Sarah Harper, Clore Professor of Gerontology, Fellow  University College, and Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, has been elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Her research seeks to advance understanding of the dynamics of population ageing, one of the largest and fastest growing global healthcare challenges. Read more

The BLAST ageing network is holding its first immersive summer school from 22 – 25 August in Oxford, aimed predominantly at UK-based early career researchers. The deadline for registering interest is 1^st August – via the Application Form on https://coxlab.web.ox.ac.uk/blast.

From ageing hallmarks to drugs for age-related diseases: steps in the discovery pipeline

Oriel College, Oxford 

22nd-25th August 2022

Join us for a 3-day immersive summer school on ageing, hosted in historic Oriel College. 

The programme is designed to take you from the basic biology of ageing processes via the latest tools in target identification and screening, through to drug discovery and clinical trials. The summer school is designed to provide an opportunity for genuine networking as well as skills training, and in addition we hope to publish outcomes from the summer school in peer reviewed journals, supporting your career progression.

BLAST will fund full attendance at the summer school including lectures, teaching sessions, food and en suite accommodation (student rooms) at Oriel College for up to 20 residential delegates as well as offering places for day delegates, with a particular focus on early career researchers. Please note that we cannot reimburse travel costs.

All sessions will be led by experts in their fields. We are delighted to announce that speakers include:

• Prof Nir Barzilai (USA: Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME): A Concrete Plan to Pave the Way for Targeting Aging)
• Dr Joan Mannick (Tornado biotech, Clinical trials of mTOR inhibitors in older adults)
• Prof Katja Simon (Oxford and Berlin: Improving COVID vaccine responses in older adults)
• Prof Janet Lord (Birmingham: Inflammation and ageing of the innate immune system – mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities)
• Prof Lorna Harries (Exeter, founder of biotech company Senisca: Splicing alterations in senescence – how basic biological ageing mechanisms can unpin commercial biotech)
• Dr Adam Rolt (Medicines Discovery Catapult: drug screening platforms in ageing research)
• Dr Simona Reed (Vice President of Clinical Operations at AltruBio Inc., The regulatory environment and steps in developing clinical trials)
• Prof Richard Faragher (Brighton, UK Ageing network co-director, American Federation of Ageing Research board member: Ageing Hallmarks)
• Prof Lynne Cox (Oxford, UK Ageing network co-director, cochair European Geriatric Medicine Society Ageing Biology group: senescence, -omics and drugs in ageing)
• Dr Eleanor Platt (Medicines Discovery Catapult: Spatial transcriptomics as a tool to identify the effect of geroprotectors on tissue-specific and cell-specific gene expression)
• Dr Colin McClure (Belfast, molecular biology tools and models in ageing research)

Please register your interest and apply for your place here by 1^st August 2022.

Further information can be found on the BLAST web page.

If you have any questions, please contact us at BLAST@UKANet.org.uk.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented strain on health systems and societies around the world. It has shone a light on health inequalities and reinforced the importance of fostering health resilience. It has also highlighted the importance of scientific research to protect the health and wealth of societies. Read more

Congratulations to Professor Jennifer Dowd for her ERC Consolidator project which will explore why  in this day of high economic development and technological and medical advances, we are seeing stalls and even reversals in life expectancy

University of Oxford awarded major European Research Council funding