Celebrating academic success at the IoPPN
Parade of Stars & Big Ideas Speakers
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Parade of Stars & Big Ideas Celebrating academic success and potential at the IoPPN
Welcome to Parade of Stars & Big Ideas 2014, King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience’s (IoPPN) research showcase celebrating academic success and potential across the IoPPN. This year we are excited to be joined by colleagues from the Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases and the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology; as well as some of our students, most of whom were runners up in the IoPPN heats of the King’s Three Minute Thesis competition this year. The Institute is Europe’s largest centre for research in psychiatry, psychology, basic and clinical neuroscience and substance use disorders; and second in the world in psychiatry/psychology citations. The IoPPN has multidisciplinary expertise across disorders, departments and research methodologies. Being part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre Professor Shitij Kapur Executive Dean and Head of Faculty Professor Til Wykes Vice Dean, Psychology & Systems Sciences
enables stronger and unique partnerships, where both mental health and physical care come under the same umbrella, allowing us to further expand our research perspectives. Our National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health and Biomedical Research Unit for Dementia, in partnership with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, provides us with an advantageous position in translational research. Parade of Stars & Big Ideas brings our academic community together to celebrate and share the important areas we are investigating and to provide an overview of the Institute’s research activities. This year is bigger than ever and we have poster presentations from some of the Institute’s rising stars – please take a moment to find out about the work of the next generation of academic stars.
Derek Andrews PhD student in Forensic & Neurodevelopmental Science
Investigating imaging markers of autism
Synopsis: Derek’s thesis work involves applying machine learning methods in order to identify neuroimaging biomarkers for autism spectrum disorders. The hope of this translational research is to one day provide better tools to aid in diagnostic and prognostic predictions for individuals with autism spectrum disorders, as well as increasing our understanding of the autistic brain. Biography: Derek received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont where he majored in psychology. Following his undergraduate studies, Derek worked
with individuals on the autism spectrum as a community inclusion facilitator. In order to satisfy a long-standing interest in neuroimaging research methods, Derek moved to London in 2012 to pursue an MSc Neuroimaging at King’s. His MSc thesis work with the Department of Forensic & Neurodevelopmental Science involved using MRI methods to identify structural differences in high-functioning individuals on the autism spectrum. Derek is now a PhD candidate under the supervision of Drs Christine Ecker, Andre Marquand and Maria Rosa.
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Elizabeth Appiah-Kusi PhD student in Psychosis Studies
The causal role of stress in psychosis
Synopsis: Stress is an important risk factor for the development of psychosis, however, it is not well understood if it is causal. In her PhD research, Elizabeth is investigating how psychotic symptoms in individuals develop in those at risk of developing psychosis when they experience stress. Then she will investigate whether a chemical known as cannabidiol (CBD) can block these symptoms occurring.
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Biography: Elizabeth completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Following that, she completed an MSc Mental Health Studies at King’s. The master’s degree enabled her to apply for research worker posts. She started work at the Department of Forensic & Neurodevelopmental Science, and later secured a post at the Department of Psychosis Studies where she then registered for a PhD.
Professor Louise Arseneault Professor of Developmental Psychology at the MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre
The pervasive and long lasting impact of being bullied in childhood
Synopsis: Childhood bullying victimisation is increasingly considered, alongside maltreatment and neglect, as a form of childhood abuse. To date, however, little is known about the longterm and pervasive impact of bullying because few studies measuring bullying victimisation in childhood have traced participants to adult life. Our research shows that children who are bullied – especially those who are frequently bullied – continue to be at risk for a wide range of poor health, social and economic outcomes in mid-life. Biography: Louise’s research focuses on the study of harmful behaviours such as violence and substance dependence, their
developmental origins, their inter-connections with mental health and their consequences for victims. Early in her career, she examined harmful behaviours as a developmental outcome – primarily in adolescents and adults. Her focus has broadened to include harmful behaviours as causes of psychiatric disorders. She has developed a research programme to investigate how the consequences of violence begin in childhood, by studying bullying victimisation and child maltreatment. She aims to answer questions relevant to psychology and psychiatry by harnessing and combining three research approaches: developmental research, epidemiological methods and geneticallysensitive designs.
