LENS Pilot Action 3, “Global Health Threats”, is organising a series of webinars to engage the biomedical research communities in a discussion on how neutron sources, together with other research infrastructures, can contribute to solving major health challenges. The webinars will look at current research and how neutron scattering studies can contribute to improvements in detection and diagnostics as well as the development of treatments and prevention methods.
The webinars will feature presentations by leading experts from both neutron scattering and the biomedical research communities, followed by a Q&A session. The aim is to generate discussion, to develop new and existing contacts, and to disseminate the current capabilities and developments. This initiative will help to define ways for neutron facilities to support the needs of biomedical research related to current and future global health challenges.
The first webinar will introduce the LENS Health Pilot, and will also feature Professor Marc Jamin from the Institute for Structural Biology at the University of Grenoble-Alpes, who will speak about his research related to Covid-19 and other viral threats.
When: Thursday 11th of June, 11.30am CET:
Chair: Giovanna Fragneto, Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble
11.30am “LENS Pilot Action on Global Health Threats” - Hanna Wacklin-Knecht, ESS
11.45am “Viruses: the devils who can take over our cells” - Prof. Marc Jamin, IBS/UGA
12.05pm Q&A and Discussion
Link: https://www.lens-initiative.org/2020/06/03/lens-webinar-1/
Further webinars are envisaged from August 2020 onwards on on topics related to research on some of the major health challenges of the aging population in the developed world, including
Cancer
Amyloid aggregation and Alzheimers/Parkinsons disease
Cardiovascular disease
Diabetes type II
Antibiotic resistance and new pathogens
Drug development and delivery systems
A LENS webinar series on New Directions in Instrumentation will run in parallel with the Global Health Threats series. The first of these will be held on the 25th of June. More information can be found on the LENS website
LENS, the League of Advanced European Neutron Sources is a non-profit consortium of European neutron facilities with the aim of strengthening European science by developing a coherent strategy to meet current and future demands of the scientific communities. To ensure excellence, LENS places emphasis on the relationship between user communities and funding organizations, and the continuous improvement of LENS facilities as well as optimizing resources and aligning policies among the partners.
LENS has initiated a Pilot Action on Global Health Threats with the aim to ensure the capacity of the European neutron infrastructures to respond to current and future major health challenges. The Pilot action is a collaborative effort between several LENS partners to develop experimental and analytical strategies aimed at broadening and strengthening the capability of the facilities to support research into the complex disease processes related to global health challenges, including cancer, diabetes type II, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cardiovascular disease and the emergence of resistant and new pathogens. The aim is to develop a coherent strategy for how LENS facility support activities can be developed to meet the scientific needs and how they can be funded.