Clinical Academics in Training Annual Conference (CATAC)

Are you a clinical academic looking for a chance to present your research, perhaps for the first time?

CATAC is a great opportunity for you to:

• Develop your presentation skills.
• Meet with your peers and senior academics to build networks.
• Raise your profile within the clinical academic community.
• Meet Academy Fellows.

Feedback from CATAC 2018:

"The keynote speakers gave honest accounts of the career ups and downs of a clinical academic, and invaluable advice on remaining true to yourself, maintaining work-life balance and how to ultimately succeed as an independent researcher. There were interesting presentations covering a diverse range of academic disciplines."

"We left the meeting with broadened horizons and renewed enthusiasm for collaborative research and future careers in clinical academia." 

Watch Dr Katherine Sleeman's keynote talk from CATAC 2018 here: 

Check #CATAC2018 on Twitter to see what attendees thought on the day.

There are three competitions for early career researchers who hold a medical, dental or veterinary undergraduate degree:

• Post-Doctoral Plenary Competition

This competition is for researchers with clinical qualifications who have passed their PhD viva (at the abstract submission closing date). If selected you will be asked to prepare a 10 minute oral presentation, to be followed by 5 minutes of questions from the audience. A panel of judges will score the presentations and there will be 1 winner, who will get £2500, and 1 runner up, who will get £750.

Winner 2018 - Dr Kate Marks (University of Leeds) 'An assessment of the mutation rate of normal colorectal epithelium in patients with cancer compared to patients without'

Runner up 2018 - Dr Muzaffer Kaser (University of Cambridge) 'Computational approach to reinforcement learning in patients with remitted depression: results from a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled study'

• Pre-Doctoral Plenary Competition

This competition is for researchers with clinical qualifications who have not yet passed a PhD viva (at the abstract submission closing date). If selected you will be asked to prepare a 5 minute oral presentation, to be followed by 2 minutes of questions from the audience. A panel of judges will score the presentations and there will be 1 winner, who will get £1500, and 1 runner up, who will get £500.

Winner 2018 - Dr Angela Lucas-Herald (University of Glasgow) 'Altered vascular function in boys with hypospadias - role of reactive oxygen species'

Runner up 2018 - Dr Duncan Brian (University College London) 'Forced expression of retinoic acid receptor alpha potentiates differentiation of acute myeloid leukaemia'

• Poster competition for all clinical academics in training

This competition is for all researchers with clinical qualifications, if selected you will be asked to prepare a poster to present at the conference. The posters are grouped by broad research categories and there is a 1 hour session at the conference for two judges, the competitors in that category and other attendees to visit each poster together. You will have 2 minutes to present your poster to the group and 1 minute to answer questions. The judges will score each poster in the group and there will be 1 winner, who will get £1000, and 1 runner up, who will get £250, from each group.

Group A - Applied health services research; Epidemiology; Population health sciences

Winner 2018 - Dr Zenas Yiu (University of Manchester) 'Risk of serious infection associated with biologic therapies in psoriasis: prospective cohort study from the British Association of Dermatologists Biologic Interventions Register (BADBIR)'

Runner up 2018 - Dr Christoph Mueller (King's College London) 'Antipsychotic use in dementia: the relationship between neuropsychiatric symptom profiles and adverse outcomes'

Group B - Cellular and molecular biology; Genetics

Winner 2018 - Dr Claire Salter (University of Exeter) 'Exploring the neuropathological outcomes associated with different classes of choline transporter mutation'

Runner up 2018 - Dr Adam Sharp (Institute of Cancer Research) 'Novel strategies to target RNA splicing to overcome androgen receptor splice variant-7 (AR-V7) signalling in castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC)'

Group C - Inflammation; Infection; Immunity

Winner 2018 - Dr Karen Mackenzie (University of Edinburgh) 'cGAS detection of micronuclei links immune surveillance to autoinflammation'

Runner up 2018 - Dr Tariq Farrah (University of Edinburgh) 'Endothelin receptor antagonism improves lipid profiles & reduces myocardial injury in patients with chronic kidney disease'

Group D - Neurology; Neuroscience; Imaging; Technology

Winner 2018 - Dr Zoeb Jiwaji (University of Edinburgh) 'Neuron-astrocyte signalling alters transcription to control CNS homeostasis and is dysregulated by ageing and anaesthesia'

Runner up 2018 - Dr Akila Visvanathan (University of Edinburgh) 'A qualitative study to improve communication and shared decision making on treatments after acute severe stroke'

You can watch the winning talks from CATAC 2018 here. 

CATAC 2020 will be hosted by Professor John Iredale FRSE FMedSci, Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Bristol and Chair of REF 2021 Main Panel A, with Professor Jane Norman FMedSci, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, chairing the competitions.

Our first keynote speaker will be Dr Charlotte Summers, University Lecturera and Honorary Consultant in Critical Care Medicine at the University of Cambridge and Chief Medical Officer/Chief Scientific Officer of Exvastat Limited. She is also taking part in the FLIER Programme. Our second keynote speaker will be Professor Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford.

Dr Charlotte Summers said:

"I’m delighted to be speaking at CATAC 2020, and sharing my journey as an intensive care researcher. I have always found the Academy’s events for clinical academics an important place to meet peers in other specialties and a supportive environment to present my research. I look forward to seeing you there."

The venue will be the Rosalind Franklin Room at We The Curious, Bristol.

Please visit their website for accessibility information. Babies are welcome at our events and there will be a nursing room available throughout the day.

This event is free to attend open to all but places are limited, abstract submission includes a booking form to attend the event. We encourage researchers who aren't submitting an abstract to attend as a fantastic networking opportunity, and a separate booking form will open in early 2020 to secure your place.