UCL Provost and President, Professor Michael Arthur, visited the LCN today, to meet the EPSRC IRC ‘i-sense’ team and learn more about our exciting research to create early warning sensing systems for infectious diseases using mobile phone technologies.
Just over 20 senior academics, industry partners, postdocs and students gathered to meet Professor Arthur and demonstrate how i-sense hopes to transform the early detection and diagnosis of life-threatening infectious diseases, including new strains of influenza, MRSA and HIV.
The meeting opened with an introduction to the LCN by Dean of MAPS, Professor Richard Catlow and LCN Director, Professor Desmond McMorrow, highlighting the importance of i-sense as one of the largest EPSRC grants held by UCL.
An inspiring talk from LCN Professor and i-sense Director, Professor Rachel Mckendry, highlighted the global scale of infectious disease pandemics and i-sense's long-term strategy to create 21st century solutions by combining advances in nanotechnology, telecommunications and big data for global health.
The full scope of the i-sense network and breadth of research was demonstrated in a series of high level talks by project leads from UCL, Imperial College, London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Surrey University as well as industry partner, OJ-Bio and clinical collaborators, UCL Partners.
Professor Michael Arthur spoke about his own experience as a young researcher in San Francisco in the 1980’s at the beginning of the HIV pandemic. He commented “I am really excited by what you are doing and it's extraordinary potential.”
The event highlight was the chance to see our exciting digital and nanotechnologies in action at i-sense’s brand new laboratory facility on the third floor of the LCN.
