green image of a fungi on blue background; featuring our Network's logo showing we are a Network of Excellence

The Imperial Fungal Science Network is a hub for the mycology community, providing a leadership, advocacy and communications platform for mycologists and a developmental framework for future leaders in fungal research.

We warmly invite you to attend the Imperial Fungal Science Network Autumn Symposium 2023 taking place on Wednesday 22nd November 2023, 2-5pm, at Sir Alexander Fleming Building/G34 L ecture Theatre – Level 1, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ. 

We strongly encourage in-person attendance to benefit from the networking across the afternoon and the drinks to follow. This is a hybrid event to ensure that our non-London members/audience can join for the talks remotely.  Researchers interested in the Network can find more information and join the network via the dedicated websiteFollow us @ImperialFungal

Scientific Program

 

14:00 – Start

14:00 – 14:05
Introductions & Network overview (Darius Armstrong-James)

14:05 – 15:05
Session 1: Ecology, Evolution and the Environment
Session Chairs: Martin Bidartondo, Michalis Barkoulas and Ioly Kotta-Loizou

14:05
Keynote Speaker 1
Prof. Mark Fricker (Department of Biology, University of Oxford)
Insights from Networks

14:25
Ms Jessica O’Connor (Botany Department, Trinity College Dublin)
An initial Fungal biodiversity survey of the Trinity College Botanic Gardens: Investigating the influence of rain on fungal diversity

14:35
Dr George Lund (Sustainable Soils and Crops, Rothamsted Research)
Searching for microbial secondary metabolites effective against Zymoseptoria tritici

14:45
Dr Esther Garcia-Cela (Department of Clinical, Pharmaceutical and Biological Science, University of Hertfordshire)
Predicting fungal spoilage in storage cereals: use of temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide

 14:55
Mr Oliver Lindsay (Science: Ecosystem Stewardship, Kew)
The Carbon Community reforestation experiment

15:05
Dr Bethan Manley (SPUN Society for the Protection of Underground Networks)
Mapping and protecting the world’s mycorrhizal fungi: a hidden link between biodiversity protection and carbon drawdown

Tea & Coffee Break on the Concourse (30 minutes)


15:45 – 17:05  
Session 2: Biotechnology and Engineering & Pathogenesis of Fungal Diseases
Session Chairs: Claire Stanley, Rodrigo Ledesma Amaro & Darius Armstrong-James

15:45
Keynote Speaker 2
Dr Leonardo Rios Solis (Department of Biochemical Engineering, UCL)
Yeast microbial cell factories: working at the boundaries of Synthetic Biology and Bioprocess Engineering

16:05
Ms Léa Bernier (Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London)
Spores-on-a-Chip: deciphering the responsiveness of microbial spores using microfluidic chemostats

16:15
Dr Evelina Basenko (FungiDB Scientific Outreach & Education Specialist, University of Liverpool)
FungiDB:  A web-based bioinformatics platform for omics scale data exploration and analysis

16:25
Dr Gerald Larrouy-Maumus (Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London)
A simplified workflow for the detection of Glycosyl-Inositol-Phospho-Ceramides from Aspergillus fumigatus using commercially available MALDI-TOF MS-based assay

16:35
Ms Kirstie Lucas (NHLI/Visiting Researcher from Pulmocide, Imperial College London)
Accelerated evolution of azole resistant Aspergillus fumigatus by diesel particles

16:45
Mr Harry Chown (Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London)
Pan-genomic analysis of Aspergillus fumigatus

16:55
Dr Aize Pellon Rodriguez (Centre for Host-Microbiome Interactions, King’s College London)
Nutritional immunology and immunometabolic approaches to fight mucosal fungal infections

by 17:05 – Close

Drinks in the Foyer