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Queen Square Inaugural Lectures: Professors Martina Callaghan and Vincenzo Libri
7 September 2021
果冻影院 Queen Square Institute of Neurology held its fourth inaugural lecture evening of 2021, on 7th September 2021, which was joined by over 100 UK and international attendees from Switzerland, Bangladesh, Austria, Georgia, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria and United States.
The first lecture was given by Professor Martina Callaghan (Professor of MRI Physics, Imaging Neuroscience) on聽鈥淧rotons and People鈥�.聽
The two halves of the title relate to the importance of protons in聽MRI research, and the people who have聽inspired her throughout her career. Martina's interest聽in MRI research began when she was at the University of Limerick, where reading about聽functional imaging research led to her visiting the Nathan S Kline Institute of Psychiatric Research. Following her degree, Martina met Jo Hajnal at Hammersmith Hospital, and began聽a PhD at Imperial College London, working with David Larkman. Her postdoc work focused on measurement and modeling, and after travelling, in 2012聽she joined the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (WCHN), working with Nik Weiskopf, Siawoosh Mohammadi, Antoine Lutti and Zoltan Nagy.聽
Martina's work at WCHN聽began with inter-individual differences in ageing, and other examples of in-vivo histology using MRI (hMRI). In 2016 she succeeded Nik Weiskopf as Head of Physics, and was supported by colleagues聽Cathy Price, Eleanor Maguire and Gareth Barnes, including the renewal of the Centre's Wellcome status in 2016.聽
Martina聽became聽Deputy Centre Director in 2019, installing a state of the art聽7T scanner in May 2019,聽dramatically increase the sensitivity and specificity of neuroimaging at WCHN. The Centre鈥檚 first studies using the scanner have聽reached completion.聽Martina鈥檚 work has benefited from extensive fruitful collaborations with an array of both internal and external researchers.
"Special thanks to all of my Queen Square colleagues, past and present - I have benefited greatly from working and having fun with them".聽Professor Martina Callaghan (Professor of MRI Physics, Imaging Neuroscience)
The second lecture was given聽by Professor Vincenzo Libri (Professor of Translational Neurology, Neuromuscular Diseases) entitled聽鈥淎 journey through clinical trials and beyond: Innovation or lost in translation鈥�? "
An early inspiration for Vincenzo was Alcmaeon of Croton, and following his degree, Vincenzo's aim was a career combining clinical pharmacology and translational neurology. Following a lectureship in Rome, Vincenzo joined the School of Pharmacy in 1990, where his postdoc fellowship focused on in-vitro electrophysiology and the mechanisms of neuronal excitability and learning and memory processing. In 1998, Vincenzo joined Glaxo Wellcome, to pursue his interest in clinical trials, and in 2003, he worked with the Headache Group at the 果冻影院 Queen Square Institute of Neurology. His work focused on markers and their correlation with disease progression, e.g. amyloid PET imaging. In 2008, he took a significant role as Head of Clinical Studies at NIHR Imperial Clinical Research Facility, supported by Professor Martin Wilkins. Vincenzo's work included neuropathic pain and sensory testing, and nicotinamide in Friedrich's Ataxia.
In 2013 Vincenzo became Head of the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre (LWENC), which opened in 2014, and developed聽a portfolio of innovative trials including ASO therapeutic, including in Motor Neurone Disease for which he is Principal Investigator. Vincenzo also launched the MRes in Translational Neurology in 2014, and in聽2016 he聽became Director of the merged NIHR 果冻影院H Clinical Research Facility, overseeing the whole portfolio of clinical trials.聽 Vincenzo's recent work has focused on COVID vaccine trials, involving聽more than 2,000 participants, including Oxford-AstraZeneca pivotal vaccine trial, Covid-Flu combinations, Covid vaccine boosters and other trials.聽This contribution has been acknowledged by the Government Scientific Advisor and UK Vaccine Task Force.
"It is an honour and a privilege to be part of the ION community and I would like to thank all and everyone for their continued support and friendship over the years"聽聽Professor Vincenzo Libri (Professor of Translational Neurology, Neuromuscular Diseases)
Professor Michael Hanna聽introduced the speakers and votes of thanks were聽given by Professor Cathy Price (Head of Department, Imaging Neuroscience) and Professor Martin Wilkins (Vice-Dean Research at Imperial College London) respectively.