Clinical Academics in Training Annual Conference 2022

We are pleased to announce the return of our Clinical Academics in Training Annual Conference (CATAC), which will be held in Bristol, on Thursday 19 May 2022. 

CATAC is a unique cross-specialty event designed to bring together clinical academics from a range of backgrounds, to present their research and to network with each other and with senior researchers. It is the only UK-wide cross-speciality conference open to all aspiring clinical academics (within medicine, dentistry and veterinary sciences) currently working in the UK. 

CATAC 2022 will be an in-person event in Bristol, with live-streamed talks available online. It will be hosted by Professor Jane Norman FMedSci and Professor John Iredale FRSE FMedSci, with Professor Charlotte Summers delivering our keynote on her career journey so far. As in past years, the conference will include post-doctoral and pre-doctoral oral competitions, as well as poster competitions. The full agenda and abstract booklet are now available to download.

Who can attend: Anyone with an interest is welcome to attend our conference! Though this event may be most useful for early career clinical academics, we also greatly welcome medical, dental, and veterinary students, mid-career and senior researchers, as well as those working in the health and life sciences sectors.   

Registration for CATAC 2022 is now closed. This page will be updated with the livestreaming link to watch on the day. If you are attending the event please familiarise yourself with the Academy's safe space policy. 

If you have any queries regarding CATAC 2022 event, please email us at: programmes@acmedsci.ac.uk. 

Competition winners:

• Post-doctoral plenary competition

Winner 2022 - Dr Matthew Saunders (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust) 'Socioeconomic support to prevent tuberculosis among household contacts of people with tuberculosis in Peru: a community-randomised controlled trial'

Runner up 2022 - Dr Michael Drodz (University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust) 'Non-communicable disease, sociodemographic factors, and risk of death from infection: a prospective cohort study of 493,295 UK Biobank participants'

• Pre-doctoral plenary competition

Winner 2022 - Dr Kelechi Njoku (University of Manchester) 'Cervico-vaginal fluid protein signatures can accurately detect endometrial cancer: A proteomics based biomarker discovery study'

Runner up 2022 - Dr Eleanor Jones (University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust) 'DEveloping Tests for Endometrial Cancer deTection (DETECT): a diagnostic accuracy study of urine and vaginal samples for the detection of endometrial cancer by cytology in women with postmenopausal bleeding'

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

Winner 2022 - Dr Joanna McLaughlin (University of Bristol) 'What effect have clinical commissioning group policies for thresholds of weight loss and body mass index had on access to knee replacement surgery in England?: An analysis from the National Joint Registry for England'

Runner up 2022 - Dr Michael Tonkins (University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) 'In adult patients hospitalised in England and Wales due to low falls, is major trauma centre care associated with better outcomes than trauma unit care?'

• Poster Group B - Cellular and molecular biology; Genetics

Winner 2022 - Dr Thomas Massey (Cardiff University and University Hospital of Wales) 'Exome sequencing of individuals with Huntington’s disease implicates FAN1 nuclease activity in slowing CAG expansion and disease onset'

Runner up 2022 - Dr Caroline Young (University of Leeds) 'The colorectal cancer (CRC)-associated faecal microbiome improves CRC screening accuracy: results from a diagnostic accuracy study of over 2000 NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (NHSBCSP) card samples and a cross-sectional pilot study across three continents'

• Group C - Inflammation; Infection; Immunity

Winner 2022 - Dr Sarah Prentice (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) 'Can BCG protect neonates against diseases other than tuberculosis? Exploring the clinical and immunological non-specific effects of BCG through an investigator-blind randomised controlled trial in a setting with high infectious disease morbidity.'

Runner up 2022 - Anika Singanayagam (Imperial College London) 'Characterising viable virus from air exhaled by pandemic H1N1 influenza-infected ferrets'

• Group D - Neurology; Neuroscience; Imaging; Technology

Winner 2022 - Dr Haotian Gu (King's College London) 'Relationship of diastolic function and clinical outcomes to early systolic function: evidence for impaired early systolic function as the primary cardiac abnormality in HFpEF'

Runner up 2022 - Dr Christopher Osuafor (University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke's Hospital) 'Improving the visualisation of Lenticulostriate Arteries at 7 Tesla MRI using Contrast Enhancement'

COVID-19 measures

We are aware that for many of you this will be one of the first large in-person events you have attended since the COVID-19 pandemic started. With this in mind, please be aware of the following with regard to COVID-19:

• If you or anyone you live with tests positive for COVID-19, or presents with symptoms of COVID-19, prior the event, please do not attend.
• If you have recently tested positive for COVID-19, please only attend if you can confirm you are no longer testing positive.
• These protocols are in place not only to protect the other attendees, but also with the forethought that many individuals in attendance will return to work the day after CATAC in hospitals across the UK.
• We encourage you to wear a mask where possible during the course of the event, and particularly when social distancing is not possible.
• Hand sanitiser stations will be positioned throughout the venue.
• In line with government guidance and with the suspension of free lateral flow tests, we no longer require attendees to test prior to attending our events. If you are able to take a lateral flow test before the event, we would encourage you to do so, but this is not a requirement.  

This event is generously supported by the Wellcome Trust.