SCMH members attend 6th Biannual Preclinical Stroke conference
Published: 10 November 2023
This was held at the University of Edinburgh on the 4th and 5th September
SCMH was well represented at the recent 6th Biannual Preclinical Stroke conference held at the University of Edinburgh (4-5th September). Around 80 preclinical stroke researchers from across the UK attended the meeting, the 1st in person meeting of this group since 2019. Professor Tom Van Agtmael and Dr Lorraine Work took their research groups along to this informal meeting which provided an excellent opportunity for the ECRs to network and build connections with those working in the field across the UK.
On the 1st day of the meeting, Lorraine was asked to give a talk on her groups work around “microRNAs and extracellular vesicles and stroke” with the plenary talk “Blood vessels are not just simply tubes in stroke diseases” being delivered by Professor Anna Williams of the University of Edinburgh. The 2nd day saw Drs Zahraa Al-Ahmady (Nottingham Trent University) and Alessandra Granata (University of Cambridge) both give talks on “Nanotechnology-Based Approaches for Stroke Treatment” and “Modelling small vessel disease in a dish” respectively. The plenary “The forgotten goal: developing new hyper-acute treatments for stroke” was then given by Professor Stuart Allan from the University of Manchester. A highlight of the meeting was getting to hear the lived experience from Douglas Horn who had a cardioembolic stroke in 2020 – Douglas really brought to life why research into new treatments and better understanding of stroke is so vital. Interspersed through both days were many excellent talks from ECRs which had been selected from the many abstracts submitted to the meeting. A poster session with a wine reception ended the 1st day of the meeting before dinner that evening in Vittoria’s.
All attendees were able to vote for the best ECR presentation of the meeting and this was won by 2 SCMH PhD students - Caitlin Cosgrove came 1st with Cameron Thomson coming a close 2nd. Caitlin is a 2nd year BHF funded PhD student (supervised by Dr Lorraine Work and Professor Jesse Dawson) and she won with her talk entitled “Improving identification of Atrial Fibrillation in people with Ischaemic Stroke/TIA”. Cameron is in the 2nd year of an MVLS DTP funded PhD (supervised by Professors Tom Van Agtmael and Christian Delles) and his talk was “Vascular defects due to Collagen IV mutations in COL4A1 syndrome and sporadic intracerebral haemorrhage reveals allele specific matrix remodelling”.
Overall, it was a great meeting with a strong SCMH presence. We look forward to the next one in 2025 although the location for this has yet to be determined.
First published: 10 November 2023