Special events commemorate ten years of the Faculty of Medicine

September to December see double celebrations, with events commemorating ten-year anniversary and Imperial Centenary <em> - News </em>

By Laura Gallagher
Tuesday 25 September 2007

The months from September to December are seeing double celebrations in the Faculty of Medicine, as the Faculty holds a series of special events to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of its formation and Imperial College's Centenary.

St Mary's Hospital Medical School and the National Heart and Lung Institute merged with the College in 1988 and 1995 respectively. Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School merged with the College on 1 August 1997 to form, with the existing departments on the St Mary's and Royal Brompton campuses, the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine.

A summary of upcoming events is outlined below and further detail on locations and timing can be found in the Faculty's Autumn Centenary Programme at www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/news/p72108.

Charing Cross Campus

A display of the Faculty of Medicine's work will be on show at the Charing Cross campus this week, until Friday 28 September, in the Charing Cross Hospital's first floor café. In addition, lunchtime visitors to the campus will be able to take part in interactive demonstrations by medical students and academics. Visitors can have their peak flow and blood pressure measured, have their body mass index calculated, and learn about stimulating the human brain.

Sixth form students with an interest in science will be coming to the Charing Cross campus from local schools today, to watch fun lectures about medicine and see demonstrations by some current Imperial medical students of the kinds of activities they undertake.

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, whose research has contributed towards major advances in understanding and treating brain damage in stroke and head injury, will be visiting the campus to deliver the Huxley Lecture on Thursday 27 September.

Dame Nancy, who is MRC Research Professor and Vice-President for Research at The University of Manchester, will be talking about problems with the Central Nervous System in her lecture "Flaming Brains – targeting inflammation in CNS disease and injury."

St Mary's Campus

The programme of special events in Paddington began last week when Dr Michael Dunnill, Emeritus Fellow of Merton College Oxford, delivered a lecture on the life and work of bacteriologist and immunologist Almoth Wright. Almroth Wright started a research department at St Mary's Hospital in 1902. He is best known for his work advancing vaccination. Almroth Wright helped to develop a vaccine against typhoid and he convinced the armed forces to administer this to troops in World War One.

The historical theme continues with this week's launch of a book of correspondence by medics from the St Mary's campus, written between 1897 and 1945. "Doctors at War" is a collection of letters written to the St Mary's Gazette during various conflicts, including the two World Wars, and discovered in the Medical School archives.

Compiled by two retired Imperial College Professors, Oscar Craig and Alasdair Fraser, the letters provide very personal accounts of what it was like to be a practising medic on the front line. At the event, on the evening of Wednesday 26 September, current Imperial College medical students will read extracts from the letters to an invited audience.

On Thursday 18 October, cardiac electrophysiology expert Professor Nicholas Peters will give a lecture on "The Evolution of Electrocardiology at St Mary’s." Electrophysiology is the study of the electrical properties of biological cells and tissues and it was a physiologist from St Mary's, named Augustus D. Waller, who first developed a way of measuring the electrical impulses of the heart. He registered the first ever electrocardiogram in 1897.

The cardiac theme continues in November with a lecture on the work of three St Mary's medics whose work has been influential in the field of cardiovascular disease, entitled "Translating the Strategy of Prevention: the work of Geoffrey Rose, George Pickering, Stanley Peart and others in cardiovascular disease prevention." Imperial hypertension and cardiovascular medicine expert Professor Neil Poulter will deliver the lecture on Thursday 8 November.

South Kensington Campus

The first of a series of events on the South Kensington Campus started last week when eminent surgeons gave keynote lectures about the surgical field at a Centenary Surgical Symposium. Professor of Surgery from the University of Toronto, Richard Reznick, Emeritus Professor of Surgery from Imperial College, Harold Ellis, and fellow Imperial Professor of Surgery Lord Ara Darzi were among the speakers on 20 September.

Professor Lord Robert Winston, fertility expert and famous face in the world of science communication, will give a prestigious booked out lecture on 2 October, entitled "Manipulating the Human." Professor Winston's team have pioneered improvements in reproductive medicine subsequently adopted internationally, particularly in the fields of endocrinology, IVF and reproductive genetics. In addition, Professor Winston has presented numerous television programmes explaining the story of science and medicine to the public. This lecture will be available to download at www.imperial.ac.uk/aboutimperial/events/onlinelectures.

Professor of Biological Chemistry Jeremy Nicholson will be leading a workshop on metabonomic medicine from 1 to 5 October, entitled "Metabonomic and Metabolomic Tools in Integrative Systems Biology and Medicine." Metabonomics is emerging as a major interdisciplinary science. It involves measuring the dynamic metabolic response of living systems to different stimuli or genetic modification. It offers a way of identifying and indicating disease biomarkers and defining responses to therapeutic interventions.

One of the largest specialty meetings in neonatal medicine will be taking place at the College in November, with a 5-day international meeting entitled "The Science of Newborn Care." Senior clinicians from around the world will meet to talk about new research and state-of-the-art clinical practice, from 26 to 30 November.

Royal Brompton Campus

Nobel prize winner Professor Ferid Murad will be at the Royal Brompton Campus this evening , presenting his lecture "Discovery of NO and Cyclic GMP and role in drug discovery and development." Professor Murad is Director Emeritus of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases and the John S Dunn Distinguished Chair in Physiology and Medicine. He is also a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology at the University of Texas at Houston Medical School. In 1998, he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.

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