NSW Asthma Meeting hosted at Centenary Institute

The Centenary Institute and UTS have come together to jointly host the 15th Annual NSW Asthma Meeting held at the Centenary Institute, 18-19 November 2019.

The meeting provided research and clinical attendees with an overview of areas of importance in asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and airways research. It also provided those present with the opportunity to develop new, and to strengthen, ongoing collaborations in an informal setting.

Invited speakers were Professor Corry-Anke Brandsma, Professor Irene Heijink and Professor Machteld Hylkema (all from the University Medical Centre Groningen, the Netherlands) as well as Dr Annalicia Vaughan (University of Queensland). All four spoke on topics specific to COPD.

These talks were complemented with presentations from post-doctoral fellows, senior PhD scholars, postdocs and students, including from the Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation, to highlight current hands-on research being conducted. The Centenary Institute’s Dr Stefan Oehlers, Head of the Immune-Vascular Interactions Laboratory spoke on zebrafish as an effective model for mycobacterium infection.

Conference Committee Chair and Centenary Institute Deputy Director Professor Phil Hansbro noted the success of the two day Meeting.

“This Meeting brings scientists and clinicians together from some of the premier asthma and respiratory research groups in Australia and New Zealand to share knowledge and foster collaborations. We had a fantastic two days of talks, break-out sessions and networking–all focused on advancing our science in this critical health space. The depth of knowledge in the room made for an extremely absorbing and productive meeting,” he said.

The Meeting was supported and sponsored by AstraZeneca and GSK.