The Walton Centre & Liverpool Neursocience Group together present an extended programme of Clinical Neuroscience research presentations, followed by the annual Sutcliffe Kerr lecture, given this year by Professor Julie Williams CBE – director of the Dementia Research Institute at Cardiff University, and Chief Scientific Advisor to the Welsh Government.
Programme, Talk Abstracts & Speaker Bios (.pdf)
For more information please email Medical_Education@thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk
LUNCH / REGISTRATION | 12pm-12.45pm common room |
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Lunchtime Lecture: Type I interferon and brain disease: the good, the bad and the ugly | Dr David Hunt Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist Honorary Consultant Neurologist Edinburgh University |
12.45pm-1.30pm |
Seminar 1: Non-pharmacological intervention for the remediation of motor slowing and fatigue in Parkinson’s disease | Professor Charles Leek Dean of the Institute of Life Health Sciences University of Liverpool |
1.30pm – 2.30pm |
Break | 2.30pm-2.45pm common room |
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Seminar 2: Lecture and case presentation | Professor Carolyn Young MD, FRCP Consultant Neurologist Honorary Professor of Neurology Walton Centre NHS Trust |
2.45pm – 3.45pm |
Seminar 3: Addiction to Medicines: Where do we stand? | Dr Yasir Abbasi Consultant Psychiatrist Merseycare NHS Trust |
3.45pm – 4.45pm |
TEA / REGISTRATION (SKL) | 4.45pm – 5.30pm common room |
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Sutcliffe Kerr Lecture: Getting ‘a head’ in Neuroscience | Professor Julie Williams CBE Neurogeneticist Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales |
5.30pm-6.30pm |
Now a senior figure in the field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research, Julie graduated from the University of Wales Institute of Science & Technology (BSc, 1978), later completing her PhD (1987) before taking up a Research Assistant post in the Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales College of Medicine.
Quickly progressing to Professorial level, by virtue of authoring a number of key publications, and successfully winning highly contested research funding, Julie remains a Professor and Head of Neurodegeneration at the MRC CNGG, School of Medicine, Cardiff University.
During this time Julie served on the MRC Neuroscience and Mental Health Board and the Scientific Advisory Board of Alzheimer’s Research UK.
She became Chief Scientific Advisor to Alzheimer’s Research UK (2008), using this position to broaden science funding options, increase research capacity and training, and has actively campaigned to keep the importance of dementia research on the National agenda.
She has advised UK and Welsh Governments on dementia policy, was Dean of Research at the School of Medicine, Cardiff University, and a member of the Senior Faculty of NISCHR.
Honoured as a commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honour list, Julie was subsequently (2013) appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to the Welsh Government (tenure completed Sept. 2017) and developed the important science package ‘Ser Cymru 2’, later adopted as policy.
Julie’s research focuses upon identifying and understanding genes which alter the risk of complex psychological and neurodegenerative disorders, with a particular interest in deciphering the genetics of AD.
A pioneer of working collaboratively, having recognised early the complexity of AD genetics, and having participated in many world-wide, powerful consortia, the consortium she leads, GERAD (Genetic and Environmental Risk in Alzheimer’s Disease), plays a dominant role in the field, focusing on developing larger, more powerful studies.
JW has become a leader within the IGAP genetics consortium, which incorporates over 150 scientists world-wide, with access to a 90,000 strong cohort, mega-meta analyses of which have identified at least 13 new susceptibility genes for AD.
Her research has encompassed GWAS, sequencing, large exome chip association studies, and cross disease complex phenotypic and statistical analyses.
TIME magazine rated two of Julie’s research papers from 2005 and 2009 as within the top 10 breakthroughs of those years.
Currently Julie has a leading role in, and receives research funding from an MRC programme grant, the Dementia’s Platform UK (MRC), Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK), the Joint Programme for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND), Centre for Aging and Dementia Research (Welsh Government), European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium (Innovative Medicines Initiative), Brains for Dementia Research (BDR), and the Moondance Charitable Foundation among others.
In 2017, Julie successfully led a bid for Cardiff University to be part of the £250m UK Dementia Research Institute funded by the MRC, ARUK and AS (Alzheimer’s Society).