Venue: School of Life Sciences Small Lecture Theatre, MSI 

We are delighted to share that Dr Kelly Vere will be delivering a seminar hosted jointly by Dundee’s Technician’s Commitment (TC) and the School of Life Sciences Culture seminar series. This seminar is open to all, both internal audience as well as external colleagues in the James Hutton Institute and the University of St Andrews who we work closely with on the TC. Kelly is the Director of Technical Skills and Strategy at the University of Nottingham, spearheaded the development and establishment of the Technician’s commitment which she is currently Director of, and was recently awarded an MBE in the 2021 New Years Honours list, recognising her services to Higher Education. We are excited to host Kelly and am sure her talk will appeal to a wide audience. 

Kelly’s talk will discuss the Technician’s Commitment and provide an overview of its journey including its history, pitfalls and hallmarks of success. 

On behalf of UoD TC leads – Nicola Stanley-Wall, Jen Gallagher & Andrew Dodds 

SLS Culture Seminar Series – Louise Stanley and Inke Näthke. 

Online via Microsoft Teams

This culture seminar will delve into The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) sustainability journey. At a time when scientific advances should aim to align with environmental challenges, scientific institutions must conduct environmentally responsible science. EMBL launched its first sustainability strategy in 2021 and has since implemented several measures involving all members of staff, including scientists, administration and facilities management. It comprises behavioural change campaigns – among which the implementation of the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) –, community engagement such as Green Week activities, and operational actions – which include energy and waste management. A combination of both  top-down and bottom-up approaches, with the input and collaboration from scientists, and the management of the sustainability office and EMBL’s directorate, has proven successful in creating a sustainability-minded scientific community within EMBL. 
 

Hosts: Inke Näthke and Louise Stanley

Elise Gallagher, the Director of People (https://www.dundee.ac.uk/people/elise-gallagher) at the University, will present the next culture seminar on Monday January 22nd in the MSI small lecture theatre.  Elise will talk about  ‘Personal experiences of nurturing positive cultures’.  In her presentation Elise will draw on experiences and examples from within and beyond the sector.

Venue: Small Lecture Theatre, MSI

Dr Rachel Plouffe is a Lecturer in the Division of Psychology at the University of Dundee with a research focus on mental health and well-being across organisational domains, including among healthcare workers and military personnel. Rachel’s talk will focus on components of psychological safety required to foster a positive organisational culture. Specifically, we will discuss the impact of a psychologically safe environment on employee well-being, innovation, and performance, as well as the roles of supportive and ethical work environments in reducing employee distress. Practical insights will be provided for employees and leaders alike, offering guidance on cultivating a culture where individuals feel valued, heard, and able to contribute without fear of judgement.

Venue: Small Lecture Theatre, MSI

Venue: TBC

Online via Microsoft Teams

Time TBC

Host: Professor Inke Näthke

Venue: Large Lecture Theatre, MSI

Host: Professor Claire Halpin

Professor Paul G. Falkowski is an American biological oceanographer in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

His research interests include evolution, paleoecology, photosynthesis, biophysics, biogeochemical cycles, symbiosis and sustainable energy.  His current work is focused on understanding the origins of life, how electron transfer reactions are mediated, and how organisms transformed the geochemistry of Earth.

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About the lecture series:

The Peter Garland Lecture was set up in 1985 to mark the achievement of Dundee’s first Professor of Biochemistry in building up the Department into one of the strongest in the UK over the period 1970 to 1984.  Fifteen Peter Garland lecturers have had, or subsequently went on to win, a Nobel Prize.

Host: Mike Ferguson 

Venue: Small Lecture Theatre, MSI

Abstract: 

This hybrid seminar will comprise two parts. First, we will provide a snapshot of my lab’s research. We use cardiovascular lineages derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC-CMs) to provide a powerful tool for modelling impact of disease and drugs on heart structure and function, or for trialling cell therapies for the failing heart. We use isogenic models – engineered to carry or not carry mutations that impact heart function – to explore new mechanisms and pathways that may contribute to disease phenotype. We have implicated small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs), long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and the mitochondrial genome in cardiomyopathies. Using this technology platform and iterations thereof, we are exploring gene-drug-phenotype relationships, with the aim of providing new therapeutics or stratification approaches to manage the impact of heart disease.

This will segway into the second part of the seminar, which will consider my role as Director of the Biodiscovery Institute (BDI). The BDI is a £100m interconnected building complex, representing the largest interdisciplinary research facility at the University of Nottingham and housing 850 researchers and support staff, including 90 academics from 5 Schools and 3 Faculties. Focus will be on how, at the start of my Directorship tenure in 2018, I coined the phrase that, “metrics are gold but people are diamonds”, to create a team ethos and an exemplary research culture. This foundation has provided an environment permissive for everyone from all career stages and job families to succeed. Across our 6 Research Themes of global importance, this is evidenced by the ‘BDI family’ leveraging £150m of new grant funding and supporting 10 new start-up companies in the last 2 years alone, towards the goal of achieving the BDI’s strapline of ‘shaping the future of health and biotechnology’.

Biography:  

Chris Denning is Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Director of the Biodiscovery Institute (BDI). The £100m Institute is the largest research facility at the University of Nottingham and houses 850 researchers, clinicians and support staff. Research is across 6 themes of global importance, encompassing Cancer, Engineering Biology, Pioneering Therapeutics, Regenerating & Modelling Tissues, Taming Microbes, and Demystifying Biomolecular Complexity.

Spanning several of BDI’s themes, Chris’ interests are in cardiovascular differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs: human embryonic stem cells [hESCs] and human induced pluripotent stem cells [hiPSCs]) for use in drug screening and in production of new in vitro models of genetic-based cardiovascular disease. Broadly, the main areas are:

1) Disease mechanisms. Enabled via hPSCs with or without additional targeted genetic manipulation, the lab explores how in vitro models can shed light on hitherto unknown pathways that may regulate severity and penetration of cardiovascular disease. Present and past disease examples of models investigated include defects in electrophysiology (e.g. long QT syndrome, CPVT, myotonic dystrophy), structure (e.g. myosin heavy chains, alpha-actin), survival (e.g. DMD) and signalling (e.g. beta-adrenoceptors, GRK5). This has led to the unveiling of putative modifier pathways that involve the mitochondrial genome, exosomes, long noncoding RNAs and small nucleolar RNAs in conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Such findings may account for the variation in clinical outcomes from patients who harbour the same primary pathogenic variant.

2) Gene-drug-phenotype relationships. Relying on healthy or diseased hPSC derivatives, particularly those carrying pathogenic variants associated with hypertrophic or dilated cardiomyopathy, Chris’ lab uses mono- or mixed-cultures of cardiomyocytes, cardiac fibroblasts and/or cardiac endothelial cells to explore gene-drug-phenotype relationships. The aim is to understand why and how different individuals respond so divergently to the same classes of drug, hence provide routes for safer drugs and personalised medicine.

3) Public outreach. Chris has spearheaded numerous initiatives to take science into the community, especially in socially deprived areas. Emphasis is on hands-on interactive workshops in the community or in the Biodiscovery Institute that typically use creative and artistic approaches to break down the barriers, which prevent non-scientists from being excited by the wonder of nature, medicine and biotechnology.