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Alessandra Borsini PhD student in Psychological Medicine
Neurogenesis: a new biomarker for depression in the context of inflammation
Synopsis: There is much to learn about the role of depression in adult hippocampal neurogenesis, especially in the context of inflammation. This area of investigation is relatively new and needs attention in order for us to better understand the molecular mechanisms by which depression, throughout inflammatory pathways, perturbs hippocampal neurogenesis. New discoveries may lead to novel pharmaceutical approaches for patients developing neurological and psychiatric conditions. Biography: Alessandra is a doctoral student working in the Stress, Psychiatry &
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Immunology lab under the direct supervision of Drs Patricia Zunszain and Sandrine Thuret. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with neuroscience from the University of Westminster in 2013. At the completion of her BSc, she worked as a researcher in Professor Carmine Pariante’s team on a depression in hepatitis study. The study she is now working on, using serum from depressed patients to assess neurogenesis, will allow the detection of serum-derived factors which might provide an explanation for the fundamental molecular mechanisms involved in modulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis.
Professor K Ray Chaudhuri Professor of Neurology/Movement Disorders | Medical Director, National Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence
Beyond the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s
Synopsis: Non-motor symptoms (NMS) have emerged as a key component of Parkinson’s disease – from a possible role as clinical biomarker in the premotor phase to a range of symptoms that complicate the whole journey of a person with Parkinson’s. The burden of NMS as a whole is recognised as one of the defining constituents of health-related quality of life for people with Parkinson’s. NMS also substantially increases the cost of care of Parkinson’s and leads to increased hospitalisation. Treatment of NMS poses one of the biggest challenges to health care professionals dealing with Parkinson’s.
However, in the clinic and in clinical practice, NMS continues to be regarded as a peripheral issue compared to motor symptoms management of Parkinson’s. Biography: Ray sits on the Nervous Systems Committee of the UK Department of Health’s National Institute of Health Research and serves as member of the Scientific Programme Committee of the International Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders (MDS). He is chairman of the newly-formed MDS nonmotor study group and a member of the World Federation of Neurology.
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Dr Paola Dazzan Reader in the Neurobiology of Psychosis, Department of Psychosis Studies | Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM)
Neuroimaging in psychosis: 30 years of solitude?
Synopsis: Neuroimaging has been used for more than 30 years to improve our understanding of psychoses, but has not yet found a place in the way we manage these disorders. However, newer analyses approaches have proven promising in their potential to derive clinically meaningful information from MRI data. These could not only inform tailored intervention strategies in the single individual, but also allow patient stratification in clinical trials of new treatments. Biography: Paola studied medicine in Italy, trained in psychiatry at SLaM, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at John
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Hopkins University. She has won several prestigious international awards, including an American Psychiatric Association’s Young Minds in Psychiatry Award and three National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) Investigator Awards. Paola is best known for her innovative work on the identification of neuroimaging and neurobiological predictors of psychosis outcome, and has published extensively in this field. Her passion for clinical psychiatry continually feeds her research and she was named Psychiatric Academic Researcher of the Year 2014 by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Dr Richard Dobson Senior Lecturer and Head of Bioinformatics, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at the IoPPN
Harnessing the data deluge for better mental health
Synopsis: In the digital era we generate more data every two days than we did in the time up until 2003. This big data is being used in advertising, media, retail, finance and travel with medicine and healthcare lagging behind. The data generated through modern high throughput genomics approaches, digital devices and held in electronic patient records and are examples of the big biomedical data that we could use to develop more targeted treatment strategies, for example. Having identified relevant signals in this big data the challenge is then to return information to the clinic for targeted patient benefit.
Biography: Richard Dobson is based at the the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) for Mental Health at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s. Richard’s research has focused on the genomics of complex disease, with a special focus on biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. His research group has a range of experience which includes the analysis of data produced by expression arrays, SNP arrays, next generation sequencing (NGS) and network and pathway studies. Specific projects include in-silico drug repositioning screening to find new uses for old drugs and the development of pipelines for clinical application of NGS in cancer.
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Professor Uwe Drescher Professor of Molecular Neurobiology at the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology
Wiring the brain by topographic maps: nature or nurture?
