President's Lecture

Join us for this year's prestigious President’s Lecture, a highlight of the BPS calendar!

This year, our President, Professor Cherry Wainwright, will be welcoming Professor Lorraine Works as guest speaker.

Lorraine Work is Professor of Translational Cerebrovascular Research at the University of Glasgow, with a research program focused on understanding and improving outcomes after ischaemic stroke. She graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a 1st class BSc (Hons) in Immunology & Pharmacology, followed by a PhD exploring anti proliferative therapies for vascular injury under the joint supervision of Professors Cherry Wainwright and Roger Wadworth. After a research spell at the University of Washington, Seattle, she joined the University of Glasgow in 2000, shifting her focus from pharmacology to gene based vascular therapies. Awarded a prestigious BHF Intermediate Research Fellowship in 2006, Lorraine began working on combining pharmacological and gene based strategies in stroke. She became a lecturer in 2007 through the BBSRC Integrative Mammalian Biology programme, embedding whole organism translation at the heart of her research.

Her current work centres on targeting multiple pathways to improve stroke recovery, with a particular focus on microRNAs and the therapeutic potential of extracellular vesicles—tiny endogenous signalling particles that act as both biomarkers and delivery vehicles. She works closely with clinical collaborators to drive a true bench to bedside to bench research pipeline.

Join Lorraine for her talk, "The Hidden Code: Extracellular Vesicle miRNAs in Stroke Biology and Beyond". You'll learn about cutting-edge ideas at the intersection of molecular biology, neuroscience, and clinical medicine.

Wednesday 21 October
16:00 – 16:50	Arrivals and Registration
16:50 – 17:00	Welcome and Introduction (Professor Cherry Wainwright, President, British Pharmacological Society)
17:00 – 18:00	Professor Lorraine Work	The Hidden Code: Extracellular Vesicle miRNAs in Stroke Biology and Beyond
18:00 – 18:10	Closing remarks
18:10 – 19:30	Drinks reception
19:30	Event Close

Speaker: Dr Peter Cox, Isporphic Labs

Tentative talk title: A pharmacology perspective of AI in drug discovery

Biography: Dr. Peter Cox is a biologist with over 25 years experience working in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Peter holds a PhD in Molecular Virology from the University of Glasgow, followed by postdoctoral training in Neuroscience at INSERM, Paris and the University of Cambridge.

Peter began his industry career in 1998 at Pfizer dedicating 16 years to small molecule drug discovery for chronic pain, evolving from a bench scientist to taking on significant responsibilities in pain target identification and leading drug discovery projects through to IND preparation. This period provided him with extensive experience in the molecular pharmacology of diverse target classes, innovative target identification methodologies, and comprehensive drug discovery project leadership.

In 2014, Peter joined BenevolentAI (BAI), a pioneering AI-led drug discovery company. There, he was instrumental in building and expanding a multidisciplinary team of drug discovery scientists and establishing a robust portfolio of projects. As a key member of BAI's drug discovery leadership team, he provided strategic direction, leveraged BAI's knowledge graph-based target identification platform, and led large multidisciplinary teams and drug discovery initiatives.

Peter is currently Head of the Translational Science team at Isomorphic Labs, which is developing and applying frontier AI to reimagine and advance the drug design process to unlock deeper scientific insights and faster breakthroughs. Peter’s team of in vitro pharmacologists / translational biologists are responsible for the biology strategy of Isomorphic Labs’ AI-led drug design projects and provides critical validation for their innovative in-silico predictions through the generation of experimental biological data, directly advancing the evolution of some of the most sophisticated and powerful AI drug design platforms

Tickets

In Person Ticket	Member Ticket	Free
In Person Ticket	Non-Member Ticket	Free

Venue

The Shield & Derek Willoughby Lecture Theatre
Queen Mary University of London
Charterhouse Square
EC1M 6BQ

Useful directions and information

How to find us:
There are several entrances to the campus. You can find a downloadable map of the Charterhouse Square Campus on the QMUL website.

By bus:
The campus can be accessed via bus 4 (Archway Station to Waterloo Station), 56 (Whipps Cross to St Pauls) and 153 (Finsbury Park to Liverpool Street Station). Bus routes 55 (Lea Bridge Road to Oxford Circus) and 243 (Wood Green to Waterloo Station) also pass very close by.

By underground:
Nearest stations on the London Underground are Barbican and Farringdon on Hammersmith and City, Metropolitan and Circle lines.

Stations within waking distance:
•   Barbican (4-minute walk)
•   Farringdon station (7-minute walk)
•   Old Street Station (13-minute walk)
•   St Pauls Station (14-munite walk)

Travel information
Please check your travel arrangements in advance to account for any potential disruptions. For more detailed information on possible affected train lines, please visit the TfL website.