The UK –Turkey Research Partnerships Scoping Event will give UK researchers an opportunity to introduce their research idea through a three-minute, three-slide pitch during a “presentations session”. Presentation sessions for each thematic area will be held in parallel.

Hall 1: Health (Drugs, Vaccines, Clinical Research, Epidemiology)
Hall 2: Information and Communication Technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Mechatronics, Autonomous Systems, Photonics, Quantum Technologies)
Hall 3: Environmental Science (Climate Change, Earth Observation, Clean Growth)

"In order to schedule your one-to one meeting, please visit B2B Meeting Area."

Hall 1: HEALTH
Profiles of UK Researchers, Scoping Event, 18 February, 14.20-15.00

Prof. G. André Ng, Dr. Fernando S. Schlindwein, Prof. Huiyu Zhou, Dr. Will Nicolson, Dr. Xin Li, Dr. Tiago P. Almeida, Dr. Bharat Sidu
University of Leicester, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, School of Engineering, School of Informatics

Research Focus:
Atrial fibrillation; Cardiac electrophysiology; Radiofrequency ablation; Real-time signal processing; Biosignal analysis; Classification; Machine learning; Sudden cardiac death; Electrocardiogram

M. Begoña Delgado-Charro, PhD
University of Bath, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology

Research Focus:
Drug delivery, transdermal, topical, nail, fungal infections, bioequivalence, iontohoresis, non-invasive sampling, regulatory sciences

Expectations from Future Collaborations:
Complementary expertise in scientific aspects and/or clinical partnerships

Professor Brian Green
Queen’s University Belfast, Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences

Research Focus
Nutrition, human and animal health, immunity, immunomodulation, medicinal plants, plant bioactives, polysaccharides, novel food bioactives.

Expectations from Future Collaborations:
Interested in collaborating with individuals or organisations involved in:
• conducting animal research trials assessing animal performance (livestock or pet)
• conducting human nutrition/dietary interventions
• involved in food processing or dietary supplementation

Erika Mancini
University of Sussex, School of Life Sciences

Research Focus:
Transcription Factors, Chromatin remodelling, Leukaemia, Cancer,
X-ray Crystallography, Cryo-electron Microscopy, Drug Discovery

Expectations from Future Collaborations:
In the future we would like to extend our studies of large multi-protein transcription factor complexes, involved in early cellular development, including haematopoiesis . We will seek to understand the nature of the specific protein-protein protein-DNA interactions required and also to obtain insights into the role of these complexes in cancer which may contribute to the design of novel targeted therapies.

Hasan Yesilkaya
University of Leicester, Respiratory sciences, LEMID

Research Focus:
Infectious diseases, Streptococcus pneumoniae, quorum sensing, animal models of infection, microbial diagnostics

Expectations from Future Collaborations:
I would like to initiate projects to study the biology of microbes that generates useful data for diagnosis, treatment and management of infectious diseases. I would like to offer our expertise in testing drug leads and hypotheses that require animal models of infectious diseases.

We have a large group of microbiologists and infectious disease experts in Leicester and we will be happy to be contacted for colloborative projects. Some of the work we do include:

Host-Pathogen interactions
Antimicrobial resistance and stress responses
Bacteriophages
Air pollution
Foodborne infection
Mathematical modelling
Structural biology

Further details can be obtained in the following link: https://le.ac.uk/lemid.

Dr Nabila Kazmi
University of Bristol, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School

Research Focus:
Epidemiology, Cancer, Bioinformatics, Mendelian randomization

Expectations from Future Collaborations:
My career ambition is to establish myself as an independent cancer epidemiologist, with a particular focus on employing emerging causal inference methods to multi-omics data in order to refine our understanding of the cancer development and progression. I am motivated by the success of integrating multi-omics data in a causal framework to identify causal links between molecular traits and cancer that could offer potential for identifying potential targets for therapeutic intervention. I am particularly interested in investigating whether integration of these approaches in a causal framework could help in prevention of cancers.
In next few years, I will be work to systematically appraise the causal mechanisms underpinning associations of physical activity with cancers of the breast, colorectum, endometrium and prostate cancer using multi-omics platforms. goals. My long-term ambitions involve translational work taking forward promising drug targets to testing in large randomised trials, contributing to policies of government and cancer control authorities to inform public to maintain a healthier lifestyle to prevent cancer.