Synopsis: A fundamental challenge in neuroscience is to identify and understand the molecules and mechanisms which ensure that neurons form the correct connections during development. It is crucially important to understand these processes, since their dysfunction or dysregulation might be involved in the aetiology of neurodevelopmental disorders. This presentation describes recent findings emerging from the study of the retinocollicular projection – the predominant model used to investigate neural circuit development in the mammalian brain.
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Biography: Uwe studied biochemistry at the University of Heidelberg and completed a PhD at the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in GĂśttingen. He then spent almost a decade at the Max-Planck Institute in TĂźbingen in the department of Professor Friedrich Bonhoeffer, together with whom he made landmark discoveries in characterising fundamental principles of topographic mapping of the retinotectal projection. He joined the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology with a Wellcome Trust funded University Award in 2001 and was promoted to a professorship in 2007. His main interest is in understanding the development of neural circuits in the mammalian brain.
Andrea Du Preez PhD student in Psychological Medicine
Using an animal model to study the role of stress and inflammation in the development of depression
Synopsis: The involvement of the inflammatory system, together with hypothalamic-adrenalpituitary (HPA) axis reactivity, in the aetiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) has become one of the most important recent developments in translational mental health. However, exact mechanisms, synergistic factors and cause-effect relationships related to immune system activation and stress reactivity are yet to be established. More research is needed to uncover how, specifically, immune signalling cytokines impact the HPA axis and contribute to the development of MDD. Using an animal model, Andrea is investigating both the impact of immune activation
modelled through lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration, and of chronic stress exposure using the Unpredictable Chronic Mild Stress (UCMS) paradigm, on the development of depressive-like behaviour in rodents. Biography: Andrea’s PhD research involves developing and utilising an animal model of depression to improve and extend our knowledge of the role of immune system activation in susceptibility to environmental stress and the development of depression. Prior to starting work on her PhD she completed a BSc in zoology at University College London and an MSc Psychiatric Research at King’s.
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Enrica Fantini PhD student in Psychological Medicine
Transmission of the stress response from one generation to the next: the importance of pregnancy
Synopsis: Women’s experience of childhood abuse affects their mental health in adulthood, particularly in vulnerable periods such as during pregnancy. Furthermore, depression in pregnancy has negative effects on child development. Enrica’s research aims to understand the mechanisms underlying this intergenerational transmission of stress from mother to baby. Biography: Enrica has been working in the section of Perinatal Psychiatry for the last five years, investigating the mechanisms by which maternal history of abuse in childhood predisposes women to psychobiological alterations during pregnancy (antenatal depression) that leads to poorer
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neuro-behavioural outcomes for the offspring and to a more dysregulated mother-infant interaction. Enrica’s research has far-reaching implications, in the context of developing awareness among clinicians and exploring psychological interventions, which could potentially prevent difficulties in childhood development and ensure positive motherchild wellbeing. Enrica was exposed to diverse clinical experiences in Italy, Canada and South America that shaped her understanding of mental health across cultures and encouraged her to start a career in research. She has presented her findings at several international conferences and received a poster prize at the 2013 IoPPN Parade of Stars event.
Professor Nicola Fear Director, King’s Centre for Military Health Research | Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Psychological Medicine
Alcohol (mis)use in the UK military
Synopsis: Approximately 13 per cent of UK military personnel report misusing alcohol at a level that is harmful to their health. This is considerably higher than the levels of misuse within the general population. This difference is not explained by the demographic composition of the military. Research has shown that deployment is associated with increased alcohol misuse, while those leaving the military continue to misuse alcohol at the same level as their serving colleagues. However, most of the previous research is based on consecutive cross-sectional surveys, rather than longitudinal data. So do military personnel really drink more than the general population, and why?
Biography: Nicola joined the Department of Military Mental Health in 2004, having trained as an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford. Nicola has also worked as an epidemiologist for the Leukaemia Research Fund (University of Leeds) and the UK Ministry of Defence. Since 2011, Nicola has been Director of the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) alongside Professors Sir Simon Wessely and Christopher Dandeker. Nicola is one of the principal investigators on the KCMHR military cohort study and several other studies looking at the impact of military service on families.
