Liverpool Ocular OncologyResearch Group

PhD Student Hongrun Zhang Presents Paper at CVPR Conference

29/6/2022

Our PhD student Hongrun Zhang went to New Orleans last week to present his paper, 'DTFD-MIL: Double-Tier Feature Distillation Multiple Instance Learning for Histopathology Whole Slide Image Classification' at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Conference.
Hongrun's paper was very well received at the conference, all his hard work paid off.
Hongrun's paper can be read here.

Unilever Visit to LOORG

10/6/2022

Gus and Mike from Unilever and Paul (who’s late wife inspired The Great Walk marathons over the past 4 years) came up from London to Liverpool to visit us here at LOORG.

The Great Walk raises awareness of uveal melanoma, a rare adult intraocular tumour, and fundraises for vital research about it

We were able to discuss the research we are currently undertaking about this disease as well as give them a tour of our labs to show them our equipment and some of the pictures we have of uveal melanoma. Everyone enjoyed themselves and they are welcome back any time.

We are very much looking forward to The Great Walk on July 8th in London, see you there!

LOORG 15th Birthday Celebratory Concert

30/5/2022

LOORG celebrated its 15th birthday, together with the Royal College of Pathologists, by co-sponsoring a concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic on May 28th.

The concert programme consisted of;
Felix Mendelson: Overture, Ruy Blas - Composed in 1839
Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor, Op.18 - Composed 1900-1901
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No 1 in C minor, op 68 - Composed between 1855 and 1876

The pieces were all played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Domingo Hindoyan with Sergei Babayan on the Piano for Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor.

The concert was a tremendous success with the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall sold out. Everyone greatly enjoyed themselves and the music.

Uveal Melanoma 2022 treatment guidelines published on the Melanoma Focus website

20/5/2022

"Prof. Sarah Coupland and Dr Joseph Sacco of the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group (LOORG; www.loorg.org) are thrilled to share that the Uveal Melanoma 2022 treatment guidelines, executive summary, care pathway, appendices, slide set, full comments and replies and information for patients and carers are now published on the Melanoma Focus website.

https://melanomafocus.org/for-professionals/rare-melanoma-guidelines-and-consultations/uveal-melanoma-guidelines/

This work was undertaken by a Guideline Development Group (GDG) of 12 people from fields of medical oncology, clinical oncology, radiology, pathology, uveal melanoma science and patient representation and a project manager, over the last 2 years.

The lead of the GDG, Dr Paul Nathan states: “The Uveal Melanoma National Guidelines have recommended standards of care for all of our patients across the UK. These updated guidelines include recent advances in our understanding of the distinct biology of this disease, assess the evidence for recent improvements in care and have a renewed focus on patient experience. We believe they will continue to be an important reference document for patients, their supporters and clinicians."

Goodbye and Good Luck to Azzam Taktak

20/5/2022

Lunchtime celebrations with LOORG were had for a great send off for Azzam Taktak.
A fantastic buffet was organised and cooked by Dr Alda Cunha-Rola, who also had reason to celebrate as she successfully defended her PhD thesis. Everyone was in a celebratory mood and the food was enjoyed by all. The LOORG team are all sad to see him leave but we wish Azzam all the best in his new job in Bristol!

The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthamology 2022 Conference in Denver, USA.

9/5/2022

Final year PhD student Luisa De Almeida Morais Silva presented her work entitled "Integrative 'omics approach identifies druggable BAP1-dependencies in uveal melanoma" at this years ARVO conference. Luisa received great feedback on her poster and really enjoyed interacting with the other researchers in her field at the conference. Thanks to the ARVO 2022 committee for awarding Luisa a travel grant to attend this conference.

Congratulations to LOORG's Dr Alda Cunha Rola on successfully defending her thesis entitled "The utility of the Liverpool Uveal Melanoma Prognostication Online ‘LUMPO’ as a prognostication algorithm in determining metastatic risk in uveal melanoma."

30/3/2022

Thanks also goes to her examiners Professor Dale Vimalachandran, University of Liverpool and Dr Ellen Kapiteijn, University of Leiden Medical Centre.

Publication News: Inflammatory diseases of the eye

21/2/2022

Author contributors include LOORG'S Professor Sarah Coupland and Professor Heinrich Heimann, Consultant Ocular Oncologist, University of Liverpool. Editor Prof. Uwe Pleyer from Berlin.

The only current German-language work on the subject. Competent authors impart their expert knowledge on the pathophysiology, diagnostics, differential diagnostics and therapy of inflammatory eye diseases.

GRANT AWARDS FOR LOORG

10/2/2022

2022 Starting off well for LOORG, we have two recent successful grants:

3DbioNet pump priming grant. “Working towards modelling the immune microenvironment of metastatic uveal melanoma”. Karen Aughton, £31,846.11

Sight Research UK. "Modelling the interplay between uveal melanoma cells and macrophages”. Sarah E. Coupland, Helen Kalirai and Karen Aughton, £5000

WELL DONE TEAM!

UoL WENDY'S WISH CHARITY CLOTHING COLLECTION

26/1/2022

A huge thank you to all colleagues and staff in the William Henry Duncan building who contributed to LOORG's recent clothing collection for our wonderful donors Wendy's Wish.
Ian Harvey (pic) of 'Let's go Recycle' is now collecting in Liverpool so we hope to make it a regular occurrence and expand the collection throughout the UoL Institute!

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