Video recording of the Inaugural Lecture

If you missed the lecture, then don't worry! You can watch the full lecture below.

Register your place for this Inaugural Lecture on Microsoft Forms.

Join us to celebrate a special milestone for our new professors and hear about their inspiring career journeys. Doors for this event will open on 16.45 (BST), with the lectures to commence at 16.50. A drinks reception will be held at 18.00 immediately after the lecture.

Professor Jugdeep Dhesi

POPS; the evolution of a transformative service over 20 years

Abstract

Professor Jugdeep Dhesi will describe the journey of POPS (Perioperative medicine for Older People undergoing Surgery) over the past 20 years and how it has evolved to become an internationally recognised subspecialty in geriatric medicine. As a clinical academic, she and her team ensure clinical practice informs their research, and vice versa, to establish innovative but translatable, evidence-based, patient-centred services for older people undergoing elective and emergency surgery. She has collaborated widely with the public, across disciplines and specialties, nationally and internationally to design, develop, implement and evaluate these services. The overall aim of her team’s work is to improve outcomes for all older people undergoing surgery, equitably and without unwarranted variation.

Biography

Jugdeep Kaur Dhesi is a Professor in Geriatric Medicine at King’s College London. Having grown up in Essex, she graduated in medicine from the University of Leicester and completed her PhD at King’s College London. Jugdeep has worked as a consultant geriatrician in the innovative and award-winning POPS service (Perioperative medicine for Older People undergoing Surgery) since its inception at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Her research interests include preoperative assessment and optimisation, health services research focusing on perioperative pathways and postoperative delirium. She has a wide education and training portfolio, having established the first Allied Health Professional, Foundation and Specialist Registrar training programmes in perioperative medicine, co-authored e-learning modules, MSc modules and multiple textbook chapters. Jugdeep is President Elect for British Geriatrics Society, Deputy Director for Centre for Perioperative Care and sits on a variety of national and international steering, advisory and guideline groups.

Professor Francesca Spagnoli

A developmental logic for regenerative medicine

Abstract

Professor Francesca Spagnoli will describe her research interests in the mechanisms regulating cell identity and plasticity in metabolic organs, such as the pancreas and the liver. Her lab uses a combination of genetic approaches with genomic strategies alongside imaging in mouse embryos and human stem cells to study how distinct cell types, such as liver and pancreas, arise from common progenitors and acquire specialized shape to form functional organs. How can we harness cell plasticity towards novel regenerative therapies for diabetes? Ultimately, the long-term goal of her research is to translate these concepts into a better understanding of the pathogenesis as well as treatment options of diabetes.

Biography

Francesca M Spagnoli is a Professor of Regenerative Medicine at King’s College London. After graduating in Medicine from the University of Rome, Francesca received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the Pasteur Institute (Paris). Following her postdoc in stem cell biology at The Rockefeller University (New York), she established her research group at the Max Delbrück Center (Berlin) in 2008 to initiate new investigations into the control of pancreatic cell identity and lineage reprogramming. In 2018, she moved her lab to the Centre for Gene Therapy & Regenerative Medicine at King’s which devises strategies for engineering pancreatic cells in cell replacement therapies for diabetes. She is the Coordinator of a FET_Open European Consortium on bioengineering pancreatic tissue and the Director of the Wellcome Trust PhD programme ‘Advanced Therapies for Regenerative Medicine’.