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Professor Peter Goadsby Director, NIHR – Wellcome Trust King’s Clinical Research Facility | Professor of Neurology | Honorary Consultant Neurologist
Headache: on the way up
Synopsis: This presentation focuses on an example of bench-to-bedside research that is changing migraine treatment forever. Biography: Peter obtained his basic medical degree and training at the University of New South Wales. He was appointed as Wellcome Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Neurology, University College London in 1995. He has been Professor of Neurology at
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the University of California, San Francisco since 2007; and has been Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children since 1998. His major research interests are in the basic mechanisms of primary headache disorders (such as migraine and cluster headache) in both experimental and clinical settings, and translating insights into better management of these conditions.
Professor Sarah Guthrie Deputy Head, Division of Neuroscience | Professor of Developmental Neurobiology
Wiring the ocular motor system
Synopsis: In humans, eye movements depend on the ocular motor system which consists of three cranial nerves wired to six muscles. Sarah’s research seeks to understand the normal development of this system and how abnormal development leads to eye movement disorders. Mutations in the signalling molecule alpha2-chimaerin cause the disorder Duane retraction syndrome (DRS) by affecting nerve guidance to the extraocular muscles. Sarah’s research is using zebrafish and chick systems to dissect alpha2-chimaerin signalling pathways, including identification of the upstream axon guidance molecules and downstream signalling pathways to the cytoskeleton. The aetiology of DRS and the effects of specific
alpha2-chimaerin mutations on ocular motor system formation are being explored using zebrafish models. Biography: Sarah is a leading expert on axon guidance and motor neuron development, and a founder member of the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology. Her lab currently focuses on several aspects of the development, and disorders, of motor neurons. These include molecular mechanisms of motor neuron patterning and axon guidance, development and disorders of the ocular motor system, and motor neuron disease. At the IoPPN Sarah has special responsibility for education in undergraduate and postgraduate neuroscience programmes.
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Professor Corrine Houart Assistant Director, MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology | Professor of Developmental Neurobiology
The first steps of a developing brain: meaning and impact
Synopsis: Corrine’s research aims to identify the cellular and molecular mechanisms required to form the forebrain, from establishment of cell fate identities to formation of circuits, with a special focus on the role of signalling in these processes. Her team has recently developed a research programme aimed at uncovering the role of ribonucleic acid (RNA) processing proteins in neurites in central nervous system development and developmental disorders.
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Biography: Corinne completed her undergraduate and PhD studies at the University of Brussels where she studied hepatic gene regulation in development and cancer. She moved to work in developmental neurobiology during postdoctoral training in the United States in the mid-1990s, where she became a pioneer in studying the early regionalisation of the forebrain using the zebrafish as a model. Her postdoctoral work at UCL was published in Nature in 1998 and she started her laboratory at King’s in January 2001.
Dr Matt Howard Section Lead, Pain Research Group, Department of Neuroimaging
Understanding Cerebral Mechanisms of Clinical Pain and Its Treatment
Synopsis: Despite decades of effort and investment, persistent pain in humans remains difficult to treat effectively. Matt’s neuroimaging research, focused on understanding real-world clinical pain in patients, offers important new mechanistic insights on individualised ‘neurosignatures’ for persistent pain states and how the brain responds to analgesia.
Biography: Matt joined the IoPPN in 2005, assuming leadership of the Pain Research Group in late 2007. His research has focused upon the application of state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques to understand clinically relevant pain and how the brain represents pain relief.
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Alicia Hughes PhD student in Health Psychology
Cognitive processing in chronic fatigue syndrome
Synopsis: Alicia’s PhD research uses experimental tasks to assess whether people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) demonstrate implicit biases in how they attend to, and interpret, illness-related information and whether such biases predict symptomology and treatment outcomes. This research will be amongst the first to apply this new paradigm to CFS, providing an in-depth understanding of the cognitive processes involved which may enhance our understanding of the condition and potentially inform the development of new and adjunct treatments. Furthermore, this research will be the first of its kind to investigate whether cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
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successfully modifies such biases and/or if having such biases mediates people’s response to CBT treatment. Biography: Alicia’s PhD research is supervised by Professors Rona Moss Morris and Trudie Chalder and Dr Colette Hirsch. Alicia completed her undergraduate degree at Queen’s University, Belfast, and moved to King’s in 2012 where she gained an MSc Health Psychology with distinction. Subsequently, Alicia was awarded a scholarship to embark on her PhD Health Psychology at King’s. Alicia’s primary interests are psychological factors that affect symptom experience and coping with chronic conditions.
