A successful BSG Research Workshop on Infection and Gastrointestinal Cancer: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Strategies was held at the BSG Annual Meeting on 25th March 2010. The multidisciplinary workshop, organised by Professor Jean Crabtree and Professor Dermot Kelleher on behalf of the Research Committee, included UK speakers from a range of scientific and clinical disciplines and overseas speakers including Professor Lars Engstrand (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm), Professor Barry Marshall (Perth, Australia) and Professor Francis Megraud (Bordeaux, France). Several TiGs delegates were also able to attend the meeting. After an excellent introductory presentation on infection, inflammation and carcinogenesis in the gastrointestinal tract by Fiona Powrie (Oxford), the potential oncogenic pathways by which H. pylori and EBV contribute to gastric cancer were discussed by John Atherton (Nottingham) and Lawrence Young (Birmingham), respectively. Jon Rhodes (Liverpool) elegantly highlighted the potential role of bacterial infections in colorectal cancer and Dermot Kelleher (Dublin) overviewed the role of HCV in hepatic cancer. Andrea Varro (Liverpool) presented novel data on gastric myofibroblasts and the importance of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in pathogen-induced gastrointestinal carcinogenesis.

This widely advertised BSG/AGA research workshop was held at the Liverpool Medical Institution from 12-14th November 2006, with support from the Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition, Gastroenterology Research Group, Physiological Society and Solvay Healthcare. Still bereft of effective, specific therapy, pancreatitis was the sole focus for 50 hugely supportive delegates plus UK as well as USA trainees at our first ever international meeting devoting two whole days to the latest fundamental bioscience in the field, the flowering of which should lead to therapeutic fruit.

A workshop on liver immunology was held at the University of Birmingham on 9th and 10th June 2008 organised by David Adams on behalf of the Research Committee.

 

The aim was to produce an interactive workshop covering basic immunology related to the liver through to animal models of liver disease and human disease pathogenesis. On these terms all agreed the workshop was a success with vigorous discussion and several new collaborations formed during the two days. After a thought-provoking introduction from Cliona O’Farrelly covering the evolution of the hepatic immune system and how our concepts of liver immunology have changed over the last decade the first session covered aspects of innate immunity.

A successful BSG Research Workshop on Epithelial Differentiation in the Gastrointestinal Tract was hosted at Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, on 15th June 2005.

On behalf of the BSG Research Committee, Drs Mark Hull and Jean Crabtree recently organised a second BSG Research Workshop at the Royal Society of Medicine, London on 11 October 2002. Twenty-seven delegates contributed to a successful series of presentations and informal round table discussions on diverse aspects of the biology of GI epithelia pertaining to cancer chemoprevention therapy.