Prof Clare Mills, Prof Arpana Verma,
Dr Perihan Tohun (University of Health Sciences Istanbul)
University of Manchester, University of Health Sciences Istanbul
Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health / Department of Public Health

Research Keywords: epidemiology, allergy, immunology, population health

Expectations from Future Collaborations: Further research into environmental factorsimpacting on allergies such as diet, climate change and urban health.

Roger Hewson
London School of Hygine & Tropical Medicine (and Public Health England), LSHTM – Dept Infection Biology (PHE- Virology & Pathogenesis)

Research Focus:
Crimean-Congo Haemorrgahic fever virus (CCHFV), Tick borne encephalits virus, Hyallomma, emerging viruses)

Expectations from Future Collaborations: Field diagnostics for CCHFV, Evaluation of the immune signature of CCHF in human patients, Mol;ecular characterisation of CCHFV in Turkey, determination of molecular pathogenic traits of CCHFV in humans, understanding of CCHFV ecology, transmission and evolution in Turkey).

Roy Vellaisamy
University of Glasgow, James Watt School of Engineering

Research Keywords:
Point of care diagnostic sensors for health care applications

Expectations from Future Collaborations:

Future studies will be in the same area of Point of Care (PoC) diagnostic tools (Onsite screening of disease biomarkers, contaminants in food and water) and would like to work closely with electronic industries, cancer research institutes and public bodies.

Dr Sarah Sullivan
University of Bristol, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School

Research Focus:
Mental health, psychosis, risk prediction, artificial intelligence algorithm, electronic health records, digital health, early intervention

Expectations from Future Collaborations:
We would like to work further with Turkey to continue to develop other digital health tools as well as develop and validate the psychosis onset risk prediction tool described above. These could include prediction of psychosis relapse and suicide attempts. An accurate risk prediction tool provides the opportunity for early intervention to prevent relapse or intervene to prevent the possibility of a completed suicide attempt.

Shahin Homaeigohar
University of Dundee, School of Science and Engineering

Research Focus:
Biomaterials, nanomaterials, tissue engineering, wound dressing, electrospinning, nanofiber, nanocomposite

Expectations from Future Collaborations:
I would like to collaborate with researchers from Turkey with respect to development of biomedical nanosystems for tissue engineering, drug delivery, and wound dressing. In this regard, my specialty in the field of nanomaterials could be coupled with that of the reseachers with biomedical and biotechnological background in the frame of a collaborative research project. Additionally, I can collaborate with researchers with engineering background to develop electroactive bionanosystems, for instance.

Tommy Mousa
University Hospital of Leicester, Obstetrics Department

Research Focus:
Obsterics, Fetal Medicine, fetal anomalies.
Key words: Non-invasive prenatal diagnosis, fetal MRI, maternal haemodynamics, bed side testing.

Expectations from Future Collaborations:
My current collaberative work is related to non-invasive assessment of maternal haemodynamics. Currently we have three projects in this area. We also are assessing THE value of using bedside testing to assess body fluid and hydration. İn addition, we have an on going work related to MRI assessment of the fetal brain, a set up for a trail of vaccination (COVID-19) in pregnancy.

Ezio Rosato (No presentation, only B2B Meetings)
University of Leicester, Genetics and Genome Biology

Research Keywords:
Genetics, molecular biology, imaging, behaviour, Drosophila melanogaster, transgenics and genome editing technologies, modelling human diseases in Drosophila, modelling strategies for insect pest management in Drosophila.

Expectations from Future Collaborations:
I would be interested in collaborating in research that would benefit from using Drosophila as a model for understanding the nervous system, human diseases, or as a technology platform (screening for mutations, drugs, establishing strategies for pest control, etc.).