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Previous AIMdays

Academic registration is now open, and closes on 27 September.

Healthy Ageing

In October 2019, the University of Oxford hosted an AIMday focused on Healthy Ageing, in collaboration with the UK SPINE. The event was formed of a series of workshops hosted by 14 innovative companies working in the healthy ageing space. 30+ academics and clinicians, representatives of 14 Oxford University departments, 4 UK SPINE partner institutions (Oxford, Birmingham, Dundee, Medicines Discovery Catapult) and Oxford University Hospital staff came together to discuss the challenges being faced by industry in addressing healthy ageing.

AIMdays offer a low barrier route for small and innovative companies to meet with academic and clinical communities. For larger companies, they offer an opportunity to meet with a diverse group of experts that can offer fresh insight into research challenges. Small and medium-sized companies represented on the day included Five Alarm Bio, GyroGear, Isansys and Link-ages. We were also delighted to welcome larger pharmaceutical companies (including Shionogi, GSK & the Walgreens Boots Alliance) and organisations such as the Medicines Discovery Catapult.

The day was packed with opportunities for cross-disciplinary discussions and networking. There were 17 workshops and topics discussed included:

  • Therapeutic interventions targeting the underlying biology of ageing
  • Age-related effects of vaccines
  • Data from wearable technology and its uses in understanding the physiology of ageing
  • Monitoring technologies used during care and reablement to address re-admission
  • Technology to address medication adherence in older adults
  • The role and timing of drugs that prevent acute muscle weakness in sarcopenia

Antimicrobial Resistance

In July 2019, the University of Oxford hosted an AIMday focused on Antimicrobial Resistance, in collaboration with the NIHR Community Healthcare MIC. The event brought together 36 industry representatives (from across 19 innovative companies) and 40+ University of Oxford academics and clinicians (from across 19 university departments) to discuss the challenges being faced by industry in addressing AMR.

AIMdays offer a low barrier route for small companies to meet with our academic and clinical community. Small and medium-sized companies represented on the day included Astrego Diagnostics, GeneFirst, Ingenza and Summit Therapeutics. We were also delighted to welcome a good number of larger pharmaceutical companies (including Evotec, GSK & Thermo Fisher Scientific) and organisations such as AHSN North East & North Cumbria, Innovate UK and Release Life Sciences & Diagnostics.

"The AIMday enabled me to meet academics with research interests close to my own, but from departments I wouldn't usually interact with" - Alastair Parkes, Evotec.

The day was packed with opportunities for cross-disciplinary discussions and networking. There were 25 workshops and topics discussed including:

  • Implementation and adoption of point of care tests
  • Quantifying the effect of the immune system on the emergence of resistance
  • Stewardship associated with the use of new antibiotics
  • Access through the bacterial cell envelope for the development of new antibiotics  
  • Use of machine learning to enhance the efficacy of new antimicrobials
  • Funding gaps in AMR research

“Excellent event! We received tangible, practical advice on some of the technical challenges we are facing for our early stage antibacterial programmes” – Ajay Mistry, Oppilotech

Biomedical Imaging

In April 2018, we hosted an AIMday focused on Biomedical Imaging, which is at the heart of much of the clinical and biomedical research that is conducted at the University of Oxford. Technological advances in both hardware and image analysis capabilities are opening up new and exciting applications in biological research. Oxford has a world-class biomedical imaging community both in the development and application of novel advanced techniques. This event offered an opportunity for external organisations and researchers from Oxford to get together and discuss current and future challenges and opportunities in the field. Companies represented on the day included Novo Nordisk, GE Healthcare, GSK and Barco, among many others. Topics discussed included: 

  • Big data
  • Radiomics
  • Artificial Intelligence 
  • Deep learning techniques

Microscopy

In July 2017, we hosted an AIMday focused on Microscopy. A range of topics were discussed, including:

  • New advanced microscopy techniques, including improved imaging methods
  • Quantitative image analysis
  • Biological applications, including live cell imaging
  • Particle tracking by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy
  • FRET/FLIM
  • Development of hardware/software
  • Electron microscopy/cryo-EM

Ageing

In July 2017, we hosted an AIMday on Ageing. Due to our ageing population there is an urgent need to improve healthcare systems, deliver better community-based healthcare and to develop innovative methods/technologies for self-management of health, in parallel with promotion of healthy living and support of active ageing.  This AIMday Ageing brought together healthcare researchers and practitioners to discuss these key issues including:

  • Medical device development
  • Assisted living technologies
  • Diagnostics
  • Strategies for disease prevention
  • Promoting healthy living

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