Professor Myra Hunter Professor of Clinical Health Psychology, Department of Psychology
Managing menopausal symptoms: translating research into practice
Synopsis: Myra’s presentation describes the development of brief cognitive behaviourally based interventions that can effectively reduce the impact of menopausal symptoms – hot flushes and night sweats – without the need for medication. These interventions are being made more widely available to women going through the menopause transition, women who have had breast cancer, women in the workplace and men who experience hot flushes following endocrine treatment for prostate cancer.
Biography: Myra’s main research interests are in the area of clinical health psychology and women’s health. Her work focuses on the psychological understanding and development of interventions for people with physical and emotional problems, in the areas of women’s health (premenstrual syndrome and menopause), cardiology and oncology. She is a member of the UK National Cancer Research Institute Breast Clinical Studies Group (NCRI Breast CSG) on vasomotor symptoms, and Expert Advisor to the Core Development Group for NICE Guidance on Menopause.
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Professor Shitij Kapur Professor of Schizophrenia, Imaging and Therapeutics, Department of Psychosis Studies | Executive Dean and Head of Faculty, IoPPN | Deputy Vice Principal, Health Sciences
Trials can be shorter and quicker
Synopsis: For decades it has been assumed that antipsychotics have a delayed onset of action. Therefore, randomised controlled trials have been designed to look at improvement after four to six weeks. New data challenges this. Using the largest ever database of individual participant data we show that trials can be much smaller and shorter. Biography: Shitij moved to London after serving as Canada Research Chair and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. His main research interest is in understanding schizophrenia and its treatment. In the service of this, he has conducted research using brain imaging,
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animal models and clinical studies which has led to a better understanding of antipsychotic action, its relationship to D2 blockade and the role of appropriate dosing of these drugs. His work has also led to the development of the ‘salience’ framework of psychosis and has given rise to the ‘early onset’ hypothesis of antipsychotic action. He is now working on how biomarkers might be best incorporated into psychiatric care and drug development. He currently leads NEWMEDS, an EU-wide Innovative Medicines Initiative. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK.
Professor Hilary Little Professor of Addiction Science, Addictions Department
Pharmacological treatments for alcohol dependence
Synopsis: It has taken a long time for the use of pharmacological treatments for alcohol dependence to become accepted. Some drugs are now available, including acamprosate and naltrexone, but these are effective only in a relatively small proportion of patients. Hilary’s presentation describes current work on the development of new medications for this disorder. Biography: Hilary is a preclinical pharmacologist. Her early work on psychostimulant drugs and mechanisms of general anaesthesia was followed by studies on drugs acting on benzodiazepine receptors and the formulation of the two way benzodiazepine receptor theory. She then moved to alcohol dependence research,
in particular to investigating the role of stress hormones in the development of alcoholism. She has used a multidisciplinary approach, with coordinated behavioural, neurochemical and electrophysiological techniques to investigate neuronal mechanisms underlying the behavioural changes seen during abstinence from long-term alcohol consumption. Her current specific research areas are the development of pharmacological treatments for alcohol dependence, in particular glucocorticoid antagonists and drugs that block calcium channels. In addition to preclinical laboratory work she is also a principal investigator, with Professor Colin Drummond, in a randomised clinical trial of a glucocorticoid antagonist in alcoholics.
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Professor Marzia Malcangio Professor of Neuropharmacology, Wolfson Centre for Age-related Diseases (CARD)
Neuroimmune interactions in chronic pain
Synopsis: Chronic pain represents a major problem because it causes debilitating suffering and is largely resistant to available analgesics. Marzia’s pre-clinical research aims to identify targets for new analgesic therapies in the absence of overt side-effects. She is focusing on specific immune-mediated mechanisms which modulate neuronal plasticity and include proteases and chemokines pathways in macrophages and microglia. Specific and selective control of neuronimmune interactions results in attenuation of hypersensitivity in inflammatory and neuropathic pain models.
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Biography: Marzia holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry and a PhD in Pharmacology. Her laboratory is devoted to the study of the positive and negative modulation of pain transmission with particular emphasis on chronic pain. She has published more than 90 papers on pain and edited a book on synaptic plasticity in pain. During her years as Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow she studied the plasticity of the first pain synapse in the dorsal horn by defining the modality of release of neuropeptides and neurotrophins from primary afferent fibres under pain-like conditions. As Lab Head Pharmacology at the Novartis Institute for Medical Sciences, London, she was involved in the discovery of new targets for the treatment of chronic pain.
