Join us to celebrate a special milestone for our new professors and hear about their inspiring career journeys. Doors for this event will open at 16.45, with the lectures to commence at 17.00. A drinks reception will be held immediately after the lecture at 18:00.

Professor Sergi Padilla-Parra

Illuminating virus entry

Abstract

In my talk I will explain how throughout my career I have been exposed to microscopy method development, and how to tailor specific technologies to understand virus entry. I will stress the importance of sample preparation, and how novel technologies based on fluorescence and electron microscopy have revolutionised in the last decade our understanding of virus entry, in particular human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1).

Biography

Sergi did his undergraduate studies in Chemistry and Physics at Universitat de Barcelona, Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm), Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and Lund University (Master in Science). After this he became a Research Assistant at the Niels Bohr Institute (Copenhagen) developing mathematical models in biomimetic systems. He did his Ph.D in light microscopy applied to microbiology in Paris (Institut Jacques Monod – in collaboration with Pasteur Institute). After this he did three short postdocs in biophysics and virology (Bilbao, Emory University (Atlanta) and C.N.R.S. - Rennes). In 2013 he took up a principal investigator position at University of Oxford where he developed his own research investigating HIV-1 entry with light microscopy. In 2020 he joined King’s College London to continue his studies on retrovirology and progress in his academic career.

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Professor Paul Taylor

Early Life Origins of Cardiovascular Disease, of Mice and Men

Abstract

Population studies and animals models indicate that complications of pregnancy such as maternal obesity and gestational diabetes can not only affect pregnancy outcomes but can also adversely impact the developing fetal nervous system and fetal heart development. Our multidisciplinary team of scientists and clinicians have established that a complex lifestyle intervention in pregnancy was associated with protection against cardiac remodelling in childhood. Should the beneficial effects of a lifestyle intervention in pregnancy continue to show reduced cardiovascular risk in children as they age, this will provide new insights into the early origins of cardiovascular disease, and directly inform public health strategies to improve the cardiovascular health of the next generation. This presentation tracks my personal journey developing basic science models of the complications of pregnancy through translation to clinical trials.

Biography

Professor Paul Taylor is a cardiovascular physiologist, with an interest in the early life origins of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. In 1994 he obtained a PhD in Physiology from United Medical & Dental Schools, London University investigating the mechanisms underlying the vascular complications of diabetes. This was followed by postdoctoral training in the Vascular Biology Unit, Boston University USA, and Department of Clinical Pharmacology, St George’s Hospital Medical School, London. A further post-doctoral position and Lectureship at King’s College London in 2005 combined interests in the role of nutrition in cardiovascular disease with the emerging field of developmental programming. He was conferred the title of Reader in Women’s Health in 2014 and was installed as Professor of Women and Children’s Health in 2023 in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine.