On 6th/7th March, the Cardiff Hub hosted a major international symposium, Physiology and Pathophysiolgy 2018, to mark the 75th birthday of Professor Ole Petersen CBE FRS ML MAE, Vice-President of Academia Europaea. The event attracted 90 delegates from across the world, many of whom had worked with or been mentored by Professor Petersen.

The brainchild of Professor Anant Parekh MAE, Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford, and organized scientifically together with Drs Julia and Oleg Gerasimenko from the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University, the symposium provided a broad view of the state-of-the-art of Physiology and Pathophysiology in 2018. It attracted world leaders in the field, with 13 Members of Academia Europaea including 5 Fellows of the Royal Society and 3 Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, presenting recent discoveries within wide perspectives. Reflecting the broad interests of Ole Petersen, there was a major focus on intra- and inter-cellular signalling events in a number of different systems, including the gastro-intestinal tract and the brain. Four main sessions were covered: (1) General Physiology/Pathophysiology (2) Intracellular Calcium Signalling (3) Epithelia (4) Brain Function.

Eminent speakers included:#

Kim Barrett (Professor of Medicine, University of California San Diego; Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Physiology);
Dennis Brown MAE( Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; President of the American Physiological Society);
Annette Dolphin FRS FMedSci (Professor of Pharmacology, University College London); Denis Burdakov: ETH Zürich
Vincenzo Crunelli: Cardiff University
Annette C. Dolphin: University College London
Julia Gerasimenko: Cardiff University
Arthur Konnerth ML MAE (Professor of Neuroscience, Technical University Munich)
Markus M. Lerch MAE (Professor of Medicine, University of Greifswald);
Denis Noble CBE FRS MAE (Emeritus Professor of Physiology, University of Oxford);
Carl Petersen MAE (Professor of Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, EPFL, Lausanne);
Tullio Pozzan MAE (Professor of General Pathology, University of Padua); András Spät MAE (Professor of Physiology, Semmelweis University, Budapest);
Patrik Rorsman FRS MAE (Professor of Diabetic Medicine, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford);

The symposium was opened by Professor Jim Murray MAE, Head of Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences, who paid tribute to Ole Petersen and emphasized his crucial roles, both nationally and internationally as a world leader both in science and in science evaluation. All speakers congratulated Professor Petersen on his birthday and acknowledged his very considerable scientific achievements and paid tribute to his skill in helping to support and nurture others in developing their scientific careers. The symposium also gave the opportunity for researchers now working with Professor Petersen in Cardiff to showcase their work. A full list of speakers is here.

The symposium was expertly organised by Judith Lockett, who has worked closely with Professor Petersen since his arrival in Cardiff in 2010.

We thank and acknowledge our sponsors for the event: Cairn Research, The Journal of Physiology, The Learned Society of Wales and Agar Scientific.

Download the poster

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The symposium is organized with support from Academia Europaea Cardiff Knowledge Hub, The Journal of Physiology and Cardiff University.