Event Imperial BRC Infection & AMR Theme Annual Event 2024: A Day of Innovation and Collaboration

The BRC Infection and AMR theme held its highly anticipated annual event, bringing together over 70 researchers, clinicians and members of the public to showcase the progress and achievements since the start of this BRC cycle. This year’s summer meeting was hosted in person at the recently opened School of Public Health building, on Hammersmith and White City Campus.

The event featured pioneering work undertaken by Imperial researchers across three research themes: (1) Prevention and Vaccination, (2) Diagnostics and Digital Health, and (3) Therapeutic Approaches and Precision Medicine. The talks included updates on human challenge trials from Professor Chris Chiu, advancements in diagnostic tools from Dr Jethro Herberg and Dr Ruth Read, and HIV cure research from Dr Ming Lee.

The day also highlighted several PhD and pilot projects supported by the BRC, as well as state-of-the-art research facilities such as the Imperial Clinical Trial Unit (ICTU) and the Colebrook Lab, both of which play crucial roles in helping researchers achieve their goals.

A special highlight of the event was the insightful talks from the keynote speakers. Lord Ara Darzi spoke about the vision for the Fleming Initiative and Catherine Pollard discussed the R&D partnership with Moderna. These talks provided valuable perspectives on current and future initiatives in the field.

For the first time, the event facilitated in-person engagement with the community partners, who have been providing steering guidance to the theme in Patient and Public Involvement, Engagement and Participation (PPIEP). One community partner remarked, “Some of the trials that are currently being undertaken, if successful, will be game changers. It’s encouraging to see so many people trying to make an invisible problem visible.”

The day was filled with extensive networking opportunities, fostering collaboration and the exchange of ideas among participants. The event concluded with a drink reception, allowing attendees to further discuss and explore potential collaboration opportunities to address infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance challenges.