Speakers at a new seminar series have been discussing the use of models to predict the spread of infectious diseases and the future of HIV treatments.

The third event in the Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) seminar series (see sidebar), was held on 20 September 2016, and featured Neil Ferguson, Professor of Mathematical Biology, and Sarah Fidler, Professor of HIV and Communicable Diseases at Imperial College London. Videos of the two talks are below.

Professor Ferguson presented an overview of his research using mathematical models to predict the spread of diseases such as flu, zika, malaria and Hepatitis B at global and national levels.  He discussed the work of the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling at Imperial and how this informs policy through its close partnerships with public health bodies.

Professor Fidler, who runs clinics for people with HIV at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, talked about current treatments for HIV and how new research is investigating the barrier to a cure posed by the existence of ‘reservoirs’ of latent viral cells in the body.  Professor Fidler is part of the CHERUB collaboration, which is taking an innovative approach to developing a cure by trialling a two-step method with patients on antiretroviral therapy to firstly awaken the latent viral cells in patients and then kill them. 

Another event is planned for 10 November  on research discoveries to understand and treat flu. The speakers will be Professor Wendy Barclay, Chair in Influenza Virology, and Peter Openshaw, Professor of Experimental Medicine. The venue is still to be confirmed. For more details please contact ahsc.news@imperial.ac.uk