Professor Ann McNeill Professor of Tobacco Addiction, Addictions Department
Smoking and mental health
Synopsis: The relationship between smoking and mental health is striking – people with mental health problems are more than twice as likely to be smokers as people without mental health problems. Those that smoke are heavy smokers, with an almost dose response relationship between the heaviness of their smoking and the severity of the mental disorder. Ann’s research explores this historically ignored relationship, as well as how to disrupt it, in order to be able to help more smokers with mental health problems stop this deadly addiction. Biography: Ann is Deputy Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies
– an international consortium funded by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration. Ann started her smoking research by studying how quickly adolescents became dependent on smoking. She then built up an established international reputation, receiving a World Health Organisation World No Tobacco Day award for contributions to tobacco control in 1998, and she is now President Elect for the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco in Europe. Ann publishes widely and has contributed evidence to many tobacco control policies. She now focuses her research on disadvantaged people, amongst whom smoking remains prevalent – in particular those with mental health problems.
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Dr Mitul Mehta Reader in Imaging & Psychopharmacology, Department of Neuroimaging
Imaging drug action in the brain
Synopsis: Drugs have the ability to alter brain function in dramatic ways, from impairing memory to mimicking symptoms of psychosis. Mitul’s research has involved using ketamine in healthy volunteers as a model of glutamate dysfunction in healthy volunteers, which is relevant to schizophrenia. In addition to testing the robustness of such a model, his research has been successful in blocking the effects using existing drugs. In this presentation Mitul describes recent ongoing work showing that the same methods can be used in the validation of novel drugs or to support the repurposing of existing treatments from other medical disciplines.
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Biography: Mitul’s research focuses primarily on using neuroimaging methods to study drug effects in human volunteers. The need for developing novel treatments is acute and could be addressed through a better understanding of existing medications. Mitul’s current work involves the use of experimental medicine models in healthy volunteers to test brain mechanisms at the systems level. This work has been utilized in assaying novel treatments. His work draws on developments in imaging acquisition and analysis technologies and thus involves close collaboration with physicists and analysts. His recent studies have examined the effects of ketamine using multimodal imaging methodology. He currently heads the neuropharmacology group at the Department of Neuroimaging.
Dr Jo Neale Reader in Qualitative & Mixed Methods Research, Addictions Department
Qualitative methods and service user engagement in addictions
Synopsis: In this presentation Jo explains how qualitative studies and service user perspectives are increasingly being integrated into the broader portfolio of work within the Addictions Department. Specifically, she shows how the department is adopting qualitative methods to improve the design and delivery of addiction-related interventions as well as a novel patient-reported outcome measure for recovery. She will also discuss the evolution of the new Addiction Service User Research Group that is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) for Mental Health at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s.
Biography: Jo is a qualified social worker and social scientist and moved to the IoPPN in May 2013. Her research focuses on the views and experiences of drug and alcohol users, both in and out of treatment, and she has a particular interest in individuals who have multiple and complex psychosocial needs. Jo is Senior Qualitative Editor for the international journal Addiction and an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Social Research in Health at the University of New South Wales.
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Emma Phillips PhD student in Neuroscience
The role of the brain’s immune system in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease
Synopsis: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and currently affects approximately 830,000 people in the UK. Recent research into the causes of Alzheimer’s disease suggests that immune cells in the brain create a pro-inflammatory environment that is damaging to neurons. Research suggests that inhibiting these pro-inflammatory pathways, including with compounds that are already in clinical use, could have therapeutic effects in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Biography: Emma completed her undergraduate degree in psychology and physiology at the University of Oxford. She
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joined the IoPPN as an MSc Neuroscience student in 2011 and stayed at the Institute to study for a BBSRC/Eli Lilly Industrial CASE PhD studentship with Drs Wendy Noble and Diane Hanger. Emma is currently in the second year of her PhD. Emma’s work focuses on understanding the involvement of inflammation in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, in particular on astrocytes (brain cells that switch from having a nurturing role in healthy conditions to taking on pathological properties in diseased brains). Emma is specifically interested in how astrocytes lead to inflammation that affects abnormal processing and accumulation of key Alzheimer’s disease proteins such as tau.
