of e-Health at UCL, create cross-disciplinary links, and foster collaboration between basic and applied researchers.
For registration and further information please visit http://www.ucl.ac.uk/slms/domains/population-health/eHealth
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: We are inviting poster presentations from the UCL community. Please send either an abstract or an image of your proposed poster to Elizabeth Murray ( elizabeth.murray@ucl.ac.uk
) by 13 November 2011 if you would like your poster displayed.
Location: UCL Institute of Child Health
28 November 2011, 18:00 - 21:00
UCL Lancet Lecture: Economic Growth and Women’s Health Outcomes: A Deepening Divide?
Professor Jayati Ghosh , Jawaharlal Nehru University
One of the most surprising features of the recent rapid income growth in emerging economies is how it has not been associated with significant improvements in women’s health outcomes. In this lecture
Professor Ghosh will use indicators (such as the infant mortality rate, the maternal mortality rate and the child sex ratio) to explore the specific experience of India over the past two decades. Some possible factors influencing the gap between aggregate income growth and women’s health will be considered, and implications will be drawn for economic and health policies in developing countries in general
Further information and registration details: http://events.ucl.ac.uk/event/event:u1y-gsh6z83f-ibswnl/
Tuesday 29 November 2011
FESTSCHRIFT IN HONOUR OF PROFESSOR PAT WOO
UCL Institute of Child Heath with UCL Division of Infection and Immunity invite you to join us on the afternoon of Tuesday 29 November 2011, for a Festschrift Symposium in honour of Pat Woo, Professor of Paediatric Rheumatology, on the occasion of her retirement. Presenters confirmed to participate include: Professor Mary Collins, UCL; Professor David Isenberg, UCL; Dr. Dan Kastner, NIAMS; and
Professor Alberto Martini, University of Genova.
The symposium, which is free of charge but requires registration, will be held at the UCL Institute of Child
Health. Please note that space in the lecture theatre is limited and so seats will be allocated on a first registered first served basis. To register for the symposium and for further details, please visit http://profwoofestschrift.eventbrite.com
30 th November 2011, 13.10-14.00
Eastman Dental Institute
Phage dUTPases control transfer of virulence genes by an oncogenic G protein like mechanism
José R Penadés, Instituto Investigación en Ganadería de Montaña, Castellón, Spain
Location: lecture room L2
Contact: e.allan@ucl.ac.uk
Tuesday 6 th December 2011, 17.30-20.00
UCL Medical School – Medical Education seminar
Conceptions of learning and leadership - implications for education and leadership development in a research-intensive university
Dr Anita Berlin
Location: Wilkins Garden Room, UCL
The seminar will start with an introduction to the exhibition 'The Slave-owners of Bloomsbury' by one of the curators, Kate Donington. After Dr Berlin's presentation there will be drinks and networking opportunities in the South Cloisters where the exhibition is on display.
There will also be a festive Christmas market and concert in the Front Quad from 5.00-8.00pm, have a mince pie, some mulled wine and enjoy the whole evening.
Further information/registration: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/2361806226?ref=elink"
Friday 9 th -Sunday 11 th December 2011
Ron Britton Today Conference
This year’s Psychoanalysis Unit December conference will focus on the work of Ron Britton. As a UCL graduate in medicine and a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst in the British Psychoanalytical
Society who has spoken and conducted clinical seminars throughout the world, Ron Britton has made a series of major and original contributions in several areas by developing thinking on several topics including:

 Triangular space and the “Third Position”

The psychic structure of belief including his understanding of fundamentalism and idolatry

The understanding of Hysteria and the primal scene

PS(n) >D(n)>PS(n+1).....D(n+1) – that is to say to states of mind marked by an ongoing dialectical process of “un-integration” to “integration” to “de-integration” to “aspiration” and back again

Narcissistic structures –particularly hyper-subjectivity and hyper-objectivity (or in other words thin-skinned & thick-skinned narcissistic disorders)

The need for agreement and its potential for malignant misunderstanding. His interesting idea, which he considers his most important clinical observation, is that at least in some states the subjectively felt need for agreement is inversely proportional to the expectation of understanding
Speakers will include: Liana Chaves, Peter Fonagy, Mary Target, and David Taylor.
In addition Ron Britton and David Tuckett will hold a dialogue on some of Britton’s key ideas in discussion with the audience.
CALL FOR PAPERS
If you would like to submit a paper, to be presented in a parallel session on Saturday please send us an abstract of 300 words setting out your main argument and how you will approach it. You could write on any aspect of Britton’s work that has influenced you or you wish to discuss but we are particularly keen to see papers on the six topics mentioned above. Please submit abstracts by 1 st October 2011.
SEMINARS
Small group clinical seminars will be offered (led by leading UK analysts) on Friday 9 th December from
6.00-7.30pm. An additional clinical meeting will be held earlier on the Friday afternoon (2.00
–5.00pm) when David Tuckett will hold an additional extended clinical seminar designed to look at the core components of psychoanalytic technique and ways of reflecting on and conceptualizing one’s own technique.
Confirmed leaders of the Friday evening seminar will include David Bell, Catalina Bronstein, Dana
Birksted Breen, Claire Cripwell, Betty Joseph, Priscilla Roth and David Taylor.
For further information and booking, please visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis/events/conferences/conferences-forthcoming.php
or contact n.harding@ucl.ac.uk
New starters in SLMS
New Starters in SLMS (for the period 17th – 30th October 2011)
UCL Cancer Institute: Miss Elizabeth Roberts, Trial Co-ordinator.
UCL Division of Biosciences: Mr Nicolas Heess, Research Associate; Prof Dallas Swallow, Principal
Research Fellow; Dr Mingyao Yang, Research Associate.
UCL Division of Medicine: Dr Venkat Reddy, Senior Clinical Research Associate.
UCL Division of Population Health: Mr Luke Beswick, Administrator.
UCL Division of Psychology & Language Sciences: Miss Amanda Barber, Postgraduate Teaching
Assistant; Miss Zoe Hyde, Research Assistant; Miss Rebecca Knight, Research Associate; Mr
Christopher Russell, Research Associate; Ms Magdalena Sliwinska, Postgraduate Teaching Assistant;
Ms Nahidsadat Sokaei, Postgraduate Teaching Assistant.
UCL Division of Surgery & Interventional Sciences: Mrs Zoe Lau, Teaching Administrator; Mrs Ruth
Williams, Teaching Administrator.
UCL Ear Institute: Dr Ruth Epstein.
UCL Eastman Dental Institute: Mr Mohammad Khan, Research Technician.
UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences: Ms Emily Bellshaw, Executive Assistant to the Dean/Faculty of Brain
Sciences.
UCL Institute of Neurology: Dr Daniel Bush, Research Associate; Dr Pooja Dassan, Clinical Teaching
Fellow UCL Distance Learning Diploma in Clinical Neurology; Miss Sarah Finnegan, Research Assistant;
Miss Deborah Hughes, Research Technician.
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology: Dr Marie Noreen O'connor, Research Associate.
UCL Medical School: Miss Jeannine Attreed, Teaching and Professional Development Administrator.