Alice Russell PhD student in Psychological Medicine
A new immunological model for chronic fatigue syndrome?
Synopsis: Despite an increasing body of research on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) over the last 25 years, the causes of the condition are still unclear. As we seek to build on evidence from cross-sectional studies, one solution is to evaluate other groups known to develop similar symptoms to track who develops persistent fatigue and who does not. Alice’s research involves studying patients with chronic hepatitis C viral infection being treated with the immune activator interferon-alpha, who develop persistent fatigue, to validate this as a model for CFS by comparing results of individuals with the condition with those of controls.
Biography: Alice is a PhD student working in the Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology lab under the supervision of Professor Carmine Pariante and Dr Patricia Zunszain. Before joining the Department of Psychological Medicine to further her studies, she gained a BSc (Hons) in Applied Psychology from the University of Kent. Alice’s research focuses on the role of inflammation in the development of CFS following an immune trigger. This builds on her interest in risk factors for illness – both psychological and biological.
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Christine Wayman PhD student in Neuroscience
CogniTracker: from Lion’s Den to now and beyond
Synopsis: CogniTracker was the winning idea for the 2014 Lion’s Den Business Challenge at King’s and was developed by six PhD students based across the IoPPN. The idea involves the assessment of various ‘passive’ characteristics as early, non-invasive biomarkers for detecting neurodegenerative disease in the general population. The project group, of which Christine is a part, aims to do this by developing an app called CogniTracker
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which allows users to longitudinally monitor their visual movements, vocal characteristics, motor function and cognition in an engaging way on smartphones and tablets. The project’s overarching goal is to use the app as a research tool to explore whether deviations in normal function across these parameters serve as sensitive and reliable biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.
Til Wykes Vice Dean, Psychology & Systems Sciences
Til is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation and Vice Dean, Psychology and Systems Sciences at the IoPPN. She has been involved in research on rehabilitation for many years both in the development of services and the evaluation of innovative psychological treatments. She is the director of the Centre for Recovery in Severe Psychosis (CRiSP) which has carried out a number of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) into the efficacy of cognitive remediation therapy (CRT), group cognitive behaviour therapy for voices as well as motivational interviewing techniques in compliance and therapy to reduce the effects of stigmatisation. She is also
co-director of a new collaborative venture, the Service User Research Enterprise (SURE), which encourages consumers of mental health services to become more involved in all the aspects of research from the priorities for funding to the actual design and execution of the study. Til is the editor of the Journal of Mental Health and the first director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Research Network which is a Department of Health funded research network responsible for providing the national NHS infrastructure for RCTs and other high quality research studies in mental health.
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Event programme Wednesday 26 November Wolfson Lecture Theatre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
14:00 14:05 14:10 14:15 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:35 14:40 14:45 14:50 14:55 15:00 15:05 15:10 15:15 15:20 15:25–15:45 15:50 15:55 16:00 16:05 16:10 16:15 16:20 16:25 16:30 16:35 16:40 16:45 16:50 16:55 17:00–18:00
Welcome from the Dean | Professor Shitij Kapur Opening remarks | Professor Til Wykes (Vice Dean, Psychology & Systems Sciences) Professor Neil Greenberg Professor Hilary Little Professor K Ray Chaudhuri Professor Sarah Guthrie Emma Phillips Dr Matthew Howard Dr Paola Dazzan Christine Wayman Professor Nicola Fear Professor Peter Goadsby Enrica Fantini Professor Marzia Malcangio Professor Ann McNeill Professor Allan Young Alicia Hughes Refreshment break Professor Shitij Kapur Professor Louise Arseneault Andrea Du Preez Professor Maya Hunter Professor Corrine Houart Alice Russell Alessandra Borsini Derek Andrews Dr Jo Neale Professor Uwe Drescher Dr Mitul Mehta Dr Richard Dobson Elizabeth Appiah-Kusi Concluding remarks | Professor Til Wykes (Vice Dean, Psychology & Systems Sciences) Drinks reception
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience King’s College London 16 De Crespigny Park London SE5 8AF ioppn@kcl.ac.uk ©King’s College London November 2014
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